CHOCOLATE! Yes, I thought that would get your attention.

This week it’s all about the luxurious, sensual delights of the humble cocoa bean.

What an amazing thing chocolate is, when you start to think about it. It has a completely unique taste, and a completely unique texture. It’s solid, yet melts at the faintest whisper of heat. But, magically, it doesn’t melt quickly away into nothing. Instead, it relaxes and oozes its way across the palate.

It’s like lowering yourself into a warm, bubble-filled bath. And if it’s good chocolate, it lasts. It lingers, it coats. Lovely stuff. Or, almost all of it is.

There’s a lot of hyperbole when it comes to chocolate. We see it all over the TV and in the supermarkets. Everything has to be the darkest, the richest, the ultimate.

Sadly, most of what is billed as ‘Death By Chocolate’ should really read ‘Death OF Chocolate’. Pale-flavoured cakes covered with lumpy, insipid icing or nasty, grainy chocolate which tastes greasy or powdery. It’s so very important that we choose the right chocolate for cooking with, just as much as we carefully select the chocolate we eat.

For a start, let’s kick the Cadbury’s into touch. This is most definitely not a cooking chocolate. I like a Crunchie as much as the next man, and a bar of Fruit & Nut sparks a Proustian rush; childhood memories of long drives out to Robin Hood’s Bay, sharing a purple-paper-wrapped bar with Mum and Dad, savouring the crunch of the nuts and the sweet, melting chocolate. But it’s in chocolate bars that Cadbury’s belongs, not our bain-marie, for we are after something with a little more pedigree. We can forget cooking chocolate too. That’s something that belongs back in the 70s. I’m not even sure if one can find it these days! No, what we’re after is good artisan chocolate, and it shouldn’t be hard to find.

The shelves wobble under the weight of fine chocolate products these days, so we really have no excuse. Close to home, we have Thornton’s and Hotel Chocolat, both producing good chocolate of all shades and strengths. Green & Blacks make truly excellent cooking chocolate – their milk chocolate bar is especially brilliant, being a touch darker than most.

In London, Artisan du Chocolat and The Chocolate Society are really at the forefront of great chocolaterie – single estate bars, bespoke blends, FairTrade of course, and all with incredible, complex flavours. Don’t leave it too long to try an Artisan du Chocolat salted caramel – they are mindblowing.

From Europe we have the traditional big hitters, such as Italy’s Amadei, Germany’s Schokinag, Spain’s Chocovic, and from France we get Callebaut and the world-famous Valrhona, the Ferrari of the chocolate world, with prices to match! All the aforementioned companies all make chocolate worthy of cooking with, as well as nibbling and savouring.

According to Chantal Coady of the Chocolate Society, there is a definite art to appreciating proper chocolate. We should take only small bites, and allow them to melt completely on the tongue before enjoying the full flavours. All I can say is she’s got a much stronger will than I have!

So this week, to showcase the brilliance of really good chocolate, we’re going to make one of my favourite cakes, a rich, squidgy, split-level torte. It’s a brilliant dessert – perfect served in thin slices with a good dollop of ice-cold half-whipped cream.

This is one you’ll be making again and again. Aprons on!