THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601030608
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RUTH FANTASIA, ASSISTANT TO THE FOOD EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
IT WAS ONE of those stand-up-all-night-juggling-food-and-drink benefits. Men in tuxedos, women in stilettos.
By 8 p.m., many patrons' interest in moving from table to table had worn thin. Most chefs were standing by with their hands in their pockets.
Except for Roxanne Young.
She was hidden by the crowd around her display. A petite woman in a white chef's uniform, she stooped under the table to pull out another tray of truffles. And biscotti. And madeleines.
She shook hands, smiled and handed out business cards.
``Hi, have you tried a truffle? There's raspberry and espresso, and I'm not sure which is which. Take a couple and if you don't get what you want; come back again.''
And they did.
Again.
And again.
And yet again.
At 41, Young is living on the edge of success.
She recently launched her own confectionary, Du Chocolat, making truffles and extravagant sugar and chocolate sculptures.
Last month she was named president of the Tidewater Chapter of the American Culinary Federation. In October, she represented Virginia at Childhood Hunger Day in Washington, D.C., and she's working with members of the Congressional Committee on Hunger to develop a free kitchen in Portsmouth.
If she's not making truffles or attending meetings, she's directing the Careers Through Culinary Arts Elementary School Project, to teach youngsters the value of nutrition.
Or answering the phone, which rings incessantly at Young's home on the Greenbrier Golf Course in Chesapeake.
A bright, white workroom is secluded behind the kitchen in the large, contemporary home Young shares with her husband, Winfield; son Jay, 17; daughter Alexandra, 10; and Roxanne's mother, Jacqueline Sebastian.
Swiss and Belgian chocolate fills plastic bins in a closet. A large chrome baker's rack is filled with the tools of a confectioner's trade. Chocolate molds and carving knives rest on a shelf. A tempering machine, to give the chocolate the right consistency and stability, whirs on a bottom rack. Parchment triangles, with which to make little pastry bags, hang on a corner.
``Most people have Post-It notes,'' she says. ``I have Post-It pastry bags.''
Then there are the sculptures. Intricately decorated, heart-shaped boxes made of pure chocolate with chocolate roses and chocolate lace. A white chocolate hat with dark chocolate ribbons and flowers. A silhouette of a blue heron against a rising white chocolate moon.
On a microwave cart in the kitchen sits a large Victorian-style dollhouse. The back has caved in and a few pieces are broken. But what can you expect from chocolate?
``That was one of my early efforts,'' Young says. ``I keep saying I'm going to fix that, but there hasn't been time.''
Time.
If anyone could fit more than 24 hours in a day, Young could. She goes at computerlike speed, from one task to another.
With a native-New York accent, she talks about having been a computer programmer in the '80s, working in her husband's medical practice, her children, and feeding the hungry.
``Just stop me if I'm babbling,'' she says.
You couldn't stop her if you tried.
Young returned to school in 1991, to try her hand at the culinary arts. She graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Norfolk in 1993. There, she won the Tidewater Chefs Association Outstanding Junior Member of the Year award. Twice.
While in school, she worked full time at the Omni International Waterside and still graduated magna cum laude. Or, as Young says, ``magna cum loud mouth.''
Johann Strauss blares from the stereo in Young's home as she prepares chocolates by the dozens.
Standing in the workroom, she swiftly rolls modeling chocolate into a perfect rope, as a child might play with clay - but neater.
``I'm constantly stopping and adjusting,'' she says.
She cuts the rope into thin disks and pulls a pasta machine out from under the table. She dusts the metal rollers with cornstarch and feeds the chocolate disks through, one at a time, flattening them into paper-like rounds.
One petal at a time, her small fingers form the chocolate rounds into a rose, curving and adjusting each edge until it looks like it grew on a chocolate bush.
``It takes patience,'' she says.
And a lower than normal body temperature.
Young's hands feel like ice, but with her touch, the chocolate heats just enough to mold yet stays cool enough not to melt.
Cold hands, warm heart.
``The secret to Roxanne's success is she does it because she loves it,'' says Reimund Pitz, southeastern region vice president of the American Culinary Federation. ``That helping and caring, she'll put her heart and soul into whatever needs to be done.''
Young says: ``You have to dive into your field and lose your pride. I say I want to be famous, but along the way I want to meet the best people and give something back.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Confectioner Roxanne Young recently launched Du Chocolat, making
truffles and extravagant sugar and chocolate sculptures in her
home.
Some of Young's intricate chocolate creations.
Graphic
TRUFFLE TROVE
The Du Chocolate line is a series of truffles, including dark
chocolate with espresso and raspberry ganache, milk chocolate with
Amaretto filling or hazelnut gianduja, and white chocolate with
passion fruit and mango filling. Gift boxes of eight, 12, 16 or 24
and special orders are available by mail order.
Handcrafted chocolate pieces and sugar sculptures are also
available.
A selection of pralines and marzipan chocolates is in the works
for future distribution.
For information call, 548-1613.
by CNB