"You stop liking candy, but you never stop liking chocolate," says Brendan Gannon, 28, owner, founder and sole employee of La Tène Chocolatier. Gannon, who grew up in Maine and now calls Somerville home, creates hand-crafted artisan chocolates with a contemporary touch.
Gannon is self-taught in the art of chocolate. Trained as a stage actor, he spent a brief stint as a DJ and music writer before beginning to experiment with chocolate in his kitchen about five years ago. He worked as an assistant manager at the award-winning chocolate maker L.A. Burdick in Harvard Square for several years. During his tenure at Burdicks he was able to garner much chocolate knowledge and even spend a weekend at the New Hampshire location where the chocolates are made. Gannon began to realize that no one was offering the kind of chocolates that he wanted to create. So, he moved his operation out of the experimental confines of his kitchen and began renting a space from Taza chocolates, where he now works at night dipping chocolate well into the wee hours.
There has been a renewed interest in chocolate amongst foodies and laymen alike. This trend is riding the back of the local, organic and free trade food movements. Gannon upholds such values in his company by using dairy from a farm in Milton, Massachusetts and butter from a Vermont creamery. But the freshness of the dairy products isn't the only thing that flavors these little squares of heaven.
Gannon says La Tène is unique in that its flavors are half traditional and half avant garde. He applies the traditional European techniques of fine chocolate making and adds a modern flare to his bonbons. Raspberry, Irish stout, champagne, pomegranate and Sichuan peppercorn with lemon zest are amongst the pleasingly subtle flavors that you'll find in La Tène chocolates.
The process of making these tiny delicious treats is arduous, but worth it. First Gannon makes the ganache, the chewy rich flavored center of the chocolates. The ganache is poured into slabs and sits overnight to solidify. He then spreads a very thin layer of melted chocolate over it, which hardens and acts as a "foot" so that the slabs can be cut and handled. Gannon cuts the slabs on what looks like a giant egg slicer and places the small squares onto large baking sheets. For the heart-shaped chocolates he cuts each one individually, using a pastry cutter, which looks like a tiny cookie cutter. "You can see why most people don't make chocolates this way," he muses as I watch him cut hundreds of little hearts, pushing each one out of the cutter onto the baking sheet.
Gannon has built his business from the ground up. He has taught himself everything from the chemistry of chocolate to how to build a website. He demonstrates his understanding of the underlying principles of chocolate making as he explains in detail every part of the process. Each piece of ganache is dipped in the liquid chocolate which has been carefully heated and mixed. Finishing touches like candied ginger are put on the chocolates, which then must sit for about 24 hours before they can be handled and another 24 hours before they completely solidify. The process takes roughly three days of work. But you can taste the creamy freshness and all the hard work in each truffle.
Gannon hopes to grow his operation slowly, but steadily. To watch a demonstration and taste these morsels, check out his joint open house with Gaza Chocolate at 561 Windsor Street, Somerville, on February 9th from 1-6pm. You can purchase La Tène from laTènechocolate.com and at Formaggio Kitchen and Lionette's in the South End.
