Sea Island Life Magazine Fall/Winter 2014 | Page 10

seasonal flavors

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Shawn Askinosie carefully inspects cocoa beans
before purchasing them for use in chocolate.

here’s a new guard in artisanal chocolate, right here at home. Americanmade chocolate has all but overcome
its image as capital of milk chocolate
kisses and overly sweet chews, ascending to
a level of reverence and respect formerly
reserved for Belgium, France and Switzerland.
U.S. chocolatiers like Shawn Askinosie are
making names for themselves through dedication to technique and creating a pure product. “We have two ingredients: cocoa beans
and organic sugar,” he says. “We don’t use
That means the cocoa beans must be perfect
Scott Witherow of Olive and Sinclair
uses slow-roasted and stone-ground beans
to create the bars found at The Market at
as their European counterparts. Along with
perfecting their technique, American chocolatiers have also experimented with bold and

FROM BEAN
TO BAR

FORGO FOREIGN SWEETS IN FAVOR OF
THE NEWLY MINTED AMERICAN CHOCOLATES
AND SAVOR THE SWEETNESS OF HOME.
BY NEAL WEBSTER TURNAGE

era for a classic treat.
“We’re seeing chocolate being paired with
observes Jordan Poteat, general manager of
The Market at Sea Island. “A few years ago,
adding bacon to a chocolate bar would never
happen. Now that people are looking at chocolate through a different lens, combinations
like that are acceptable—and great for us as
chefs. We can take a bacon chocolate bar and
pair it with something like squab and create
a very complex dish.”

10 SEA ISL AND LIFE | FALL/WINTER 2014 /15

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