The Little Book of Chocolate (Little Book Of...(Flammarion))

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly informative and attractively formatted
Review: The Little Book of Chocolate, by Katherine Khodorowsky and Herve Robert.

Originally published in French in 1997 as "l'ABCdaire du Chocolat," This updated 2001 edition in English combines the best features of a dictionary approach with those of a thematic approach. The main body of the work are 78 entries arranged alphabetically from "Advertising" to "White Chocolate." Cross-references to other entries in the book are marked with asterisks.

A three page "Orientation" at the beginning of the book provides a guide for reading the entries thematically. It divides the entries into three broad categories. The first is "From Legend To History" which follows chocolate in 25 entries from its origins with the Aztecs, through a country-by-country tour of Europe, to some of the famous chocolate manufacturers. The second category is "Chocolate In All Its Forms." This section follows chocolate in 26 entries from its origin as the fruit of the cacao tree , through its harvesting and manufacturing processes, to the many finished products containing chocolate. The last section of the Orientation is called "A World Of Pleasures" which outlines the delights of eating chocolate.

The Orientation is followed by a 20 page essay called "The Story of Chocolate" which discusses each of the sections in the Orientation. This essay is followed by the 78 alphabetical entries. The end of the book has a chocolate chronology, a short Selected Bibliography, and an Index. Almost every page of the book has color illustrations, most of which are either full- or half-page in size.

This is a delightful introduction to chocolatology. It is surprisingly informative for such a small book. It sacrifices depth of coverage for many brief and informative essays on a wide variety of topics. Look elsewhere for a cookbook; there is not one recipe in this book.