About Jayne Georgette
My name is Jayne Georgette, the chocolate enthusiast, artisanal chocolatier, food and health writer, career coach, and small business consultant. I am delighted that you are visiting my blog. I hope you will keep coming back because I will be sharing with you lots of useful information, know-how, and my personal secrets in creating exceptional confections and baked goods. I also like to check new gadgets for baking and/or cooking, (after testing it under the condition the manufacturer suggest to use) because not many reviews reveal unenthusiastic data.
I am camera-shy (especially since my age left its marks on a once called warm and beautiful face), but what is important in a site like this is, that I am an honest, straightforward, friendly person that takes great pleasure in giving.
Did I mention that I am a grandmother to five great kids; my best fans. They all love my chocolate creations and baked goods. I must tell you that they are highly critical and selective in what they consider: “awesome.” So, I hope you will listen to them and come back often to see what I am doing.
Where My Recipes Are Coming From
I have a tremendous amount of recipes for making chocolate truffles, pralines, bonbons and other confections. Some are a variation of recipes I picked up by attending a couple of Chocolate Academies (i.e. Barry Callebaut Chocolate Academy, Ewald Notter Chocolate School, French Culinary Institute, Institute of Culinary Education, etc.,) A significant number of recipes are actually proprietary (I worked hard on developing them), nevertheless, I decided to share them with you. I also own a nice collection of chocolate books (what kind of chocolate enthusiast I would be without them). I could have collected more than I currently own, but I am very selective. I have to learn about the author, I have to see the kinds of chocolates he/she selects to work with, how the recipes are developed, and how well they are written. So of course I own a copy of Robert Linx’s book (the owner of La Maison du Chocolate Shop), Michael Recchiuti’s book (the well-known artisan chocolatier in the Bay Area), the book by the Culinary Institute of America (Peter Greweling, Author), the Andrew Garrison Shotts’s book, The Art of the Chocolatier by Ewald Notter, the book by Jean Pierre Wybau (actually I own three of his books), the instructor at Barry Calllebaut for over 32 years and some lesser known authors but I like their recipes and writing style.
What Kind of Blog I am Developing
One thing I noticed by checking out food blogs, is that everything looks so wonderful. All the cakes, cookies, pastries look perfect. Do you think that it is real? It never happened to you that the cake fall apart after taking it out of the oven, sank in the middle, never rose, the additives like dried or fresh fruit or nuts sank to the bottom, etc? How about the cookies? Did you experience cookies expanding too much, burnt at the edges or on the bottom, became to tough or too soft, etc.? Well, I am not afraid to upload photos that show the errors that happened in a particular baked product. I will analyze the cause (s) behind it and at times I may even be able to correct the problems and you will be able to learn from it for your baking creations. I think this sounds “real life” situations and I have a feeling that you will like these posts. In addition, I am always pleased to receive your duds and we can work together to save it, improve it and learn from it for future creations. These things can only be done by Grandmothers, with a lifetime of experience; that is why people like to use recipes that are transmitted from one generation to the other.
Other things I am thinking of is introducing ingredients that you may not have worked with, or did not use it in the way I am using it in confections and/or in baked products. I also like to check products, but I will pay for everything I review. Although, I think I can (and I did in the past) review products honestly, without bias, even if it is a gift; but I do not want to give even the slightest appearance of inappropriate, unprofessional behavior.
Shopping
Chocolates & Figs will have soon an Amazon store where I will select and recommend products that I like, or products that offer a good deal. I will also review cooking books and make recommendations based on my review. In addition, I have extensive connections with manufacturers and distributors in Europe; so periodically, I will update you about new products that you may want to consider to buy to help you to make your work easier and create better products in your kitchen.
Guest Post Options
Although this blog is a personal journal of my experiences, recipes, personal stories and photographs, I welcome experienced guest bloggers with references and matching posts to the site. Please contact me before starting to write a post.
Tutorials, Classes, Workshops, Tele-seminars, Webinars
I am running various classes with chocolates, including, tasting, pairing and working with. I am also available for private group presentations. Please contact me with any questions you may have. In addition, I am currently developing many online tele-seminars, webinars and workshops that deal with not only chocolates but other hot trendy topics as food writing, health writing, developing your own business, freelancing, and more. Most of these events are announced on the blog, on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and in the newsletter.
Please register to receive our newsletter. It always contains interesting, newsworthy writeups, new recipes, news from around the country and we invite you to ask questions or announce your personal news. It is issued bi-monthly (usually on the 1th and 15th of the month)
Writing Schedules
I post new articles twice a week (Sundays and Wednesdays). I cannot give you the exact timing of the posts, because, unfortunately, for health reasons, I never know when I reach the window of opportunity, that I feel well enough to work.
If there are some exceptional events that I think you should know about, I will break-out of my schedule and report it in a timely fashion.
Huge Thanks to:
Andrew R. Ritz, our Editor, Consultant and Advisor
