Hasta La Ideas

Buddhas, lips and turtles abound in a California chocolatier

While walking along the shady tiled walkways to the quaint shops of La Arcada in Santa Barbara, a peek inside Chocolats du CaliBressan reveals a candy case filled with tiny turtles, ruby lips, glistening buddhas and classic truffle spheres.

After studying at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie, Chocolatier Jean-Michel Carré moved to California with his wife (who was originally from the Santa Barbara area) to focus his career on his love of chocolate. Now at Chocolat du Cali Bressan in Carpinteria and downtown Santa Barbara, Carré spends his days making ultra-rich handmade truffles and bon bons.

Among the store’s most popular items are the French Bisous—red lips made with dark and milk ganache chocolate with tangerine—and the Buddha Beauty, a truffle amulet filled with soft salted caramel that comes with instructions to lick his belly for good luck. Influenced by 30 years in the kitchens of restaurants in France, Switzerland and the U.K., each day the self-professed “passionate chocolatier” can be found experimenting with surprising ingredients like avocado, curry, Sichuan pepper, balsamic vinegar and lotus—a special request of the local estate and public garden Lotusland.

If we had to pick a favorite, it would be the La Arcada Turtle with cajeta, Mexican milk caramel—it was almost too cute to eat, but after biting off the tasty little legs of the shiny green treat, an intense craving for more took over. Time to plan another visit very soon. Chocolats du CaliBressan’s La Arcada location is located at 1114 State Street, #2; there’s also a store at 4193 Carpinteria Avenue, Suite 4 in Carpinteria, CA.

Humorous messages on classic Picard wafers

Gaufrettes Amusantes are traditional waffle wafers with a humorous twist. Written in either standard French or in our preferred Northern France’s Picard dialect—also called Ch’ti by locals—the funny phrases stamped on each cookie reflect the witty, working class community. Idiomatic messages like “Allo Cherie” (hello darling) and “Cha n’vaut pas un pet d’lapin” (it’s not worth a rabbit fart) add a touch of charm to morning tea or dessert.

Comptoir des Flandres uses a recipe dating back to 1894 to make the tasty wafers in vanilla, chocolate, chicory, hazelnut and raspberry varieties. The cookies sell individually (€3) or in boxed assortments (€10) at Comptoir des Flandres, and are available at many French grocery stores. Also available in the U.S. by the case at The Frenchy Bee for $49.

How a young French designer’s radical approach yields soulful results

Toying with high and low, mixing handmade craftsmanship with mechanized production, contrasting natural materials against plastics—the work of emerging industrial designer Jean-Baptiste Fastrez is a study in opposites, shedding new light onto everyday objects by highlighting dissonance. But unlike many exploring the same concepts only to deconstruct design, this rabble-rouser sets up the tension as a means to give “soul” to an object. His latest project takes on the hair dryer, incorporating the “great craft tradition” of handle-making to reinvent the common appliance as a modern tomahawk. “My aim,” the young Frenchman explains, “is to give to this type of product some more interest, sense and sculptural presence,” an approach that lends the object status befitting today’s well-coiffed warriors.

This avant-garde approach, honed as an assistant to the experimentally-minded design team of the Bouroullec brothers for the past three years, is a through line in Fastrez’s independent work as he applies radical ideas to mainstream design. Like the tomahawk hair dryer, his electric kettle series attempts to make “serial production and handmade production coexist within one same object.” By creating a standardized, technical base that meets safety restrictions, the kettle itself can be customized through a rapid prototyping machine or by enlisting the help of independent craftsmen. This industrial-meets-independent design system allows users to play with how they will use an object, again giving it the kind of highly sought after personal value that appeals to the consumer looking for a self-aware way to express their individuality through design.

“I would like for the consumer to choose his electrical appliance as he could fall in love with a piece in a secondhand market,” Fastrez emphasizes. At play along with this notion of individualism is a sustainability element—if the object breaks, the consumer isn’t forced to buy an entirely new appliance.

Questioning the efficiency of mass production, Fastrez’ approach largely works to upend the way standardization processes lead to “soulless objects” and thereby facilitate our throwaway society. In addition to creating adaptable design, introducing a new purpose can also increase the emotional value of an item. The Fog table, created in collaboration with designer Marc Sarrazin, repurposes metallic mesh (usually used to make soundproof electronic drums) into a tabletop, which only functions when the table legs have been extended to stretch the fabric tight enough to support objects.

Keep an eye out for Fastrez’ upcoming projects, which includes designs with Sèvres ceramics and Circa glass, as well as a solo exhibition at the Design Parade at the Villa Noailles, Hyères. The industrious designer says of his forthcoming plans, “a year of very exiting work.”

Eclectic confections of a modern chocolatier inspired by old world Europe

Berkeley pastry chef Diane Beaty’s chocolate-centered universe is inspired by natural colors and flavors, including those of 18th century French royal courts. Her’s is a bountiful world of hand-painted chocolate rabbits, exotic flavored milk and dark chocolate bars, and clever chocolate interpretations of classical french pastries. Wonka analogies may be trite, but her passion for experimentation and consistency in branding certainly bring them to mind.

Maison Bouche chocolate bars are wrapped in colorful and often illustrated paper and pastel-colored foil. The five standard collections of bars—Fleurs (flowers), Épices (spices), Diversités (diversities), Croquants (crunchy), and Fruits—feature more than 30 bars. This is supplemented by seasonal collections (Summer 2011 includes Tequila, Lime and Sea Salt, Piñ Colada, Papaya, Melon Basil, Strawberry Balsamic and Watermelon Mint) and several special collections (Liquers, Botanicals, Marriage à la Mode, Patisserie, Couture and Confections). In all, dozens and dozens of bars with flavorful and considered combinations.

We sampled several of the bars and confections, which start with a blend of various high quality chocolates, and they consistently held their own.
We particularly enjoyed the hint of cookie and satisfying crunch of the Sablés Croquants noir bar and the one-two olfactory and taste punch of the not too sweet milk chocolate Geranium Bourbon bar. And though we didn’t get to taste the dark chocolate Licorice Macarons, we’re intrigued.

Maison Bouche (which translates to “the mouth’s home”) chocolates and candies are made by hand in-house in small batches. “We are inspired by the old world candy houses of France and Italy,” Beaty explains, “many of which have sadly gone out of business. But we like to feel that we mimic them in some way.”

Maison Bouche chocolates are available online and at various retail locations in the USA.

Customize a classic with Hermès’ new scarf embroidery service

Hermès, already known for their timeless silk scarves, launched their new Custom Silk Corner today, making the iconic accessory even more of an heirloom.

Perfect for Mother’s Day or to commemorate any special event, the service allows customers to choose one of 17 scarf designs to personalize with any of 30 different colors of silk yarn and two styles of typography. You can also choose different types of scarves (from the giant 90-centimeter scarf to a “Twilly” silk ribbon), and various occasions—birthdays, marriage, etc.—to celebrate. Once you select your moment and your message, whether simple initials or more detailed sentiments (prices start at $15 per letter), a local Hermès-approved embroiderer keeps turnaround time within one to two weeks.

The service is part of their recently-expanded Madison Avenue flagship store—a 2,100-square-foot space designed by Rena Dumas’ Paris-based architecture firm RDAI that comes fresh on the heels of another RDAI-designed Hermès project. A collaboration with Enzo Mari, Antonio Citterio and Dumas’ son (who’s also Hermès artistic director) Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the collaboration consisted of a pavilion cleverly constructed out of cardboard for their recent furniture collection showing at Milan.

Scarf prices vary depending on style, to see some of their classic patterns check out Hermès’ online boutique.

Also on Cool Hunting: The Hermès Scarf: History & Mystique