The Chocolate Workout

The U.S. World Cup Pastry team came to Los Angeles last week to train. In a chocolate factory.

To flex their muscles preparatory to the international competition set for January in Lyons, France, they were invited to use the kitchens of Chocolates a la Carte in Sylmar. Later that weekend, they also showed their stuff at a Meals on Wheels benefit at Universal Studios.

In the training kitchen, visitors who had been invited to watch tried in vain to maintain adult composure around all the trays of trouble. How do you concentrate on conversation with a river of oil-thick milk chocolate swirling lazily an arm’s length away? As six chefs fussed over dessert plates, chocolate-dipped graham crackers on an assembly line jiggled to their fate--the kind of pile-up drivers would die for. Even the trash containers begged to be picked.

The only thing that saved us was the necessarily sterile and hospital-like factory setting, lighted like an auto showroom. It encouraged a certain professional distance. We noticed that none of the employees, heads neatly covered by paper shower caps, ever licked a finger.

Are professional chefs as tempted as ordinary mortals? Donald Wressell, executive pastry chef from the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, nodded yes. “I like grease and salt,” he said. “But after two days away from chocolate, I go into withdrawal.”

Putting the final touches on a 25-pound sculpture in semisweet, chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, from the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, flashed a look that answered a question about fats, diet and dessert.

“I’m French,” he said. “I eat this stuff every day. Red wine too.”