Chocolate: The Food of the Gods

The holidays are round the corner, the sun shines and the outdoor grill has been dusted off. It’s time to get outdoors, for a barbecue or a picnic. For some great ideas for summer cooking look no further.

We asked chocolate expert Cat Black for some sweet recommendations with a Valentine theme. Whether your partner is spicy, fruity, or even a little bit nutty, ckbk offers endless ways to demonstrate your love for them with chocolate.

Whether you are an experienced chef, cookery student, or home cook, ckbk's essential texts from the world of professional culinary training will help you to refine your skills with detailed step-by-step photography and instructions. If you are serious about patisserie and chocolate, we have two newly-added tomes that offer fully comprehensive coverage of these subjects.

t’s that time of year to make a racket about strawberries with Wimbledon gracing our screens this week - our Wimbledon collection absolutely smashes it. As well as the ubiquitous berry, we’ll be serving up the likes of dainty Cucumber Sandwiches, Homemade Ginger Beer and jugs of fruity Summer Cup, a gin-based herbal long drink created in the 1820s by James Pimms at his oyster bar in London.

As Easter approaches, food writer and Registered Nutritionist Joy Skipper reflects on her passion for chocolate and shares findings from her recent travels around southern India, visiting cacao plantations and chocolate makers.

Watch the replay of the first in our series of ckbk Livestream and Q&As. Amy Guittard, who is part of the fifth generation of the family-owned Guittard Chocolate Company , joins pastry chef and cookbook author Emily Luchetti, to offer tips and techniques for cooking with chocolate and answers to questions from ckbk users.

Canadian heritage consultant (and hot chocolate aficionado) Jane Severs writes about how a few delicate 17th-century porcelain fragments uncovered at an archaeological site in Newfoundland led her to unravel the history of chocolate in the New World.

Are you a mere chocaholic or a borderline chocolatier? How deep does your chocolate knowledge go? Take our quiz, created in partnership with artisanal chocolate maker Guittard Chocolate Company, to find out how much you really know.

Learning With Experts is the ultimate online classroom for people who are keen to sharpen their skills in a number of life-enhancing subjects, including gardening, photography, floristry – and food & drink. Find out about some of the courses on offer in this guest post from Learning With Experts, and see how this hands-on skills training can help you get the most from ckbk’s huge range of cookbooks.