"It's like building a house," Chef Franck Kestener, M.O.F. (master craftsman of France) says about being a chocolatier. "You can decorate and accessorize the house, but you can't do that until you have the foundation. You can be lured by having the final product, but until you know the base and until you build that foundation, you can't go anywhere. "As a chocolatier, you have to have the curiosity to really want to learn," Chef Kestener adds. "Everything that is around you is a learning tool." In addition to sharing his many years of experience in the pastry and chocolate industries with fellow chocolatiers at such places as the French Pastry School in Chicago, Chef Kestener now runs his own confectionery and pastry business in Sarreguemines, France. The shop features 25 single-origin tablets from different locations, each consisting of 70% cocoa content. He prides himself on keeping his chocolates as pure and natural as possible. "Chocolate is supposed to be good forever," he says. Thus, Chef Kestener doesn't buy into the notion of increased chocolate consumption being a fad. But while some might suggest that infusing spices and herbs with chocolate is a short-lived phenomenon, Chef Kestener defends the pairings.
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