Why handling chocolate requires a chemist's touch

Chocolate is the intersection of food and science. When you understand that it needs more of a chemist’s touch than that of an artist, chocolate can be a chameleon of taste and structure. To learn the tricks of handling this malleable, yet delicious dessert staple, Globe Life turned to Canadian chocolate master, Chris Kwok, who finished second overall in the Canadian Selection Competition for World Chocolate Masters this winter.

Get a thermometer

For anyone who has attempted to temper chocolate, this advice comes as no surprise. Kwok is very precise in listing off temperatures for tempering: melt at 40 C for white and milk chocolates, 45 C for dark; cool a portion of the melted chocolate down to 28 C with a marble board, working the liquid to the point of soft peaks as you spread it with your spatula, before adding it back to the rest of the pot and getting the temperature back up to 31 C.