Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
While his friends were hanging out in bars till the wee hours, Rick Jordan Jr. spent those nights experimenting in a makeshift “chocolate lab” in his basement. At 36, Jordan’s been a chef, restaurant owner, and pastry chef, then followed a choco-brick road that led him to France and back. The sign outside his Chesterfield shop simply says “chocolatier,” but that sells the man short. RJ Chocolatier produces boutique chocolates, at least one of which uses a technique that few chocolate makers in the world know how to replicate. May we offer a free sample?
Did you go to chef school or are you self-taught?
I did not go until 6 years ago, after my experience owning a local pizza parlor named Apollo’s.
What happened to that?
Wrong place, wrong time, end of story. It failed three times after us… It’s empty now.
How did you get interested in chocolate?
It started with wanting to do fine food, but I’m a single dad so I couldn’t leave town to attend school.. So I took a job at Villa Farotto in Chesterfield and went to L’Ecole [Culinaire] at the same time. We were the second class to graduate.
Is that where the chocolate light bulb went off?
I got more into pastry and chocolate there, which kind of surprised me. I had to pay more attention to it because I knew so little about it. It was a happy accident. My instructor chef there, Kerri Scherrer, told me I should go to French pastry school if I wanted to work with the best.I went to Europe to study pastries and came back here where I was given full reign at Villa Farotto with desserts. In Europe, I worked with Jean-Francois Castagne, who is an MOF.
Rough-sounding title…what’s an MOF?
Meilleur Ouvrier de France, the designation for “the best artistans of France,” a high and rare distinction, as the accreditation is so demanding. So any salon, or butcher shop—or patisserie or chocolaterie—with an MOF above its door will have a line out the door. The MOF is a high, high honor.
You were lucky to work with one.
On several trips to Italy and France, I was lucky enough to work with several, like I had a hook in my mouth that pulled me in the right direction. That’s what led me to Patrick Roger, an MOF and the king of kings in the French chocolate world. It was fate. Understand that this guy is untouchable, unapproachable, but I had befriended his PR person through Facebook—God bless Facebook—and she could feel my passion for chocolate. Luckily, I was asked to come to France and be their first American stage. RJ Chocolatier was already in the works, but I slammed on the brakes and went back to France. I came back on fire.
So does France produce the best chocolate in the world?
I thought it was the Swiss or maybe the Dutch. Whichever nationality you ask will answer with that nationality. In my opinion, the French are the most respectful and meticulous. And I base that on several working trips to several countries. In France, MOFs share equal stature with painters and sculptors.
Were these MOFs willing to part with their secrets?
No. Not entirely. They were sharing, yet guarded.
Like a chef who gives you a recipe except for one ingredient?
Sure, I’m the same way…but they shared far more than I ever thought they would. I could learn in a week what I might never learn here.
Do chocolate makers have a main piece of equipment they work with?
In Europe, chocolatiers use a Selmi to mold and enrobe, but they were impossible to get here. Then, one month after I returned, a U.S. company began importing them. Everything has magically fallen into place.
And what did you learn?
I learned my limitations, how far I could push myself, and best of all, reassured myself that I really do have a talent for this. But it was the most intense experience of my life. [Roger] broke me.
Exactly what did you do there?
Only five employees supplied Roger’s seven boutiques plus special orders—we were making chocolates for princesses and huge events in Dubai. He had the best chocolatiers in the world running, running, all day long. We were doing volume pieces plus sculpting naked chocolate ladies and elephants. They called it a lab, but really they were artists working in a chocolate factory.
The combination of artistry and sheer volume was bizarre.
I’m still amazed that my co-workers had been entrenched the Maison du Chocolat—one of the oldest and finest chocolate houses in France—and dropped what they’re doing to become a factory worker with Roger.
An odd occurrence, to be sure.
We would do the exact same thing for six hours—no one took a break, stopped to drink water, or snacked on anything. It would’ve made Lucy look like a stoned slacker. It was mind-numbing. And it sucked.
No food at all?
We scarfed food during a planned lunch break. Then the guys all crashed in the storage room for half an hour, snoring, in a deep sleep, and then popped up and did it all over again. I conditioned myself to sleep, in the middle of the day, next to another man, a complete stranger, for 30 perfect minutes. It was not uncommon to work a 14-hour day. It was crazy.
So did you at least hit some nice French bistro for dinner?
By the time we shut down, they were all closed. I survived on crusty baguettes and wine the whole time I was there. When I located some peanut butter and jelly, they pimped me with, “Whoa, where did you even find this stuff?”
How long did you do this?
One month. I lost at least 10 pounds.
Technique-wise, what did you learn?
The art is held in such high regard that every piece was expected to be perfect. Just when you learned something new, they said, "Good, now go do it half a bazillion times."
How does chocolate quality differ in the States?
Unfortunately, we were all raised on waxy, impure chocolate. Some of it tastes good, but over there it tastes…better. Even America’s chocolatiers are careless… too-thick shells, sloppy cuts, gloppy feet.
Explain that last one to a guy raised on Russell Stover.
Almost every mass-made dipped chocolate has a lip—a foot—at the bottom. Finer chocolates have no foot: The edges are cut cleanly and there is no pooling at the bottom.
So the quality is just better over there.
Better and more expensive. Valrona chocolate is very expensive. It’s conched longer than other chocolate makers do.
Clue me in on that, too.
Conching is an aerating and emulsifying procedure that affects flavor as well as consistency: Some chocolates end up being sludgy, while Valrona’s flow like water.
Do you predict that more local chocolatiers will appear?
I hope so. If there are more guys here doing the real deal, maybe people will get it a little but more. Regarding chocolate, America is in its infancy.
Explain what “bean to bar” means?
A chocolatier takes chocolate and does his magic with it; a chocolate maker takes the bean and turns it into chocolate, then works his magic on it. It’s obviously much harder to do the latter—importing metric tons of beans and the winnowing process is a big deal. I will be doing some bean-to-bar chocolates, but these will be on a limited scale.
There you go again… What’s winnowing?
Separating the nibs from the shells. The only winnowers that work properly are the big industrial ones. Small bean-to-bar makers end up cobbling together their own.
What’s one thing the public just doesn’t realize about chocolate?
They don’t know the difference between real chocolate and coating chocolate, non-tempered chocolate. Things like the chocolate fountain have made people aware but it’s conditioned a bad palate. Were they to taste something well-made, it’d blow their heads off.
Those fountains obviously use coating chocolate.
Right. That stuff doesn’t need to be tempered. It’s vegetable that causes the coating. If you take high-quality chocolate, what chocolatiers call couverture, and add oil to it, you can create a good quality chocolate for coasting pastries, but most people won’t go this route. It’s too easy just to buy a cheap coating chocolate that’s loaded with emulsifiers.
So all good chocolate gets tempered?
It has to be. And it’s very unforgiving. Fortunately, there are machines, like the Selmi, that control the process. Chocolate that’s not in temper has white streaks, is grainy, and the texture is brittle.
What exactly is the process? I only know how to temper ice cream.
Tempering is the manipulation of fat crystals, to make then act a certain way. When you melt cocoa butter at the right temperature, 113 degrees, you get smooth chocolate; if it goes to 114, it’s becomes a gritty, grainy sludge that can go right in the garbage can. Then you cool it to 87 degrees or so… That’s the optimum working temperature. The Selmi holds it there.
So can you even get a chocolate-covered berry that’s covered in quality chocolate?
You can, but most chocolatiers take the easy route. A tempered chocolate acts like a wick and absorbs moisture, so quality dipped berries are fragile and must be consumed quickly. The chocolate beads up with water as the berry leaches juice, at which point the chocolate changes complexion. It’s a tricky business.
Where does the finest chocolate originate?
Different types come from different areas—just like wine—so it’s like asking what region produces the best wine. There are blends, single-origin chocolates; some are more fruity, others more acidic. The beans grow 14 degrees either north or south of the equator—only that is a given.
What’s RJ’s most unusual flavor?
A 66-percent dark-chocolate ganache with balsamic, honey, and rosemary—which sounds heavy-handed but is actually quite subtle. Or a dome-shaped milk chocolate salt caramel that’s blue with cloud-like swirls—I call it the Cyclone.
I’ve never seen that effect. How do you do it?
The technique is one secret that I learned from Roger. He’s the only one I know who knows how to do it. It’s both equipment and a unique technique. That’s all I’ll say.These types of pieces are demanding and in Europe are made a few times a year, so they’re expensive.
What does a piece like that cost?
In Europe, about 3 Euros each; here, $1.50, or about a euro.
Will you sell boxes of chocolate as well?
The focus is actually on small-box packages, with different colors, tastes, and textures, although I do sell individual pieces. They average $1.30 to $1.50 each.
How important is packaging to you?
It’s critical, it’s part of the experience. Traditional frilled cups are not for me… I prefer to arrange and shingle my chocolates. And instead of paper below, I use a paper thin piece of chocolate.
Some companies have chocolate recipes are several hundred years old. How important is this?
A good recipe is important. But honestly, the equipment, supply, technique and the different sugars that get added, are vastly different today. I’m all for tradition, but really, it’s not that big a deal.
Different sugars?
Tourmaline makes a chocolate sweet, but softer; glucose is less sweet, but firm. You blend these to get to where you need to be. The fats—in butter form, in cream form—affect the slipperiness. Lots of variables. They didn’t have all those tweaks 400 years ago. There’s both an art and a science to this.
Will you do chocolate tastings and pairings?
I love to talk about it and I love to eat it, so the answer is yes and yes. I want the public to bite.
What’s the main thing that differentiates RJ Chocolatier?
I’m not the chocolate on the shelf. I create boutique chocolates. So if all the public wants is a Snickers bar, I’m in trouble.
So to become an expert chocolatier, you really need to train from a master chocolatier.
School gets your toe in the water, but yes, working with a European master is essential. There just aren’t that many skilled experts in the States. Do it right. Take that sword to the hilt.
How seasonal is the chocolate business?
Very. Once the warm weather hits in June, it’s slow until September, when the pulse comes back.
Why is that, do you think?
Chocolate melts, man. It’s that simple. The need for a warming, comforting feeling dissipates when it’s warm. The wedding business saves the summer.
How will the space differ from other chocolate shops?
Stylish, hip, uncluttered. Plus there’s distinctive sculpture in my window that changes.
Chocolate sculpture?
I love it. When I was in Europe, I helped create what is still the world’s tallest sculpted chocolate tree--30 feet. The 8000 pounds of chocolate we used cost $45,000.
Is chocolate sculpting practical?
It’s hard to get paid for the time that goes into one, but that market is growing. But if I win the lottery, I swear I’ll sit in my window and sculpt all day.
If you could convey one idea about chocolate, what would it be?
In the U.S., chocolate is for gifting; in Europe, it’s considered a self-gifting thing to be enjoyed everyday. A daily taste is an affordable indulgence, just like good coffee. If and when you have the opportunity to visit a real chocolatier, you should do so.
Do you have any wholesale accounts?
I do all the chocolates for both Lumiere Place and River City Casino. Those big accounts keep the lights on; retail keeps me smiling. All I’ve done is put a face on my factory. It needed one.
