jacques genin, phillipe bel, pascal le gac & quai montebello

As I said in yesterday's post, I checked out the Salon du Chocolat at JR Kyoto Isetan with Tamakikat.

There were 3 French chocolatiers new to the event which I was interested in checking out.

Phillipe Bel had almost nothing left in his showcase. I'm not sure if he sold out that morning or if it was from before, but I was happy that I was at least able to purchase some of his chocolate covered peanuts to try....1995 yen (about US$19.95)

The peanuts are covered with a thin layer of caramel then coated with milk chocolate.

When you bite into them, they have a little crunch from the caramel...delicious!

I also purchased some orangette from Pascal le Gac....1785 yen (about US$17.85)

Most of his bon-bons were quite pricey, which is why I got the orangette.

The orange peel is cut thin and is on the hard side. These are enrobed in dark chocolate and match perfectly.

At the Salon du Chocolat, many chocolatiers display sculptures/objet that they make from chocolate too.
I also bought some macaron from Quai Montebello. This is a Japanese patisserie, their shop is located in a kind-of-out-of-the-way area for me, so I was happy they were at this event.

Actually, they are located next to this bakery, which I checked out in the past....540 yen (about US$5.40) for 3.

I bought the Chocolat-Orange (dark brown) milk chocolate ganache and a orange confit (like a gel) filling).

Pomme au the (white with speckles) buttercream with bits of apple jam & tea in the shell.

Caramel beurre sal (white) salted caramel cream.

My favorites were the caramel & chocolat-orange. Somehow the tea macaron didn't have much flavor.

Lastly, I bought some bon-bons from Jacques Genin....1575 yen (about US$15.75)

I first heard about this chocolatier on David Lebovitz's blog and was interested in trying some of his chocolates when I found out he would be appearing at this event.

The bon-bons were filled with a hazelnut ganache, each one had a picture which his friend drew depicting Genin's favorite pictures from his favorite opera, "Don Giovanni". (By the way, the theme for the Salon du Chocolat was "opera".)

I'm glad I got to try all of these items. It was a great event and I can't wait to see what they will bring in next year. Since it was the first time for Tamakikat, I hope she had a nice time too.

Quai Montebello
5-20-3 Kishibe-kita
Suita, Osaka
Phone: 06.6339.8880
Closed Thursdays

Jacques Genin
133 rue de Turenne
Paris, 3eme

Pascal le Gac
61 rue de Pologue
78100 St Germain en Laye
Phone: 01.34.51.82.32

Phillipe Bel
33 rue Tupinerie
42601 Mont Brison
Phone: +33.(0)4.77.586.690