At heart, we are a simple girl, raised on Hershey's bars, M&M's and Snickers.  We liked our chocolates big, chunky and nut-filled.  Fruit and chocolate was that awful box of waxy chocolate-covered orange jelly sticks that Grandma Marie kept in her living room - that we'd reach for only in desperation, after the Rolo's were long gone.  We admit - we were narrow-minded and well, gauche.

Our acceptance of fruit and chocolate was a slow one.  It started with chocolate-covered strawberries.  Maybe an occasional Big Cherry.  That was manageable.  And then one day at the Jacques Torres chocolate boutique in SoHo we discovered chocolate with a passion fruit filling.  After tasting that heavenly melding of milk chocolate with the exotic tanginess of the passion fruit, our life was never the same.

Since then we've been on a hunt to recreate that chocolate and passion fruit experience in Los Angeles and gave up on discovering anything that extraordinary.  But last Friday evening we were invited to Madame Chocolat in Beverly Hills to sample another unusual pairing - wine and chocolate.  Wine and chocolate?  Yes, we can swill wine with the best of them, and can rival a linebacker with our chocolate consumption, but together?  Our gauche roots rebelled at the thought.

Owner/chocolatier Hasty Torres quickly dispelled our reservations.  She passed out white chocolate bon bons and instructed us to take a bite - and then another, letting the second bite melt on our tongue.  And then a sip of Pinot Grigio.  "What do you taste?"  she asked the room.  "Maybe vanilla?"  Yes, vanilla.  And...caramel-infused butter.  We started to fantasize about our next dinner party, no entree, just white chocolate and white wine...

The next pairing was chocolate raspberry with Merlot - fresh raspberry jam exploding through the chocolate and finished with the fruity red wine - a mouthful of berries that resonated through our mouth and nose.  We reached for a second raspberry.  And a third.  Now the tasting had become a full-blown bacchanal.

Milk chocolate hearts filled with caramel followed with a Pinot Noir - sweet and salt mixed with the sharp clash of the Pinot.  Then tidy dark chocolate squares filled with almonds, raisins and pistachios and chocolate truffles dusted with cocoa powder, paired with Cabernet Sauvignon.  Right on cue, our husband spilled his Cab on a plate of dark chocolate.  No worries - we took pictures of the wine-soaked plate.  Hasty packed up the carnage and gave it to the husband, pronouncing it her newest flavor. 

The mood that night at Madame Chocolat was convivial.  How could it not be?  Strangers became friends, we bonded over plates of chocolate, we clinked wine glasses.  And bringing our story full-circle, our exuberant hostess, Hasty Torres, not only learned her chocolate-making trade from Jacques Torres - she fell in love, married him, and manages a long-distance relationship with him while forging her own identity in Los Angeles.  She has definitely made her own stamp but his signature lingers.  We sighed when she produced a plate of her own passion fruit chocolates.  The husband took a bite and his eyes widened. 

Yes.  We told him so.

Info:  Madame Chocolat, 212 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (310) 247-9990

Toll Free (877) 262-3263

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