Where to get chocolate curler tools

[Joni]

On Martha this morning, Fauchon had the neatest chocolate cake with tiny curls of chocolate all over....am wondering what tool Fauchon used to curl his chocolate! Probably not more than 1/8 inch wide -- tiny, tight curls. Any ideas??

[KyleW]

A thin chocolate bar and a french peeler? I have also seen chocolate melted and poured onto a sheet pan. It cools in a thin layer. You can then use just about anything to run up the length of the pan to create your curls.

[Spoons]

Did't see it.
Try www.thesweetlife.com

[thebighat]

Maybe one of those curved thingies you use to make butter curls. Or maybe he bought them.

[Joni]

Thanks all -- the check actually did it ! His tool sort of looked like a scraper with ridges, as I recall. It made a bunch of little curls at once.

[Joni]

Excuse me...I mean the pastry chef, not the check! Jeez!

[panini]

We use round cookie cutters frequently to get that shape curl. I prefer a nougat cutter for the weight and I can sharpen it.
The curls almost look like quenelles

[annie]

When I apprenticed to a french pastry chef (who trained at Dalloyau, "we sneer at all others")- the little, uniform 1/8" chocolate curls we used on the sides of cakes came from a Patisfrance box

[mudbug]

Joni,

I believe what they did was to spread a thin layer of chocolate onto a flat surface, probably marble.

You can find plastic and rubber combing tools at any craft (Michael's, Hobby Lobby) or hardware store (Ace, Home Depot, Lowe's). They often come in triangle or square shapes with different widths cut out of each side to create patterns. I'm assuming they used a similar tool and dragged it from one end of the sheet of chocolate to the next to create the curls. Then for the stripes which are left, they took a thin, flexible metal spatula and scraped them along their length to create the same curls.

Hope that helps.

[Joni]

Thanks cchiu! I actually saw a large picture of the cake with the chocolate curls in Martha Stewart's Weddings magazine that is now on the newstands. It is so neat.

[m brown]

For dramatic curls there is a curler from albert uster 49 dollars us, refills of chocolate (soft like a gandujia) are 33 dollars us.
looks nice and anyone in my shop can make a beautiful cake!

[TheSweetChef]

I make these chocolate curls with the sharp edge of a French knife dragged over a 10lb bar of chocolate. I've shaved hundreds of bars. It gets easy. Chef Blair