Mixing bowl: Gustaf Mabrouk

Swedish pastry chef Gustaf Mabrouk gets mad props for being tapped to helm the new Chocolate Bar in the Willage (not to be confused with the East Village branch that came and went all-too-quickly) and bringing some international style to the game. But some of his Mixing Bowl answers are rather revealing. No snacking at the movies? But why else do you go sit in the dark for two hours??

Growing up, my favorite sweet was:
Licorice shoestrings

My favorite sweet now is:
Peanut M&M’s

My personal Chocolate Bar favorite:
The Espice truffle, made with cinnamon, dry ginger, cloves and almonds.

What I love about the West Village is:
That Chocolate Bar is BACK! Good coffee, great service and excellent chocolate...

Truffles or pralines:
Truffles

White, milk or dark:
Can’t discriminate.

Caramel, ganache or cream:
Ganache

The perfect pairing:
Pigs in blanket and Heinz ketchup.

I'd love to create a flavor for:
There are so many people I would love to create flavors for, but if I were to pick one it would be Antoni Gaudi. What an artist! Classic and daring at the same time...way ahead of his time. I would love to pick his brain.

Kitchen essentials:
Hands

Style essentials:
Style is so personal...No essentials.

Chocolatiers I admire:
More pastry chefs: Oriol Balaguer, Frederic Bau, Ramon Morato, Stefan Johnson-Petersen.

I'm most inspired when:
I can sit down after a long day and think back on the creations I made that make people happy; that the effort and love put into the decadent treats will pay off!

How much is too much?
Never enough.

Favorite movie snack:
I don’t snack in the movies.

Guilty pleasure:
Domino’s pizza and Cool Ranch Doritos.

Other favorites:
Everything that Curtis Mayfield recorded—I love funk…any cookbook over 400 pages!! And I love Stockholm, admire Barcelona and respect New York.