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White chocolate and caviar? These creative chefs that practice molecular gastronomy must be kidding ( http://www.chocolatetradingco. com/magazine.asp?section=28&id =47 )! And yet chocolate has come a long way since it was served as a foamy bitter beverage spiced with red hot chili peppers and vanilla at Aztec royal court in what is now the country of Mexico. It was only much later in Europe that the tradition of sweet and solid chocolate bars that we know and love today was born.

But at first aristocratic Europeans (wealthy enough to afford it) drank chocolate too, having modified it to their liking adding sugar and milk. Hot chocolate was all the rage in 18th century Europe. Now, incidentally, hot chocolate is "in" again, after all these years and seems to be served everywhere. By the way, the best hot chocolate I have ever tried came from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and my, was it good! Check it out if you see it in the shops. If I am not mistaken it bears the legend "oro dulce de Oaxaca" (the sweet Oaxacan gold).

And it is in Mexico that chocolate is still widely used for very diverse purposes. Who can resist the glorious Mexican mole poblano savoury sauce with chocolate and various hot peppers that accompanies turkey so well? Some old traditional savoury recipes with chocolate can be found in Europe too, like the Italian boar stew from the beautiful hills of Tuscany that includes chocolate among many other ingredients.

In fact chocolate has such a complicated flavour structure that it can shine in thousands of surprising combinations, both savoury and sweet: try any chocolate and pepper (let's return to Aztec basics), dark chocolate and ripe rich red wine, white chocolate brownies and tangy mango and even sprinkling unsweetened cocoa powder on boiled cauliflower (yet another of modern molecular gastronomy discoveries). Chocolate, be it dark, milk or white is always victorious, not to mention the times when it is on its own and we share a private moment with it alone at last!

And now for the final confession. I personally can live without chocolate. Not for long though.

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