Out of the Chocolate Box

By Betty Hallock

Feb. 3, 2008 12 AM PT

Add another to L.A.’s growing list of chocolatiers. Adrian Vasquez, pastry chef at Providence on Melrose Avenue, has launched his line of chocolates for LA Mill’s new coffee “boutique” in Silver Lake. Packaged in sleek black boxes, the artful bonbons come in flavors such as raspberry-rooibos, passion fruit-mint and baharat (a Middle Eastern spice mixture). The milk chocolate-whiskey is a ganache translation of a panna cotta that Vasquez serves at Providence, but the clincher is a caramel-filled chocolate made with chanterelles. Vasquez steeps them in cream with a little thyme, then uses the cream to make a subtly mushroom-flavored caramel. In chocolate circles, chanterelles just might be the new kalamansi lime. $28 for a 12-piece box at LA Mill, 1636 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake, (323) 663-4441, www.lamillcoffee.com; Providence, 5955 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 460-4170; and LA Mill-operated Lords cafe, 8783 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 855-0066

Betty Hallock

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Betty Hallock

Betty Hallock is deputy Food editor at the Los Angeles Times. She has co-written four cookbooks, including “Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles,” “Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen” and “Baking at République.” She started her journalism career at the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American in New York, worked on the L.A. Times’ Business desk, and was interim food editor at Los Angeles Magazine. Hallock also helped launch a food and nutrition vertical for wellness app RoundGlass. She’s a graduate of UCLA and New York University.