In today's podcast, I focus on examples of loss of liberty. The first is JS Bach being imprisoned for having the effrontery of asking his employer to let him go so he could seek a more lucrative employment elsewhere. It’s shocking that one of the world’s greatest musicians was considered to be property. Of course NO ONE should be considered to be property! A friend of his, a mere horn player, was hung for a similar infraction. 120 years later, Chopin spent a hone...

TOM’S PODCAST #56: AN EXPERIMENT IN TASTING CHOCOLATE In today's podcast, I start with one of Chopin's Mazurkas, a dance form that, put to music, recreated his love for his native country, Poland. Chocolate is my mazurka, as I learned to love chocolate at an early age and now here I am at 54 running my own chocolate store in Southern France and an American non-profit dedicated to making the African cocoa-growing village a chocolate-producing village. In this podcast, I talk about ...

It’s been a while. Seems like things just get more complicated by the day. First, toward the end of September, Jacq N’Guessan and I flew to Côte d’Ivoire. Jacq is the manager of the local radio and he and I meet weekly regarding communications with the three villages where we have established the three chocolate mini-factories. Right now, we are focusing on N’Douci which is receiving a cocoa butter press and cocoa powder grinder from China any day now.This afternoon, I...

In this podcast, we start by considering the current environmentally caused crisis in the chocolate industry. If the cocoa farmer is to survive this crisis, the need for participating in more of the value chain has never been more critical. To do this, the farmer needs to focus more on quality rather than just quantity. That is, the farmer needs to apply scientific principles to make flavor beans rather than bulk beans. Three steps lead to optimum quality: ferment...

Today's podcast begins with a history of how the cocoa tree made its way to West Africa, which now produces over 65% of the world's cocoa beans. We then consider the primary barrier that keeps the West African cocoa farmer poor--the division between city and country which inhibits the farmer from making a decent living. Finally, I finish with some of the progress we're making in developing an international market for village-made chocolate. As always, we are look...

In today's podcast, I compare music and food. I start with Chopin's Prelude #8, in F# Minor and we learn a little about complexity. I talk about how vibrations are processed via the eardrum, cochlea, auditory nerve, and auditory cortex. We then transition to food, whose enjoyment is a function of partly flavors, tastes, and. texture. We learn about perinasal and retronasal flavors, about the four types of papillae on the tongue, and about texture. We also t...

On December 12th, Dr. Peggy Papathakis and I, Tom Neuhaus, did an interview at a local radio station, KVEC, here in San Luis Obispo, California. The host of the show was Dave Congalton, one of the most popular interviewers on the Central Coast.The interview was entitled, “Learn the Bittersweet Truth About Chocolate.” This was my third or fourth time on the Dave Congalton Show and Peggy and I did the interview to promote our mini-fundraiser which is taking place tomorrow, Friday, D...

In preparation for this podcast I spent 6 days in the CocoaTown booth at the 2023 Salon du Chocolat in Paris talking chocolate, literally to thousands of people. I sold our Village Chocolates bars, I sold chocolates from my store in Cordes sur Ciel, and for this podcast I interviewed six leaders in the bean-to-bar business. These include: Mrs. Andal Balu of CocoaTown, a pioneer in adapting the Indian wet grinder to small volume chocolate making; Mr. Maxime Elegbede, a ...

In this podcast, we learn about the history of our relationship with a town of 2,000 inhabitants, Pezoan. I interview Evariste, who introduced me to the village back in 2005. I interview Bob Peak, who has an amusing anecdote on our relationship with the Pezoan’s chief. I talk with Anna and Katie Nakayama. Anna, a former student of mine, raised over $2,000 in her church to help us purchase dryness meters for four villages; Pezoan got one of them. I fi...

In this podcast, Peggie Bates, a PH&F board member, and I visit the three PH&F villages. In the first, N'Douci, we establish our third chocolate-producing mini-factory. This includes hooking up and troubleshooting all the machinery. And we make a batch of about 35 pounds of chocolate and mold and wrap a few dozen bars and disks.We also visit the two other already established cooperatives in Depa and Pezoan and exchange news with them as well as work with them on fill...

In this podcast, I describe Le Comptoir du Cacao, a chocolate café that features products made with the chocolate we are importing into France. These include chocolate bars, crystallized cocoa beans , truffle assortments. On the comptoir or counter are displayed pastries, one of which, palmiers, I describe in some detail.I finish by mentioning the upcoming trip to Côte d'Ivoire where we will set up our third mini chocolate factory. In fact, podcast #46 will be audio clips fr...

We start with Chopin's Prelude #16 in B-flat minor.The first day, we visited three lovely towns and eat our way through them. These include: Tricase Porto, where we ate really delicate seafood and a wonderful fennel cream soup. The second day, we stayed in Lecce and visited a couple stores including a cheese store where we tasted squeaky nodoni. That afternoon, we had an altercation with a local pigeon, who claimed rights to our pasticciotto. On the third day, we...

My podcast #42 starts with Chopin's Prelude No. 8 in F#Minor. This is a tricky thing that takes quite a lot of practice to get it sounding halfway decent. But it's really gorgeous.Today's podcast is about our first three days in Lecce, a town of 150,000 on the southern portion of the Salento peninsula, the heel of Italy's boot. The first day, Thursday, is spent just walking around Lecce, visiting the Roman amphitheater--actually only half as the other half remains buried und...

This is the first of four podcast about Eve's and my trip to the Salento peninsula, the tip of the boot of Italy. This podcast is about a three-day train trip to get there. As usual, there's lots about food and history.The podcast begins with Chopin's Prelude Number 3 in G Major and finished with Bach's Prelude Number 15 in the same key. It's a fun academic exercise to hold one variable (the key the piece is written in) constant and compare the music by style--Classical vs ...

When people ask me why I care so much about the social justice issues surrounding chocolate, particularly issues of child slavery and worst forms of child labor as well as environmental issues associated with the destruction of virgin forests throughout West Africa, my usual answer has been associated with a course that I taught as a professor at California State Polytechnic University. However, recently I have re-thought that answer and decided that my mother Dorothy accounts for at le...

As promised, this podcast is about my trip to Paris, where I spent 5 days in the Ivoirian CCC (Conseil du Café Cacao) booth with David Logbo Zigro talking about our joint project to establish village-based chocolate making.I begin the project with a lovely Ivoirian song to which people were dancing a sort of napkin dance (waving napkins in the air). Then I talk about the history of the bean-to-bar movement and then about SOCOPLAN, the cooperative that David and I founded. I ...

The title of this podcast is a pun on doors and on the future. I start by playing "Light My Fire" written by the Doors, and truly one of the greatest pieces in the history of Rock and Roll. Then I talk about how Project Hope and Fairness represents a door to the future of the chocolate business. And then I mention two big events: my being part of the Ivoirian exhibit at the Salon du Chocolat, the world's biggest annual chocolate event, which happens in Paris and the se...

In this podcast (actually #37--ignore the fact that I said Podcast #36), we compare six preludes in three keys: C Major, A Minor, and G Major. I begin the podcast, though, by telling you what's happening in the wonderful world of chocolate. The exciting news is that David is going to Paris to be part of the Ivoirian booth! And I'm going to Paris to see him and to talk to others in the Ivoirian booth as well as other chocolate makers from around the world. The sec...

In this podcast, I start once again with Chopin's Prelude Number 1 in C Major but I finish with Bach's Prelude #1 in C Major. This is the first of 24 podcasts that starts with a Chopin prelude and finishes with a Bach prelude, allowing us to compare a romantic style with a classical style.Today I am translating the Gastronomy chapter from Bien Manger Pour Bien Vivre and then making comments as they come to me. De Pomiane talks about the origins of European art and then abou...

In 1968, I was lent a copy of "Bien Manger Pour Bien Vivre" with the stipulation that I would get academic credit for translating it. I did not do that. Instead, as you know from podcast #34, I elected to cook 5 meals inspired by Julia Child's book, "The Cooking of Provincial France." I have had that book for 56 years. It has sat on my shelf wrapped in waxed paper because it is disintegrating into brown flakes.This podcast and at least a dozen future ones I will finall...