Everything comes up rich and sweet at this cafe, especially the hot chocolate
Mia Stainsby
Sun
At Koko Chocolate Creations on Denman, Alex and Angie Maman create pastries, hot chocolate and other delights. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
Step inside. You’ll see a faux machine pumping molten chocolate and snaking it in a chocolate pipeline up and across the ceiling, curving down behind the counter.
It isn’t quite what you’d expect in an artisanal chocolate cafe. But then Koko Chocolate Creations isn’t quite the kind of place Alex Maman is used to working. He trained under Paul Bocuse (the Bocuse d’Or, the most prestigious international cooking competition was named to honour him) and has cooked under the Troisgros brothers and Georges Blanc (more French culinary nobility). Then he went to Israel and was named one of the top three chefs in the country. So, what’s he doing on Denman Street, serving up hot chocolate?
Well, marrying a Vancouverite while both were working in Australia would be the short answer. His wife, Cordon Bleu-trained Angie Maman, learned the art of making chocolate and they decided to open up a high-quality shop serving first-rate hot chocolates, Angie-baked pastries, desserts as well as her hand-made chocolates. And for those who need it, there’s coffee with a kick, too.
When I visited, the hot chocolate was served in sweet, egg-shaped mugs but apparently they didn’t hold up to the rough and tumble of cafe life. They’ve switched to mugs. Hot chocolate is all about quality of chocolate here, it’s top-notch Callebaut and Valrhona chocolates. It’s made with an espresso machine and a cup costs $4.50.
“It’s basically a cappuccino of chocolate and milk,” Alex says. The French vanilla hot chocolate I had was more chocolate latté than cappucino. It’s not the thick, chocolate syrupy hot chocolates I’ve had, say, at Thomas Haas, but it’s good.
You can get the traditional or be more adventurous with the Italian, Mexican, Turkish mocha, Scandinavian, French vanilla, classic American or Canadian Beavertail hot chocolates. The latter, he says, contains whipped cream and maple syrup.
Desserts include molten chocolate cake, chocolate fondu, brownies, cookies, waffles, white chocolate cheesecake, and ‘More Than S’mores‘ (S’mores with hazelnut praline and warm dark chocolate sauce). I tried the monkey bread and its a lovely piece of work, sitting over drizzles of milk chocolate. Angie’s chocolate bon bon flavours change from week to week, but the week I phoned, they had coconut curry, caramel, lemon mint, peanut butter crunch, raspberry, chili habanero, strawberry balsamic and chocolate ganache fillings. I tried a few and noted their fresh, natural flavours.
I know you might have gorged on chocolates last week on Valentine’s, but some of us don’t know when to stop, do we?
Koko is open daily to 10 p.m.
Monday to Thursday, and to 11 p.m. weekends.
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KOKO CHOCOLATE CREATIONS
1118 Denman St., 604-669-1887
© The Vancouver Sun 2008