(New Location on Columbus Ave)
In 2001, owner Kee Ling Tong went to Paris for a three-month baking internship before returning to New York in order to decide her next move. She found baking a bit unsatisfying because "everything is so precise" that it did not allow sufficient room for creativity. Within a month, the September 11th attacks struck the City, and she was relegated to her home with "nothing to do," as she described it. Kee began playing with chocolate, and "the rest was history." After a few months of practice, Kee decided to open her own shop in Soho. Initially, she sold chocolates and flowers - a one-stop romance shop, however, when a florist opened next door, she focused on her primary love and has since expanded to three locations.
39th Street was opened in late 2012 and serves as the production center for Kee's enterprise. As we spoke, I observed the chocolatiers crafting the indulgent morsels with their hands. Kee emphasized this to me, as everything is hand-made. We got our own education speaking with Kee. She told us that there is no cocoa butter in her chocolates, something that prolongs chocolate's shelf life. She believes that this eliminates a waxy aftertaste, and allows the flavors to impact the palette cleanlier.
Observing Kee, her passion for her work is evident, and we quickly realized that she is as much an artist as a candy maker. Chocolate is not even something she much enjoys eating, she revealed, "I simply adore working with it. I love the texture and the smell of it, but, honestly, I am more of a savory person." With many of her pieces, the shells are very thin, and the filling more intense than the outside. As such, the combinations of flavors become just as important as the chocolate itself. The results: a multitude of fascinatingly-flavored offerings, from champagne and passion fruit (two of her favorites) to the Asian-influenced: chili sesame, green tea and lotus. How does she come up with these combinations? "I eat out a lot, so my inspiration comes from the sensation, the smells," Kee explained. "I don't really eat chocolate so I imagine the flavor."
We tried the black-tea-infused-with-rose-petals chocolate and a few others, as Kee was incredibly generous to our team. Everyone was in chocolate heaven. When we left the store and continued on licking our lips, a woman who had been in the store stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. "Every time I come to New York I come to Kee's," she announced. "I take these chocolates home to my family in Italy and they swoon over them." The dolce vita just got a bit more dolce.
