We asked Jacques Torres, aka Mr. Chocolate, what he'll be baking up during the holidays this year.
As the end of the year draws nearer, the holiday season is beckoning. This also means that peak baking season is right around the corner.
The holidays are a busy time of gathering with family and friends—the perfect excuse to flex your baking skills. With that in mind, I spoke with one of the most skilled pastry chefs out there, Jacques “Mr. Chocolate” Torres, to learn about his approach to holiday baking.
What does Mr. Chocolate bake every holiday?
For the James Beard Award-winning pastry chef, the holidays are a time to keep things simple in the kitchen while also drawing inspiration from the past.
While Jacques was growing up in the South of France, dessert in his household typically consisted of simple dishes like riz au lait, a cinnamon-topped French rice pudding made with milk and sugar, or a syrupy pound cake sometimes topped with chopped pineapple or cherries.
“Mom was doing very simple desserts,” the former judge of Netflix’s Nailed It! told me. “But when you’re a kid, you love those desserts. Oh my God, they’re so good.”
Even with all his accolades, Jacques has carried that ethos forward in how he bakes during the holidays today. He focuses on simple, uncomplicated desserts made with high-quality, in-season ingredients whenever possible.
“If I’m with friends, I’ll do a little thin apple tart, cooked upside down with a little bit of good vanilla ice cream,” Jacques said. “You have a contrast of temperature with the ice cream and the warm dough, the contrast of texture and a contrast of flavor. Usually, when you have those three things together, the result is good.”
Other ingredients Jacques enjoys incorporating into his holiday bakes include almonds and, of course, chocolate.
Where does Mr. Chocolate find baking inspiration?
Beyond the classics, Jacques also shared that he enjoys taking a playful, experimental approach to his baking—one he encourages all home bakers to embrace. The day before our interview, he’d whipped up a fig clafoutis tart using fresh, in-season black mission figs. He also recently roasted a whole pineapple “like a chicken.” The result, he shared, was delicious.
“I removed all the skin and put some vanilla beans in the middle with a little bit of orange juice,” he said. To finish it, he added a bit of honey on top and roasted it until it had a nice caramel color.
Jacques said he comes up with dessert ideas all the time and is inspired by everything from his travels to something as mundane as a morning run through Central Park, which inspired one particular dessert he concocted while working as executive pastry chef at Le Cirque in New York.
“It was one of those first cold days, and it was fall with these beautiful colors,” he recalled. “When I arrived at Le Cirque, I did a dessert with maple syrup, pecans and a ‘leaf’ made out of dried dough with those orange and purple colors. Inspiration can come anytime, from anything.”
It is this playful spirit he hopes to see other bakers tap into as well, during the holidays and beyond.
“Baking should be fun,” Jacques said. “If it’s your thing, open a bottle of champagne, enjoy a glass, and celebrate. If the dessert doesn’t turn out good, try again, because the next time you do it will be a little bit better.”
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