Tien, Jeannette, Jacques, Jessica, Rachelle :: Jacques Torres Chocolate Shoppe, DUMBO, Brooklyn

During our last visit to the Jacques Torres Chocolate Shoppe, Jessica had a bad experience with a rude shop worker. Jess is kind of shy, but Jeannette, being the assertive consumer that she is, wrote in on the Jacques Torres Chocolate website to let them know about the situation. To make up for our bad experience, Jacques offered to meet with us to personally apologize and also give us a personal tour of his chocolate factory.

Because of my love for chocolate this was kind of a dream come true for me. I mean, think about your favorite food on earth and then think about personally meeting and getting to talk to one of the most renowned chefs of that type of food. Yesterday Tien, Jeannette, Jessica and I met Jacques Torres and got the tour. Right away Jacques hooked us up with a large cup of his classic or wicked hot chocolate. So delicious, they taste like liquid milk chocolate, which was too much for a few people in our group, but not for me! Along the tour he told us to feel free to try any of the chocolates we passed. He also gave us each a bag of chocolates at the end, remembering things we’d commented on and giving us those sorts of chocolates. I got the chocolate-covered macademia nuts.

The Jacques Torres Chocolate factory is small. On a busy day during the holiday season there are about 16-18 workers there (including those working in the Chocolate Shoppe). Somehow they manage to produce 50 tons of high-quality chocolate products. You could tell that Jacques takes pride in the quality of his chocolate and has a very high standard for the chocolates that go out of his factory. One thing that interested me was that Jacques is against using any preservatives, chemical additives, extracts or flavorings in his chocolate so they have a special machine that vacuums the air out of the chocolate before it is used in any of the products. Taking the air out helps the chocolate have a longer shelf life. And, have you ever wondered how they make the chocolates that have a filling? We saw the Swiss-made machine that does it. It has two “needles”, one inside the other. One is filled with chocolate, the other with the filling. The machine squirts out chocolate into a mold and then the filing and then more chocolate and it all sets up and hardens in the mold. Also impressive is the sanitation device that Jacques had installed on the employee bathroom. When a staff-member goes inside the door locks and to get the door to unlock to leave the bathroom, the employee has to pass their hands under a hand sanitizer that sprays antibacterial solution on their hands.

During the tour Jacques was so friendly and down to earth. He joked with us and stopped to tell us stories while giving us great detail about how each of his chocolate products are made. He seemed to be genuinely grateful for and to be enjoying his success. Plus his French accent is just so adorable! Jess asked Jacques if he ever gets sick of eating chocolate and he had to admit that he kind of does sometimes.. but that he loves it so much that he never stops eating it. I said that if I worked there I would probably gain 50 pounds and that’s when Jacques revealed his secret. He runs to work every day from Hells Kitchen, Manhattan to DUMBO, Brooklyn. He also runs long distances on the weekend. And every year he runs in the New York City Marathon. I think I need to start running just so I can keep enjoying his chocolates, let alone work there and eat it all day, every day.

This was an awesome experience and I really admire and thank Jacques for taking the time out to do it. I think that more businesses should be this attentive to their customers and be willing to right a wrong. Jacques thanked us more than once for helping him to improve his customer service. Oh, and I was only half kidding at the end when I said this was one of the highlights of my life. heh.

If you live in New York you should definitely go over to DUMBO and experience the Chocolate Shoppe. It is located at 66 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 and is open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. You probably will not get a tour of the factory, but you can see it through the glass windows that line one wall of the store. Jacques also revealed that he is planning on opening a store in Manhattan soon. He hopes to sign the lease on a property this week. (And it’s only about 6 blocks from my apartment!!!! So excited!). If you do not live in New York you can still experience and order Jacques Torres chocolate by visiting mrchocolate.com or by tuning in to the Food Network where Jacques has many cooking shows.

� Tien’s post on meeting Jacques Torres
� Our last visit to the Chocolate Shoppe
� My first encounter with Jacques Torres chocolate was last year with Jeannette at The Chocolate Show