meet Christina

I am Christina Marsigliese.

I am a Food Scientist. I am a Baker.

Food is always on my brain.

I love food and I love people. So naturally I love giving food to people.

I'm about twenty-something and I've spent 6 years of my sugar-filled life in post-secondary education earning my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Food Science.

I have experience from different countries around the world. I studied mainly in Ireland, Belgium and Portugal. I wrote a thesis on the sensory profile of Portuguese red wines while living in Porto, Portugal.

I love Porto. Gorgeous city, great vibe, great food products. I spent most of my time eating, drinking wine and hanging out by the Douro Valley.

I love the sun, the beach, and intense heat.

I also love Southeast Asia. I've been to Thailand twice and plan to go back again. I took cooking classes in Chiang Mai and it forever changed the way I eat. I don't think I'll ever get sick of Green Papaya Salad or Pad Thai.

I'm recently married to a wonderfully weird man. He's also a Food Scientist. We fell in love over ice cream. He has a Master's degree in the field of ice cream. All we talk about is food. I love it.

I can conceptualize and develop recipes using a scientific approach. Baking is extremely technical and not as easy-going as cooking mostly since baked goods are defined by their texture almost more than their flavour. Recipes need to be followed with precision because slight modifications can have major influences on texture. Mixing techniques must also be understood since each step in a recipe is functional and serves to aerate, de-aerate, emulsify or stabilize. Having said all of this....there are times when wiggle room can be granted.

Any baking-related issue can be resolved or realized using a scientific eye ;)

I love chocolate. No, seriously. i LOVE chocolate. I even dress it up in hearts and spike it with booze like these Dark Chocolate Ganache Tartlets and simple but perfect Silky Dark Chocolate Truffles.

Once in a while I appear on the Steven & Chris show on CBC as their Baking Expert and show them a few tricks and whip up something sweet in the kitchen. You can watch some of these episodes by following the links here.

My favourite colour is purple.

My favourite things to bake are brownies and pies.

My favourite TV show is still Friends. I still watch the DVD's and I still laugh every time.

The first recipe I ever wrote was called "Christina's Best Brownies".

Most of all, I'm just happy that you swing by once and a while, read my posts, try my recipes and leave a comment.

Thanks!

I love Chocolate!
This blog was formally called Form V Artisan. The name was derived from my true love and here's how..

Form V is the fat crystal structure in chocolate that produces the glossy sheen and crisp snap of high quality, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate. Cocoa butter contains 6 different fat crystal structures and chocolate manufacturers practice special mixing techniques that last for days in order to ensure the development of form V crystals and produce smooth, creamy chocolate. If you've ever seen a white film on the surface of chocolate (chocolate bloom), this is likely a result of cocoa butter that has converted into form VI (six) crystals, which scatter light and appear white. Most of the time this is due to:

1. Age - over time, cocoa fat crystals will slowly convert to form VI
2. Improper Storage - temperature fluctuations will cause cocoa butter to melt and recrystallize in an uncontrolled manner


Learning to achieve form V through tempering techniques is an art. Most chocolate shops have machines that do it for them through a series of heating and cooling stages. Frankly, I don’t blame them since it is very difficult to accomplish a perfect temper under sometimes unpredictable ambient conditions. So, next time you’re at a party and the host is serving chocolates, you can impress them with your knowledge of cocoa fat crystal structure. That’s good conversation….right?

To learn more about the process of making chocolate, take a look at this post.