Hershey Highway

Don’t get master chocolatier Aaron Dearinger started on the chocolate fondue served at the Melting Pot restaurant: “It’s not real chocolate. It’s a pre-liquefied processed product. A confectionery compound.” At
6 p.m., Dearinger shows that the best chocolate fondue in town is the kind that most people can make at home — with high-quality dark chocolate and very, very slow melting techniques. “If it gets too hot, you’re going to have a scorched, lumpy mess.” Dearinger’s June class at the Culinary Center of Kansas City (7920 Santa Fe Drive, in Overland Park, 913-341-4455) is called Entertaining With Chocolate. Priced at $65, it’s all about using chocolate for cocktails, dipping and sipping (he’ll show how to create a hot and spicy Mayan beverage). Dearinger is proud of his chocolate martini, made with a chocolate liqueur that he makes himself from chopped cacao pods. He likes a little booze in his fondue, too. “Courvoisier is very nice in fondue,” he says. “Gives it some heat.”

Sun., June 5, 6 p.m., 2011