Kitchen Confidential: Norman Love

On November 8, pastry chef and wizard of chocolates Norman Love and his wife, Mary, chair the sold-out 3 Wishes charity event benefiting area children’s charities. The fundraiser includes a Moroccan-themed dinner by Southwest Florida chefs, along with Florian Bellanger, Mad-Mac, NYC and Food Network Cupcake Wars judge; Keegan Gerhard, Food Network Challenge TV series host; and Johnny Iuzzini, head judge on Bravo’s Top Chef Just Desserts.  Here, Love shares some of his favorite things.

Best Kitchen tool: In pastry, a favorite tool is one you use most often; mine is the offset spatula.

Favorite Flavor At his shop, Artisan Gelato: The mocha almond fudge.
Unusual flavor he craves: A fresh banana gelato with salted caramel and candied walnuts. That sounds good; we should make that!
In his fridge: Bottles of Perrier. I like water with bubbles—and fresh fruit. We don’t cook at home much. My wife, Mary, is a vegetarian so we often make a simple pasta and salad.
Favorite local restaurants: In Naples, favorites would be Sea Salt, Barbatella and The Ritz-Carlton, Naples The Grill. In Fort Myers, we like Yabo, Cru and Blue Coyote.
What he did this summer: I was at the American Culinary Federation convention in Las Vegas for a demo in July. I was also asked to serve as head judge for the 2013 World Chocolate Masters competition in Paris.