Chef Joshua Rosen of Charm School Chocolate knows beans about making the sweet stuff.
Makingchocolate is both an art form and a science, and Chef Joshua Rosen has justwhat it takes to get the job done.
Withan engineering degree from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University and a bakingand pastry arts degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park,N.Y., Chef Rosen, 36, has taken his skill sets and transferred them to his roleas chef and owner of Charm School Chocolate.
In Baltimore, Charm School Chocolate’s bars and confections are sold at such venues as 3 Bean Coffee, Little Baby’s Ice Cream, Ceremony Coffee Roasters, all MOM’s Organic Markets, Eddie’s of Roland Park, Pat’s Porch, Prime Corner and at the Charm School Chocolate store in the company’s new 2,800-square-foot facility in Hunt Valley.
Theproducts also are sold throughout the United States and Canada.
Whileworking for a vegan chocolatier in New York City years ago, Chef Rosen, a Baltimore native, says he noticed that customers often requested veganwhite or milk chocolate. Combining his engineering and culinary skills with thefact that he is an avid reader, Chef Rosen experimented with flavors from allcultures and regions, and developed a line of vegan and white chocolate.
“Theengineering background taught me to systematically solve problems, eliminateunnecessary variables and focus on what matters,” says Chef Rosen, a Hampdenresident and McDonogh School graduate, observing that chocolate is a materialtransformation, beginning as a cellulose seed and ending as a free-flowing fatsuspension.
Along his path of professional culinary experiences, Chef Roseninterned with James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Emily Luchetti; built andworked in a Willy Wonka-style chocolate factory in a West Village art galleryin Manhattan; taught pastry classes in Tuscany; and created one-of-a-kinddesserts on The World, the planet’s largest privately owned floatingresidence.
A lifelong baker, Chef Rosen also served as pastry sous chef at Del Posto, helping the elegant Manhattan bistro garner a four-star review in The New York Times, making it the first Italian restaurant to achieve the newspaper’s highest honor in 29 years.
In 2012, Chef Rosen competed in and won the Food Network’stitle of “Sweet Genius.” That same year, he started Charm School Chocolate.
ChefRosen emphasizes that he considers himself a chocolate maker, not a chocolatier.
“More and more, we hear the term ‘Bean to Bar,’” he says, explaining that this label refers to a company that starts at the farm where cocoa beans are grown. He says a chocolate maker purchases the beans, roasts them, removes the outer shells, grinds the bitter “nibs,” adds ingredients to develop flavor, tempers the chocolate (heating and cooling for the final silky sheen and crisp snap characteristic of a quality chocolate bar), then uses it to make confections, chocolate bars and any application where chocolate is used.
Chocolatiers,on the other hand, do not actually make chocolate. They buy their chocolatefrom the makers — like Charm School Chocolate — and then use it as aningredient, melting or crafting it into their desired shapes and occasionallyadding flavorings.
Chef Rosennotes that he lives a vegan lifestyle and designs all of the recipes at CharmSchool Chocolate using coconuts rather than milk or other dairy productstypically used in chocolate making.
“Whilewe use organic ingredients and never milk products in our vegan factory, out ofrespect for our Jewish community, we are also currently working on our koshercertification,” says Chef Rosen. “The other — and some might argue moreimportant — Jewish aspect of my chocolate company is that my mother guilts meinto making sweets for her and her friends allthe time!”
ChefRosen — whose three-person staff includes his mom, Jodi — says his short-termplans for the business involve adding new products, chocolate tastings andtours of his chocolate factory to show the public how they make chocolate.
“Ourlong-term goal,” he says, “is to build a legacy business and open additionalstores throughout the U.S.”
For information, visit charmschoolchocolate.com.
Carol Sorgen is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.
Watch Chef Joshua Rosen on This Week in Baltimore Eating on Facebook Live for everything you ever wanted to know about chocolate.
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