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There is a reason the old saying exists, 'opposites attract.' It is just that we don’t think of that saying all that often in relation to food. Great food is a part of life that elicits such passion that people you would never think of getting along are brought together. Likewise when cooking, ingredients you might never think of using in the same dish can be brought together in beautiful harmony.
Over the years a love of great food has made me friends with people I might barely have spoken to otherwise. I have bonded with wine salesman, servers, teachers with cooking hobbies, all because somewhere in the course of small talk we discovered a common passion for the art of eating. Mutual love of food has also deluded me into dating some people I would not otherwise have dated. Leave it to a delicious meal evoking the oohs and ahhs of gustatory delight to ignite sparks between two people, if only just for one night.
When it comes to cooking, there are times when you are at a restaurant, read the ingredients and go, Huh? How could those two things possibly go together? Many thanks are owed to those forward thinking, avant-garde chefs who wow us with unexpected tastes. For example, how about an heirloom tomato tart with goat cheese ice cream for dessert? Or a grape and coriander soup to start?
Sometimes the odd pairings are an unexpected match made in heaven such as an orange parfait with curry emulsion. And sometimes the classics are better left as is, such as a pane cotta with curry gele.
At home it can be intimidating to think of experimenting with the odds and ends in your kitchen in the hopes of finding an unusual harmony between two seemingly opposite flavors. But there would be no innovation without experimentation, so you might as well put that shelf full of condiments, or rack of assorted spices, to good use for a change and break out of the confines of your recipe page.
Chocolate is one such food that rarely gets consideration from the home cook outside of dark vs. milk or semi-sweet vs. bittersweet. But the applications for chocolate in regard to what we put into it, what we eat it with, and how we cook with it, can go on beyond the chocolate chip cookie. For example, a recent bite of the Vosges Bacon and Chocolate bar seemed like such an unnaturally perfect match made in heaven that it got my wheels turning on all the different ways that chocolate could be used outside of its classic form.
My first encounter with chocolate being used outside the realm of pastry was when a chef told me to use a little dark chocolate to thicken up and enrich my sauce at the end of cooking a beef bourguignon. This seemed unusual at the time but the result was a sauce that was velvety with an indistinct luster that an unknowing diner would be hard pressed to identify as coming from a bar of bittersweet.
Another out-of-the-ordinary use of chocolate for the home chef is a sort of dressed up interpretation of the classic Spanish snack, pan con chocolate. Pan con chocolate is literally translated into bread with chocolate and in Spain is little more than that: a square or two of a chocolate bar on a slice of bread. On a recent trip to San Francisco, at the restaurant Laiola, we were served a chocolate mousse in a pool of fine extra virgin olive oil and sea salt with sliced baguette. The combination of the herbal, fruity olive oil with the crunchy sea salt and rich chocolate was bizarre sounding but beautiful to eat.
At home I now make that dish in a slightly more accessible way for less adventurous friends and family. I slice the baguette thinly, drizzle it with olive oil and then cook it in the oven till just toasted. I then sprinkle the warm crostini with coarse sea salt and use those as a sort of cracker for scooping up freshly made chocolate mousse.
Like a great May-December romance, opposites in food can sometimes bring about pleasantly surprising results. Even in the face of glaring differences, the nuanced similarities or complimentary elements can make for a beautiful new relationship, or dish. Chocolate is one such food so fantastic on its own, we often do not stop to think about how we can use it in different ways. A little opposition can be good whether it’s grapes in a soup, curry in dessert, or chocolate in a meat sauce. Try out a little opposite attraction in the kitchen, and watch the sparks fly.
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/761-odd-pairings/
Kitchen Sparks Fly When Opposites Attract
There is a reason the old saying exists, 'opposites attract.' It is just that we don’t think of that saying all that often in relation to food. Great food is a part of life that elicits such passion that people you would never think of getting along are brought together. Likewise when cooking, ingredients you might never think of using in the same dish can be brought together in beautiful harmony.
Over the years a love of great food has made me friends with people I might barely have spoken to otherwise. I have bonded with wine salesman, servers, teachers with cooking hobbies, all because somewhere in the course of small talk we discovered a common passion for the art of eating. Mutual love of food has also deluded me into dating some people I would not otherwise have dated. Leave it to a delicious meal evoking the oohs and ahhs of gustatory delight to ignite sparks between two people, if only just for one night.
When it comes to cooking, there are times when you are at a restaurant, read the ingredients and go, Huh? How could those two things possibly go together? Many thanks are owed to those forward thinking, avant-garde chefs who wow us with unexpected tastes. For example, how about an heirloom tomato tart with goat cheese ice cream for dessert? Or a grape and coriander soup to start?
Sometimes the odd pairings are an unexpected match made in heaven such as an orange parfait with curry emulsion. And sometimes the classics are better left as is, such as a pane cotta with curry gele.
At home it can be intimidating to think of experimenting with the odds and ends in your kitchen in the hopes of finding an unusual harmony between two seemingly opposite flavors. But there would be no innovation without experimentation, so you might as well put that shelf full of condiments, or rack of assorted spices, to good use for a change and break out of the confines of your recipe page.
Chocolate is one such food that rarely gets consideration from the home cook outside of dark vs. milk or semi-sweet vs. bittersweet. But the applications for chocolate in regard to what we put into it, what we eat it with, and how we cook with it, can go on beyond the chocolate chip cookie. For example, a recent bite of the Vosges Bacon and Chocolate bar seemed like such an unnaturally perfect match made in heaven that it got my wheels turning on all the different ways that chocolate could be used outside of its classic form.
My first encounter with chocolate being used outside the realm of pastry was when a chef told me to use a little dark chocolate to thicken up and enrich my sauce at the end of cooking a beef bourguignon. This seemed unusual at the time but the result was a sauce that was velvety with an indistinct luster that an unknowing diner would be hard pressed to identify as coming from a bar of bittersweet.
Another out-of-the-ordinary use of chocolate for the home chef is a sort of dressed up interpretation of the classic Spanish snack, pan con chocolate. Pan con chocolate is literally translated into bread with chocolate and in Spain is little more than that: a square or two of a chocolate bar on a slice of bread. On a recent trip to San Francisco, at the restaurant Laiola, we were served a chocolate mousse in a pool of fine extra virgin olive oil and sea salt with sliced baguette. The combination of the herbal, fruity olive oil with the crunchy sea salt and rich chocolate was bizarre sounding but beautiful to eat.
At home I now make that dish in a slightly more accessible way for less adventurous friends and family. I slice the baguette thinly, drizzle it with olive oil and then cook it in the oven till just toasted. I then sprinkle the warm crostini with coarse sea salt and use those as a sort of cracker for scooping up freshly made chocolate mousse.
Like a great May-December romance, opposites in food can sometimes bring about pleasantly surprising results. Even in the face of glaring differences, the nuanced similarities or complimentary elements can make for a beautiful new relationship, or dish. Chocolate is one such food so fantastic on its own, we often do not stop to think about how we can use it in different ways. A little opposition can be good whether it’s grapes in a soup, curry in dessert, or chocolate in a meat sauce. Try out a little opposite attraction in the kitchen, and watch the sparks fly.
Pan Con Chocolate with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sea Salt
Made with sea salt, olive oil, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, egg whites, sugar, French baguette
Made with sea salt, olive oil, bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, egg whites, sugar, French baguette
Serves/Makes: 6
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 1 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 egg whites
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 French baguette
- olive oil
- coarse sea salt
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Melt chocolate in a large bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Use a small rubber spatula to stir until melted. Turn off heat but leave sitting over pot of water. (You can also melt the chocolate in a non-reactive bowl in the microwave on medium heat for 90 seconds stirring every 30 seconds.)
In a standing mixer or with an electric mixer, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
In a standing mixer or with an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar, then continue beating until stiff peaks form.
In a large bowl, mix melted chocolate with 1/3 of the egg whites until smooth, to lighten the chocolate. Add remaining egg whites and fold until almost fully combined. Add beaten heavy cream and continue folding until combined.
Meanwhile, slice baguette on a diagonal into 1/2-inch thick slices. Lay on a baking sheet and drizzle generously with olive oil. Bake for 4 minutes until lightly toasted.
Sprinkle with sea salt as soon as they are removed from the oven. At this point you can cover the mousse and refrigerate for an hour until set, or serve immediately in parfait bowls with the baguette for dipping.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/amy-powell/761-odd-pairings/