When Chocolate Dreams Come True

by Jayanthi Daniel
Thu, 10 Jan 2008 at 8:31 PM

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The Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Wednesday held a preview for the Chocolate Bar, the hotel's annual month-long buffet serving chocoholics citywide. Each February, pastry chef Laurent Richard creates a menu of numerous chocolate confections — including pastries, mousses, cakes, cookies, and candies — and serves them buffet-style atop a chocolate structure. This year, the desserts will be served on a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge (complete with chocolate cars), and the venue — the hotel's Rise bar, featuring impressive views of the Statue of Liberty and surrounding waters — is dotted with chocolate replicas of the Empire State Building and, strangely, an anatomically accurate cow, with white chocolate $100 bills littered underneath it. Mr. Richard pairs many of his desserts with fruit, including a chocolate cake topped with dried apricots, a chocolate mousse with bananas foster, and a chocolate sabayon with minced pineapple. One remarkable dessert featured a cube of white chocolate mousse, made without gelatin or sugar — thus giving it a cloudlike texture. After the mousse is made, according to Mr. Richard, it's frozen for easier slicing, and each cube is sprayed with cocoa powder that freezes and creates a slightly crunchy exterior. It's served on top of an almond dacquoise (my guest and I almost thought we were eating Butterfingers), with a swipe of passion fruit purée. If you need to sugar up your loved one for Valentine's Day, or to give visitors an unusual New York experience next month, this is a smart way to get it done. Oh, and one more thing: unlimited Champagne is included. What could be sweeter? (Friday and Saturday, February 1 through March 1, and Thursday, February 14, three seatings at 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., the Ritz-Carlton, 2 West St. at Battery Park Drive, 917-790-2600, $75)

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