They’re irresistible, seductive and delicious. Soft German beer pretzels taste of sweet brown butter with a crunchy burst of salt and a billowy, yeasty interior that yields to every bite. Yet, “there is no beer in beer pretzels,” laughs Benny Sauter, (Pastry) Chef Professor at the Canadian Food & Wine Institute in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. “They’re really salty and they make you drink lots of beer.” A good reason pretzels are a popular bar snack throughout North America. Even though bar pretzels are usually the tiny, brittle cousins of the authentic soft German bier brezel (beer pretzel), they still make [...]

Katrina Markoff is all of 31 years old and when I look around at the Vosges Haut-Chocolat factory, the offices, the chocolate innovation lab and spice apothecary, I’m thinking there’s an entire story my hosts are not sharing, and I’m not alone thinking these thoughts. I’m part of a large group of journalists visiting Chicago and writing all sorts of stories from culture and adventure to shopping and eating. Of course, I’m in the chocolate eating group. We’re a small group but seriously focused on our work. As we follow our guide like well-behaved children through the massive Vosges [...]

Ok, to you and I a chocolate bar is a slab of delicious chocolate that we love to sink our teeth into. But at The Peninsula in Chicago, a Chocolate Bar is a decadent chocolate emporium that engages all of your senses – including your imagination! Tasting chocolate is a multi-sensory experience. Chocolate at The Pen tempts you with the irresistible site of dark seduction, allowing the cocoa to luxuriate across your palate with a variety of sensations from thick and exotic to warm, silky and luscious. As the chocolate aromas fill your palate it travels up to your [...]