No more no less than the Café de Flore hot chocolate
Café de Flore, the literary Eden of the Left Bank, nurtured three great “isms” of the 20th Century with its sublime hot chocolate.
Café de Flore, the Left Bank haunt at the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and that historic quarter’s great literary legacy, nurtured three great “isms” of the 20th Century: surrealism, existentialism, and tourism.
During the years immediately before the First World War, Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet and art critic credited with coining the term surrealism, held court with his avant-garde cohorts at the window table tucked between the iron-framed glass vestibule and the winding stairway.
On the eve of the Second World War, writer, philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir introduced Jean-Paul Sartre, the key figure in the existentialist moment, to the Flore. The lifelong companions hibernated with their fellow “-ists” in the warmth of the café. Sartre did some of his finest writing at the café’s tables, too much of it if you asked proprietor Paul Boubal.
“Sartre became my worst client,” Boubal complained. “He would stay for hours, scribbling on paper over a single drink that, from morning to night, was never refreshed.”
In the ensuing years, the slow-sipping intellectuals moved their musings and journals to the quieter upper level, leaving the bright, elegant, storied space below to the poseurs, the people-watchers and, pretending to be neither, the Parisian habitués. On the sidewalk terrace, rows of red-and-green caned chairs all face out as if the constricted view of the traffic-choked Boulevard St-Germain was that of moviedom converging on the Croissette in Cannes. But total café glamor is being on the inside appearing to look out but actually sneaking sideways glances from behind dark sunglasses. The outward vista is irrelevant.
Peaking behind the cashier’s booth into the Flore’s narrow kitchen, you can see, to the immediate left, its chocolatière, a tall double-boiler with a built-in stirring mechanism that keeps the Chocolat Spécial Flore hot and fluid.
Customs do change around Saint-Germain-dès-Pres, even at the trinity of legendary hangouts - Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots, Brasserie Lipp - defined by their timelessness. Years ago the Flore poured its chocolat table-side from a polished silver pot à chocolat. No alternative was thought possible. These days it is most often served in a branded porcelain pitcher, much like the little jug Angelina uses for its famous Right Bank version. Everything these days is embossed with classic logos in vintage fonts, except, oddly, the house toilet paper.
This hot chocolate recipe is not a composite from multiple sources aimed either to achieve perfection or obscure plagiarism. In an age when everyone is trying to make everything better, I don’t want better. I want same old.
The following recipe is not an adaptation or an approximation. It is not inspired by another version from another time or place. It is not an enhanced composite from multiple sources aimed either to achieve perfection or obscure plagiarism. A little of this, a little like that and voilà, the flawlessly original hot chocolate. In an age when everyone is trying to make everything better, I don’t want better. I want same old.
I took down the instructions for the Flore hot chocolate circa 1997 while squeezed into the café’s kitchen. A succession of irritated garçons tried to usher me out but I stood firm - firmly pressed to the wall so as not to block their way. I transcribed the Aveyronais-accented French spoken by the directeur into New York English in an expeditious shorthand that, once I got home, proved virtually impossible to decipher. But the quantities were clear enough, if portioned for 80 odd servings. I managed to reduce them by roughly 95 percent for the recipe featured below as well as on page 163 of my Paris Café Cookbook.
Did I get it right? Is it true to what it was at that time? I think so. It is prepared with small pieces of dark chocolate, not cocoa powder. Dark, rich and silky, it’s more of a sipping hot chocolate that a drinking one. It’s not as sweet as the chocolate sauce you would pour over profiteroles, nor is it as rich as the chocolate lava that forms the core of a molten chocolate cake.
The Chocolat Spécial Flore is only as decadent as it needs to be. Ni plus ni moins. No more no less. No alternative is possible.
Café de Flore Hot Chocolate
Makes 4 servings
The chocolate used at the Flore is dark but not extra dark. It is sweet enough. If you’re using a more intense bittersweet chocolate with a high percentage of pure cacao you may wish to add a little sugar..
7 ounces (200 grams) dark chocolate, chopped or shaved
2 cups (475 ml) cold milk, divided
2/3 cup (150 ml) heavy cream
1 teaspoon (4 grams) vanilla extract
up to 1 tablespoon sugar, optional
In a double-boiler:
Fill the bottom pot of a double boiler with a couple of inches of water and heat to a simmer.
Combine the chocolate and 1/4 cup (about 60ml) of the cold milk in the upper pot, set it over the bottom pot and heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the chocolate is melted.
Add the rest of the milk, the cream, the vanilla extract and, if desired, the sugar and heat, stirring constantly, until hot and fully blended.
In a saucepan:
Combine the chocolate and 1/2 cup of the cold milk in a saucepan, cover, and cook over low heat until the chocolate has softened, about 3 minutes. The milk must never be allowed to boil. Remove from the heat and beat with a wire whisk.
Add the remaining milk, the cream, the vanilla extract and, if desired, the sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, until hot and fully blended.