CHECKING IN WITH ... CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL CHOCOLATES:

OK, you really blew it. You totally forgot about Mother’s Day again this year, and you haven’t even thought about a gift. Don’t worry. There’s a time-tested cure all women appreciate: chocolates. This week we check in with Chris Michael, owner of Christopher Michael Chocolates in Newport Beach.

It’s almost Mother’s Day. Still time to get chocolate for Mom? And, if so, what do you recommend?

Yes, there’s still time for buying some chocolates for Mother’s Day! We’re actually going to be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, then from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. I personally recommend our champagne truffles made with Dom Pérignon champagne. What makes these champagne truffles special, unlike most other champagne truffles that include brandy, we actually use only real Dom Pérignon champagne. We also have our other handmade and hand-painted chocolates that we make in our kitchen here in Newport Beach.

Tell us a little about your business.

We’re a local chocolatier that makes pretty much all the ingredients we use in-house. I started the business about three years ago in a small kitchen I rented from a catering company in Carlsbad and sold my chocolates at farmer’s markets.

When I started the business, I had the idea that everything should be handmade, and that your end product is only as good as the product you start with. Even though we have grown over the last couple of years into our own retail store and kitchen in Newport Beach, we still do everything by hand, with the exception of our chocolate-melting equipment, so every step of the process is still carefully managed.

We specialize in big events, weddings and custom chocolates. We had the pleasure this year to be the exclusive chocolatier to the Grammy Awards, where our chocolates were in every dressing room and gift bags to all the talent, along with being included in gift bags to the nominees of the Oscars. We’re also making chocolates for the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and we even did chocolates for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s 30th birthday party.

But even though we specialize in these big events, we still have our storefront, where anybody could come in and see where everything is being made and enjoy a piece of chocolate, some hot chocolate or even a s’more, where we caramelize the marshmallow when you order it.

Before you got into the chocolate business, you were a chef. How did you go from being a chef to obsessing on chocolate?

I get that question all the time, but I wouldn’t say I ever stopped being a chef, just that the main ingredient I use went from meats or proteins to chocolate. Every day, I still draw on my experiences I picked up as a chef. Even most of my ingredients I used before haven’t changed. For instance, I still use cream and butter in just about everything, which isn’t too much different than when making sauces for meats or proteins. I also still use a lot of the same herbs and spices. Two of my bestselling bon bons are rosemary-infused caramel and my “Spiced Pomegranate and Lime,” which has pomegranate, lime and chili peppers. So I would say that a chef is still who I am.

As far as how I found my passion for chocolate, I actually found it on accident. I was in New York about 3 1/2 to four years ago looking to explore new job opportunities when I heard about this chocolate shop that had amazing chocolates. Being that I was in New York for the first time, I decided to see what all the talk was about. To my surprise, it was absolutely amazing! I never had chocolates that were made with fresh ingredients and by hand. When I came back to California, I searched high and low to find something like I had, but couldn’t. That’s when I started to play with chocolate. After ruining hundreds of pounds of chocolate and reading every book I can find on chocolate, I was ready to show the world what my interpretation of what chocolate is to me.

What’s your favorite chocolate treat of all time? What was it when you were a kid?

I would say I have two favorite treats of all time, one from childhood and now as an adult. When I was younger, I loved chocolate-covered bacon — found at fairs in Minnesota where my family went for summer vacations. I know it sounds weird, but you get sweet and salty, with a little crunch for texture. My adult favorite ties in with my childhood favorite, and that’s my “Sizzling Bacon Bar.” It’s an award-winning chocolate bar, I might add. I basically took my favorite treat and made it better or more in tune with my current taste buds and memories of being a kid (Pop Rocks, anyone?). You still get the sweet, salty and crunch, but I added popping candy to give you the sensation that the bacon was actually sizzling in your mouth, and then I added smoked sea salt to give it that added depth. So, yes, I make my favorite treat of all time.

Dazzle us with your knowledge about chocolate. What don’t most people know about chocolate?

That the seeds actually taste really bad before it’s made into chocolate. I sometimes give people roasted beans to try, but always with a trash can close by, which always comes in handy. When you first bite into the bean, you get a deep chocolate taste and then it just turns into something very bitter and not very good tasting, hence the trash can close by.

I would probably say another big thing people don’t realize, that cacao or cocoa is actually grown in zero to about 20 degrees, north or south, of the equator and not in France, Switzerland or Belgium. We use Venezuelan chocolate, which is grown and made there, and everybody seems to look at me with a blank look when I tell them that. Everyone seems to think that when someone says that they use French chocolate, thats it’s grown there, but that’s not the case. It’s only manufactured there using the same equipment as they do in Venezuela or here in the States. So the next time you look for good chocolate, look for where the beans come from and not necessarily where it’s made.