Come With Me and You’ll Be...
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- Published on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 12:51
- Written by Matt Robinson
Max Brenner brings Chocolate society to Boston
As he initially had dreams of being a writer. Brenner’s menu and website (www.maxbrenner.com) are full of stories that are intended to explain, share, and promote his pro-chocolate, pro-people philosophies. “At first, I had no interest in cooking,” Brenner admits. “All I wanted to do was write.”
It was not until his tour in the Israeli Defense Forces that Brenner even came in contact with a kitchen. “After serving [in] the Israeli army, I took courses in pastry making that were subsidized by the Israeli government,” he says, gratefully. Though his dream still involved the pen more than the pan, Brenner found himself working in pastry shops (apprenticing to the legendary likes of European masters George Maushagen and Michelle Chaudun) to support his writing habit. It was at this time that he “fell in love with the happiness chocolate brought people.”
“I wanted to bring that back to Israel and around the world,” he explains.
Upon his return to his holy homeland, Brenner opened a small retail chocolate shop with a workshop in the back, It was there that his Wonka-esque proclivities began to come to the fore. Having experienced the branding brilliance of Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier while in Paris, Brenner came to see chocolate as “an emotional product that should be experienced through all senses.” He designs his own store not so much as a Parisian chocolatier or patisserie but like an upscale atelier. He offers customers access into his R&D lab and even lets them deip spoons into the mixing bowls and have the first virgin licks of his latest creations. “Customers were more interested in the workshop…than shopping in the front area,” recalls the author of Chocolate: A Love Story (one of the many branded items available in Brenner’s own in-venue retail stores). “I then realized that people want to experience chocolate with their emotions and fulfill their dreams.”
Since then, Brenner’s chocolate empire has grown from one small store to an international choco-cultural revolution with bases in Israel, Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Philly, Vegas, New York, and Boston and more pouring out all the time! Even so, when asked what his favorite meal is to prepare, the man behind the cacao craziness says, “pasta.” “I love the smell, the simplicity, the comfort it creates both in cooking as well as eating,” he explains, noting that the element of fresh-made anything is what makes his pasta “totally me.” It is an element that Brenner brings to every restaurant and that makes them all so comfortable and (thanks in great part to the chocolate) comforting.
Though the venues that bear his name may look like chocolate factories gone haywire (the décor includes pipes filled with actual chocolate and pretty much everything is in some shade of brown), the entire menu is notable. From the “after party” Belgian waffle and the ”guilt free” omelet to a full bar of popular slider sandwiches, the savory Sandwich of the Seas and the signature Brenner Burger, Max’s menu maximizes choice while always keeping the chocolate in (your) mind. To wash down whatever you eat, Brenner offers everything from the custom-made “Hug Mugs” of (yes) hot chocolate to the “chocolate aphrodisiacs” to fresh and fruity (and chocolatefree) smoothies, mojitos and margaritas and a do-it-yourself pot of chai tea that is almost as fun to make as it is to drink. As the menu says, “First food, then chocolate,” so when dessert time comes around, be sure to leave room for anything from a peanut butter-y sundae to a full chocolate pizza. From start to finish, a meal at Max Brenner’s is a true fantasy for any food lover (especially those who may be into chocolate).
Not only does the chocolate inspire most of Max’s menu; it also inspires him. “It inspires endless creativity,” he says. “It is the fuel of life for me.”
