On the Chocolate Trail

Wherever I travel, I seek out chocolate connections with Jews. In the last couple of years, my trips to Belgium, to the southwest of France, to Spain, to Israel, to New England and elsewhere, have revolved around my chocolate research.

My interest in Jews on the Chocolate Trail started with travel. Around the time that my husband and I were planning a tour through several European countries in a VW van, I happened to be exercising at home when I heard a Valentine’s Day interview of chocolatier, foodie, pastry chef David Lebovitz, talking about chocolate stores in Paris on NPR.

Ahah…what a great way to see Paris. Though David was booked for the days we would be in Paris and would not be able to give us a tour, he referred me to his Paris chapter in his book The Great Book of Chocolate which we had great fun using while there, making sure to visit as many stores on his list as possible. We did also visit the Louvre and other major sites. However, while browsing in a chocolate store not on his list, L’Atelier du Chocolat de Bayonne, I opened their literature, and in my high school French, read about the critical role of Jews in the chocolate industry in France: "a Bayonne l’origine de la fabrication et de la consommation du chocolat semble remonter au début du VXIIème siécle, lorsque les Juifs pourchassés par l’Inquisition s’installèrent dans le bourg de Saint Esprit."

That is, "at Bayonne, the origins of the fabrication and the consumption of chocolate increased at the beginning of the 17th century, when the Jews exiled from the Inquisition settled in the (Bayonne) suburb of Saint Esprit."

Too bad that I had missed out on this tie between Jews and chocolate in religious school! We continued to travel, we explored, we tasted….and thus, Jews on the Chocolate Trail. These two Jews, my husband and I, on our chocolate exploration, as well as the connections of Jews to chocolate production and commerce as cacao traveled around the Western World.