Nightline Platelist: Jacques Torres

Dec. 19, 2007 — -- Chef Jacques Torres' journey began when he was a teenager, washing dishes in a pastry shop in his hometown of Bandol, France.

It wasn't long before he learned how to make pastries himself.

Watch the story Christmas night on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET

"My dad was a carpenter and I consider myself a craftsman," Torres said. "So I start pastry about 30 years ago in that little town and over the years of making pastry, chocolate became a passion ; almost an obsession."

"In France, eating is very important, every lunch, every dinner we all eat together so my mom was a very good home chef and I think that give me the desire to become a chef one day," said Torres.

Impressions of America

Nearly two decades ago, after making pastries for many years, he left France for the United States and spent 12 years working at the famous Le Cirque restaurant in New York city.

"That was a long position there, but great," Torres said. "I made desserts for the world there, the president of the country, a lot of celebrities, the pope. It's unbelievable who went to Le Cirque and what's happened in that restaurant."

While in the United States, he took note of America's limited pastry selection.

"In France, you have a pastry shop in every corner and most of what you buy at the pastry shop is things you cannot make at home; the pate a choux, tarts, the little cake. They are so in a way complicated that you cannot make that stuff at home."

"In U.S., you don't find many pastry shops," Torres said. "And the pastry you're going to find I think come from the home kitchen, the pastry that people do at home. Especially the cookies."

But Torres was intrigued by American cookies. He said they were ugly by French standards, but he liked the soft texture. So one day he decided to make some of his own. His experiments eventually led to the Mudslide, a chocolate cookie that is one of Martha Stewart's favorites.

"I saw that people love to eat raw dough and also I saw that at the supermarket you can buy some kind of raw dough to eat," Torres said. "I still don't get that. I get the cookies. I love the cookies. The raw dough? Not yet. I'm in America for only 20 years, I think in another 20 perhaps I will start to eat the dough, but not yet."

Chocolate Empire

Seven years ago, he set aside his pastry cutter in favor of cocoa, transforming his chocolate obsession into one sweet business venture.

"It's fun work! Owning a chocolate factory is great," he said.

In December 2000 Torres opened his first shop, Jacques Torres Chocolate, in Brooklyn, near the Manhattan Bridge overpass. The space is reminiscent of a European chocolatier with marble counters, copper lights and glass shelving.

Then, in 2004 he opened another chocolate shop, this time in Manhattan. It included a cafe and manufacturing plant where visitors can watch the chocolate-making process through 11-foot windows.

"I think that kids come here thinking that they are in the Willy Wonka factory. They run around the store and they look in the window and they look at the chocolate running, so I think that kids love the place because they love to look at chocolate being made," Torres said.

When Torres was a child, buying chocolate was a luxury reserved only for Christmas.

"I remember to hide under the table with the tablecloth around me to eat those chocolates. I don't want my mom to see that I eat too much of them. And I love the one with, at that time, with the praline, the hazelnut and the almonds and the caramel," he said. "I used to don't like those one, but when I bite on the praline one, wow that was heaven."

'Dark Chocolate Is Good for You'

Later in life he would find hot chocolate shops irresistible, especially when driving his motorcycle through the cold winter air.

"They bring you from a bag, that chocolate mixture that look like melted chocolate and you just eat that and it's like lava and it go down and it just put warmth on you and the smile on your face because it's so good," he recalled.

So good in fact, that he thought about mixing his breakfast cornflakes with chocolate.

"Dark chocolate is good for you, cornflakes is not bad for you either and mixing the two together is an interesting crunchiness, first when you bite into it and then the flavors mix very well together," he said.

He created little chocolate mounds mixed with cornflakes and dark chocolate, then put them in the fridge for about four minutes to harden into little clusters. CLICK HERE for Jacques Torres' recipes for Chocolate Cornflakes, and more great desserts!

After 20 years of restaurant work, he's "very happy to be out of it." In the meantime, his business is thriving ; he sold more than 150 tons of chocolate last year.

"I try to enjoy the moment. That's the most important in life and perhaps of happiness. The thing is, of course it's family, but also part of happiness is making people happy, helping them and making people happy," Torres said. "I think that somewhere, somehow I make people happy with chocolate; giving them the pleasure of chocolate. So that helps me to be happy."