Sept. 29--You have a month to pull together the big bucks needed to celebrate National Chocolate Day (Oct. 28, in case you forgot). We're not talking about popping for a couple of bags of miniature chocolate bars. We're talking about $3,000 for a single chocolate truffle.
OK, so it's not your average quarter-size truffle. This one's a little smaller than a basketball (it's 25 inches in circumference) and is made with grand cru Creole chocolate (single origin criollo beans), filled with ganache and weighs about 4 pounds. It's gilded, literally, with 24-karat gold dust, sits upon a blown-sugar pillow and comes with two crystal glasses and a bottle of Dom Perignon.
It's the creation of chocolate wizard/pastry chef Alain Roby of the All Chocolate Kitchen in Geneva as a National Chocolate Day promotion. Roby would do nothing less, of course.
He holds three Guinness World Records (World's Tallest Cooked Sugar Building, World's Tallest Chocolate Tower, World's Longest Candy Cane -- 52 feet long, in case you're keeping track), has a cookbook, "Alain Roby's American Classics: Casual and Elegant Desserts," and studied in Paris with renowned pastry chef Gaston Lenotre.
The truffle must be pre-ordered. It is available in person at the shop (if you don't finish it, you can take the chocolate, bubbly and glasses home) or via mail, though there is a limited quantity available for shipping; shipping costs start at $300. Contact the All Chocolate Kitchen store, 33 S. Third St., Geneva; 630-232-2395. allchocolatekitchen.com.
