Blu Boy Cafe teaches chocolate artistry

On Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, David Fletcher went from kitchen to stage, bringing tubs of ganache, a roasted cacao pod and a tiny bowl of crystallized cocoa butter.

As a fundraiser for PRIDE, Bloomington’s LGBTQ film festival, Fletcher held a Sweet Meet & Greet that taught attendees how to roll truffles.

True truffles are shaped irregularly, like the fungus, Fletcher explained as his class pulled on blue gloves.

“Don’t feel compelled to make them perfectly round,” Fletcher said. “I can usually pick the engineers out.”  
 
While the ganache was pre-made, Fletcher said it can be flavored.

For instance, cream can be heated with tea bags, coffee, cinnamon sticks or even bacon. Then, boiling dairy melts the chocolate and combines with it.

“It’s a beautiful moment in culinary arts when they come together,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher was a cellist and  physician before a chocolatier.

“In medicine, you can’t make up stuff — or at least, you shouldn’t,” Fletcher said with a laugh.

Graduate student Katie Schweighofer, a member of the Steering Committee for PRIDE, attended the chocolate class. This year, she said, the committee looked at more than 30 feature films and about 90 short films.

“We pick films that are meant to be a little controversial, films that prompt people to think about LGBTQ,” Schweighofer said.

She recommended festival-goers attend Saturday’s and Sunday’s free matinees, which include community discussions afterward.

The festival has sold out the past two years and, this year, will show 34 films instead of 25, said Maarten Bout, the marketing and technology director of the Buskirk-Chumley.

Bout recommends Gun Hill Road, a film about a man who returns from prison to find his son transitioning to female.

“It’s very much a film about family,” Bout said. “People should come to see it to find out what it’s about.”

While this is his first fundraiser for PRIDE, Fletcher has been involved from the beginning. The first year, he provided desserts, and the second, a model was painted with chocolate.

Fletcher showed students how cacao becomes cocoa and how beans are processed.
“It reminds me of rock-polishing kits,” Fletcher said as he showed images of the huge grinders used to make chocolate particles fine.

Later on, the chocolate is “conched” by huge rollers in a refining process. The tempering process gives chocolate  the shine, the snap, the texture and the certain way it melts.

“You have to think about your outcome, your goal,” he reminded students throughout the night.

They rolled truffles in toasted coconut, plain cocoa and smashed malted milk balls.
Schweighofer said she’s going to try something different.

“We’ll try to make some with spicy-pepper, maybe ancho-chipotle,” she said.