Reading Test

The topic of Linda Wild’s new recipe book is her declared lifelong love, chocolate.

Linda Wild is busy making lunch, and I have to admit I am more than a little nervous. For the past week, the savory recipe section of her new book Real Chocolates had provoked in my family- especially the kids- amusement and disgust in equal parts. “Duck in chocolate sauce- yuck!” they cried. “Roast lamb with chocolate and anchovy- urrgh!” She presents me with a large plate of pasta which, I am happy to discover after the first mouthful, is not chocolate-filled as I had feared and is sprinkled with the traditional parmesan rather than icing sugar. I clean the plate with a genuine show of enthusiasm.

While most people feel that chocolate is a pleasure best enjoyed as something sweet, Linda Wild disagrees. She has built her reputation on pioneering new and, frankly, outlandish ways to eat chocolate. At her New York shop, Chocoworld, for instance, a regular offer over the past 20 years has been chocolate with chili pepper, and her personal favorite is milk chocolate with sea-salt. “It reminds me of early days at the seaside, having endless ice creams and then licking your lips and tasting the sea.”

While working part-time on the chocolate counter of a high-class department store, Linda was alerted to the superiority of ‘real’ chocolate. Some years later she opened the exclusive chocolate boutique, Chocoworld, in an upmarket area of New York, selling expensive handmade chocolates. The extravagant decorations and her fancy chocolates immediately struck a chord with the fashionable city-dwellers. Yet today, for every expert who comes in, there are scores of simple chocoholics who think that all chocolate is the same. Linda is not discouraged. “If I can make people understand what real chocolate is, my ambition will be achieved.” She is not interested in global expansion. “I want a quiet life,” she says. “Besides, making our chocolates by hand is where the magic is.”

Magical it may be, but Linda leads a strangely ordinary life in New York. She has two lively kids, aged seven and three, and I interviewed her in their house amongst the chaos of family life. Probably most disappointing of all is the apparent absence of chocolate whatsoever. There were toys strewn across the floor and no chocolate tumbling out of every cupboard. “There is plenty of it around, hidden away in a tiny, dedicated kitchen, like an artist’s studio,” she told me.

What about persuading people to cook savory dishes with chocolate? Could beans with chocolate sauce ever be popular? She is convinced it’s only a matter of time. “As you know, adults don’t want to admit they like chocolate. But everyone needs it, and these dishes might be a way of letting them enjoy it without feeling guilty.”