Indulgence: One Man's Selfless Search for the Best Chocolate in the World

by Paul Richardson

Book Overview

Everybody loves chocolate. From Willy Wonka to Ferrero Rocher, the Cadbury's Flake girl to the man from Milk Tray, it is embedded in our culture like no other foodstuff. The 'Prozac of Candy' produces the same chemicals in your brain as when you fall in love. Paul Richardson has had a sweet tooth ever since his grandmother fed him Lindt milk chocolate animals as a boy. Now, in this fascinating new book, he satisfies a lifelong craving by travelling the world to find out the history of this most popular of foodstuffs. It is a journey that begins in the cacao groves of Guatemala and Mexico, and takes him from the old world to the new, to mainland Europe and the chocolatiers of Paris and Zurich, to Britain and America, and the homes of Cadbury and Hershey. For chocolate lovers everywhere - and let's face it, that's most of us - INDULGENCE is a treat. Witty, insightful and wonderfully readable, this is the tastiest book you'll devour all year, bar none.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0349115524
• ISBN13: 9780349115528
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Abacus (UK)
• Length: 319 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

A goodish read

A good read, but I do find the language a bit flowery at times for my liking. Well researched, this book provides a useful addition to the canon of works that take an in-depth look at chocolate's history and its development and refinement. Unfortunately, the rate at which the fine chocolate market is developing means that the author's views on who the world's finest chocolate makers are, is already out of date, if not at the time the book was written 6 years ago. The only fine bar maker dealt with in any detail is Valrhona, with a single mention, in passing, of Amedei, and nothing on Pralus, Domori etc. Where chocolatiers are concerned, the French section holds up, but the UK piece was written before the rise to fame of stars such as William Curley, Damian Allsop and Paul A. Young. Four stars, but personally I prefer Mort Rosenblum's book, which I feel covers the same ground more interestingly.

Heartfelt, revealing tour of cacao culture.

NOT a cookbook, this volume is instead a very personal exploration of the hidden and historical roots of "chocolate" and the people who grow it, prepare it, and study its ancestry. Get your truffle recipes elsewhere, but get insights and lots of obscure, useful information here.

Notable for its omissions

The Glasgow Herald says: 'A writer who is prepared to sell his soul for one Lindt Milk Chocolate Animal'What I found extraordinary about this comprehensive book that covers every aspect of the history, cultivation, production, marketing and the social and political issues surrounding chocolate is that, despite mentioning issues concerning fair trade, the author never mentions the Fairtrade Foundation, Divine chocolate or Green & Black's. It's simply not possible that he was unaware of the significance of these brands and the importance of organic cultivation to saving cacao from the ravages of disease and the importance of fair trade to saving cacao growers from the ravages of an unfair trading system, yet he glosses over these issues completely. I'm sure that Lindt will send him some chocolate animals, but this omission seriously reduces the value of an otherwise excellent book.As the founder of Green & Black's chocolate I obviously have an axe to grind, but these issues are of vital importance and it was dismaying to see them sidestepped in a book that aims to be definitive