Product Description

The food of the gods has never had a greater appeal among mortal women - and most men - the world over. As a foodstuff, chocolate has been swooned over endlessly in print, but Paul Richardson's study offers to take the subject into whole new realms. Using a melange of travel narrative, historical writing and literary gastronomy, he discovers a substance that still has much to say about the joys and agonies of our human debt to pleasure. In his history of one of mankind's ruling passions, Paul Richardson concludes that, despite the wholesale debasement of a once-sacred substance, chocolate has not entirely lost its mysterious capacity to bewitch.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #796821 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 311 pages

Review
Richardson travelled throughout South America and Europe to research his subject, starting with the Maya who took the cacao tree out of the rainforest and the Aztecs who developed a chocolate culture, eventually followed by the Western lust for sweetness, underpinned by black slavery. A solid history, therefore, but is there room for yet another book after Coe's The True History of Chocolate and those two novels which said much about it, Harris's Chocolat and Runcie's The Discovery of Chocolate? For chocoholics still unsatiated, this is a highly informative tour of plantations and chocolaterias, tastings and trade routes, chocophiles - including the Marquis de Sade - and Cadbury/Hershey factories. Although not really a secret history, the book makes brief mention of the industry's 'dirty secrets' including current slavery allegations in Cote d'Ivoire.

Evening Standard
'This whimsical account of his pig-out pilgrimage is required reading for anyone who would rather not share their Kit-Kat'

Irish Examiner
‘Chock-full of the hilarious, the delicious and the downright bizarre. INDULGENCE is a treat...Enjoy!’

Customer Reviews

Notable for its omissions
The Glasgow Herald says: 'A writer who is prepared to sell his soul for one Lindt Milk Chocolate Animal'
What I found extraordinary about this comprehensive book that covers every aspect of the history, cultivation, production, marketing and the social and political issues surrounding chocolate is that, despite mentioning issues concerning fair trade, the author never mentions the Fairtrade Foundation, Divine chocolate or Green & Black's. It's simply not possible that he was unaware of the significance of these brands and the importance of organic cultivation to saving cacao from the ravages of disease and the importance of fair trade to saving cacao growers from the ravages of an unfair trading system, yet he glosses over these issues completely. I'm sure that Lindt will send him some chocolate animals, but this omission seriously reduces the value of an otherwise excellent book.
As the founder of Green & Black's chocolate I obviously have an axe to grind, but these issues are of vital importance and it was dismaying to see them sidestepped in a book that aims to be definitive

A goodish read
A good read, but I do find the language a bit flowery at times for my liking. Well researched, this book provides a useful addition to the canon of works that take an in-depth look at chocolate's history and its development and refinement. Unfortunately, the rate at which the fine chocolate market is developing means that the author's views on who the world's finest chocolate makers are, is already out of date, if not at the time the book was written 6 years ago. The only fine bar maker dealt with in any detail is Valrhona, with a single mention, in passing, of Amedei, and nothing on Pralus, Domori etc. Where chocolatiers are concerned, the French section holds up, but the UK piece was written before the rise to fame of stars such as William Curley, Damian Allsop and Paul A. Young. Four stars, but personally I prefer Mort Rosenblum's book, which I feel covers the same ground more interestingly.