“Louis XIII is an assemblage of 1,200 eaux-de-vie,” she says, taking a seat. “The youngest 40 years old, the oldest 100.” The grapes grow in Grande Champagne, she explains, a region in southwestern France known for its chalky soil. The cognac is then aged in casks made from oak from the Limousin region.

Madame Trichet grew up farther south, and then studied biochemistry at university in Toulouse. She worked in the lab at Rémy Martin – the producers of Louis XIII – for over two decades, joined the “tasting committee,” and then became, in 2003, the Cellar Master – the first woman at any major cognac producer to hold that title.

But to hear her talk, it isn’t about one individual Cellar Master, but the continuum, the tradition passed down from generation to generation. “When you drink a glass,” she says, “there is a century of knowhow in your hand.” She seems not so much to be promoting a product but perpetuating an ideal.

“Your predecessor gives you the recipe to keep it the same,” she says. “The heritage is transmitted.”

She pours the cognac, waits, then puts her nose to the glass, not too close. “You smell floral notes,” she says, pulling away. “Like jasmine.”

She brings her nose closer, and now receives a register of fruits: plums, figs, also walnuts.

For the third “nose” she “dives in” and finds “the soul of Louis XIII: vanilla, ginger, mushrooms, things from the woods.”

Then she lifts the glass to her mouth and takes a sip of the elixir that embodies, in her words, “perfection between aromas and tastes.”

She doesn’t swish it around in her mouth. “You don’t have to,” she explains. “The warmth reveals all the aromas.”

After another sip she says: “You’ll leave with Louis XIII in you. Your olfactory memory will hold it. There is a lasting impression – it stays with you.”

Then she sits back with a look of contentment.

BY ELYSE RANART, FASHION & STYLE DIRECTOR

We’ve seen glimpses of retro looks over the past few seasons, but this season a ’60s trend definitely is in full swing. For those who want to take part in the fantasy and fun of this iconic fashion era, there are three interpretations to choose from, illustrated here by three of the original progenitors. But choose your look carefully – there could be a pop (cultural) quiz later.

A HOMETOWN COOKING DIVA WORKS TO EXPAND HER MULTICULTURAL REACH

BY ELIZABETH RAHE

Ingrid Hoffmann and butterflies on an island paradise – sounds idyllic, but there’s a catch. Paradise is Spanish Wells in the Bahamas. The butterflies are in Hoffmann’s stomach.

It’s the first week of January, and South Florida’s multicultural kitchen maven is vacationing on the remote island to recharge before getting back to her fast-paced, multimedia life. In the next week she begins marathon taping sessions for her Spanish-language cooking and lifestyle show Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffmann plus radio and morning-show spots. There are HSN promotions for her cookware and flatware lines and live appearances, including preparing pork tacos for the masses on Feb. 26 at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

Hoffmann has been adding Latin color and spice to TV cooking for 13 years, but this season, the hour-long Delicioso is slated to be broadcast over the entire Univision network, first in the nation for Hispanic viewers.

“It’s a big break, but also a risky break,” says Hoffmann, 46, who was born in Colombia. The challenge is to get viewer ratings from a broader fan base, including the large population of Hispanics with Mexican roots on the West Coast. She says she is excited about the task, and ready, if a bit on edge.

“I always like to have the anxiety and these nerves because the adrenalin drives you to a different place. If you don’t have fire in the belly, you’re sort of complacent. Complacent doesn’t give good TV,” she says.

The new season of Delicioso, which previously aired on Univision’s cable outlet, Galavision, and then on its sister TeleFutura network, debuted at 1 p.m. on Feb. 4, with a show entitled With a Mexican Touch. Mexico is just one of the 22 Latin American countries the show embraces in its programming, says Delia  Annette Leon, vice president of operations and creative development at Hoffmann’s company,
Chica Worldwide. “We present viewers with flavors they know and introduce them to new flavors,” she says.

Hoffmann’s co-host is Mexican-born Maggie Jiménez, who is as tall, dark and willowy as Hoffmann is petite, blond and shapely. “I’m five-feet-zero, but I tell people I’m five-feet-one,” Hoffmann says.

On the Univision set in Doral on Jan. 12, Jiménez wears flats while Hoffmann zips around in tall, wedge-heeled sandals as she prepares breakfast before the cameras – Coffee-Laced Spanish Torrijas (French toast), Breakfast Burrito with Cilantro-Pepita Sauce and Creamy Fruit Salad. Later she discusses the sugar content in children’s cereals and crafts a serving tray from a stained plank of wood and rope for handles.

As several busy chefs and producers set up the scenes, the co-hosts bundle up against the chill in the studio. “¡Qué frío, Dios mío!” Hoffmann says, at one point warming her hands over the stove. Just before the cameras roll, they peel off their wraps and turn on the charm.

Hoffmann is all business as she prepares for her segments. “Silence, guys, please!” she pleads as she practices her lines. Then she delivers the scene in one take with smooth professionalism. Her hands-on style is evident even in prop selection.

“This ties it all together,” she tells a producer, indicating a pink and purple print napkin that will be placed under the plate of torrijas in a picturesque table setting.

Being involved in the process from beginning to end is just her way. She arrives at the studio at 6 a.m. on shoot days and often stays until 9 or 10 at night. During breaks, she whips out her pink BlackBerry to answer texts and emails and to update her Facebook and Twitter pages, in two languages.

Her Yorkie, Paris – aka Salsita on the show – accompanies her to the studio on these long days, but he doesn’t have to work as hard as his master. Hoffmann leads a visitor to a back room, where the perfectly groomed pooch is curled up on a dog bed placed on a couch. She picks him up for a quick snuggle, then places him back on the couch. As she turns to leave, Paris begins to follow her. Hoffmann commands him to stay, and he instantly obeys. Salsita knows his cue.

“I’m obsessive with any task that I do. I live it, breathe it, sweat it, cry it. I’m very emotionally intense,” she says. “Some people may call it being a control freak and, in the end, yes, it is. It has my name on it. I’m allowed to be the control freak here.”

In addition to her television shows, she lends her name to Latin-influenced cookware for T-fal (sold at Target, Kmart and via HSN) and a cutlery and gadget line for Furi (on HSN). There’s more in the pipeline, she says, including a sauce and salsa line. She has endorsement contracts with Coca-Cola and Chilean Hass avocados. In 2008 she published Simply Delicioso: A Collection of Everyday Recipes with a Latin Twist (Clarkson Potter/Random House) in both English and Spanish.

Her next book, which she describes as “Latin light,” will focus on her belief that diets don’t work. She has learned this lesson herself and devised a system of eating and exercise that keeps her in balance. “I definitely have an obsessive relationship with food. It’s sort of always been a battle. I eat double what I should eat, and I’m a little person. Thank God I think I’m blessed with an amazing metabolism.”

The issue is accentuated by her profession. “Food is the one thing my mind is really focused on every day of my life,” she says.

Whatever she is doing, it seems to be working. She appears fit and energetic on the set, wearing skinny jeans and a ruffled peacock-blue shirt accented with a long necklace and, in some segments, a leopard-print scarf.

Her personal life seems to be cruising along as well, often at high altitudes. She has been dating Paul Bacardi – yes, that Bacardi – for the past two years, and the pair escape whenever possible in a plane he pilots. Hoffmann says they both enjoy cooking, eating, fishing, hunting and flying together.

“I found Ingrid incredibly attractive because we both enjoy similar activities in life,” Bacardi says. He also was captivated by the way she built her career and adds another example of her strength and drive: “Did you know Ingrid once used to ride a Katana Suzuki 1100 cc motorcycle? It’s twice what I ride now!”

It’s no surprise that she would be attracted to a pilot. Her father, Billy Hoffmann, had a career in aviation. Her mother, Yolanda, was a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and little Ingrid learned to cook and entertain at her elbow. She grew up in Colombia and the Netherlands and acted in Colombian telenovelas before moving to South Florida in 1985, opening a fashion boutique in Coconut Grove and then a restaurant in Miami. Hoffmann got her start on television 13 years ago, hosting a segment on a local morning show. That led to Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffmann, which initially aired in Latin America before Galavision picked it up in 2006. The English-language Simply Delicioso premiered on The Food Network in 2007, moving to The Cooking Channel two years ago.

Bridging cultures has always been a part of Hoffmann’s life – she speaks five languages. Early on, she identified the difference between her two audiences: The American viewer wanted fast recipes; the Hispanic viewer wanted budget recipes. “But the lines are getting blurrier and blurrier,” she says. “With the economy…people are working more, and they can’t afford what they used to be able to afford. In 10 more years I really doubt we’ll be speaking about ethnic food. It will all be global.”

She is doing her part to globalize ethnic ingredients. For the South Beach Wine & Food Festival she will bring Latin zest to the multicultural Swine & Wine event Feb. 26 at the Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, preparing La Caja China Pig marinated in Coca-Cola with her Adobo Delicioso. She and her crew will turn the roasted meat into Mini Cold Pork Tacos with Guava Salsa Negra and Pickled Mustard Seeds.

Hoffmann sees herself as an ambassador for Latin food, yet she is sometimes amazed by her influence. “When you hear somebody from the Midwest saying, ‘I’ve done this recipe from you, and I really like it,’ that’s surprising to me. I say, really?”

5 Questions

Eat, drink & enjoy

In honor of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival
(Feb. 23-26,  www.sobefest.com ), Ingrid Hoffmann offers a pair of favorite recipes as well as wines to serve with them.

Lamb Chops With Cilantro-Mint Chimichurri

WINE PAIRING
Your favorite Rioja

Ingredients

For the chimichurri sauce

1     cup fresh cilantro leaves

½    cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

2     tablespoons fresh mint leaves

1-2  pickled or fresh serrano chiles, halved 

(seeded and ribbed for less heat)

3     tablespoons rice vinegar

1     tablespoon fresh lime juice (from about ½ lime)

1     tablespoon honey

½    teaspoon salt

2     tablespoons olive oil

For the lamb

12   1-inch thick lamb loin chops, 

trimmed of excess fat

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2     tablespoons olive oil

3     tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

3     garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped

To Prepare

To make the chimichurri, combine the cilantro, parsley, mint, serrano chile, rice vinegar, lime juice, honey and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse into a paste. With the food processor running, gradually add the olive oil, continuing to process until the sauce is smooth, scraping down the sides of the food processor as necessary. Transfer the chimichurri to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving. (Best served the same day.)

To make the lamb, preheat the broiler to high and place the oven rack at its highest position.

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-safe skillet over high heat. Add the lamb chops and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes total. Add the rosemary and the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.

Transfer the skillet to the broiler and cook about 5 minutes (lamb should be pink in the center) or to desired doneness. Serve the chops with a spoonful of the chimichurri drizzled on top.

 Makes 4-6 servings

BY ELIZABETH RAHE

Robert Ballard is best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic on the bottom of the North Atlantic, but the undersea explorer says his most remarkable find revolutionized the understanding of the origin of life on Earth.

“Clearly, the most important was the discovery of hydrothermal vents in the Galapagos Rift in 1977 and their unique life forms that live off the energy of the Earth instead of the sun, through a process we call chemosynthesis,” he says.

Ballard, who will be sharing his adventures and insights at a March 30 gala for South Florida Science Museum of West Palm Beach, has a way of making such complex concepts understandable. In addition to his geological and biological findings, he has discovered many shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (lost during the Battle of Midway) and President Kennedy’s PT-109. In 2011 he and his team explored the Black Sea on the N/V Nautilus and found ancient shipwrecks remarkably well preserved in the oxygen-deprived waters.

“I am now convinced that there is more history in the deep sea than all the museums in the world combined,” Ballard says.

He is a strong proponent of preserving wreck sites, rather than salvaging them. Speaking about the April auction of salvaged Titanic relics valued at $189 million, he says succinctly, “I was opposed to the collection of artifacts at the Titanic site and remain opposed.”

A pioneer in the use of deep-diving submarines and robotic vehicles, Ballard has made more than 100 expeditions in waters around the globe. However, he says he most wants to explore what he calls unknown America, the margin of our continent that extends into the oceans.

“I want Americans to realize that 50 percent of their country lies beneath the sea, and that we have better maps of Mars and Venus than half of our own country.” His biggest barrier? “Convincing Congress it is important,” he says.

South Florida Science Museum Gala, What Lies Beneath: An Evening of Nautical Mystery and Adventure, March 30, The Breakers, Palm Beach. The evening includes a cocktail reception, dinner and a special presentation by Robert Ballard. Contact Marcy Hoffman, 561-370-7738, mhoffman@sfsm.org or visit www.sfsm.org. Tickets, $500.

Bringing music to disadvantaged children is more work than Bronsen Bloom had anticipated, but the 15-year-old Boca Raton teen is not complaining. “It’s work that I enjoy, that I’m passionate about,” he says.

A year ago Bloom, who plays the upright and electric bass, enlisted the help of fellow musicians from Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale to launch the non-profit Musical Cares. Their mission is to supply instruments to schools and programs that can’t afford them. To that end they organize fund raisers, assess needs at beneficiary programs, order and collect instruments, update Facebook and Twitter pages and contact the media to spread the word. So far they have raised upwards of $35,000, Bloom says.

Musical Cares has put the funds to good use, purchasing 60 instruments for Somerset Academy in Homestead, a Title I charter school. Now Bloom and his friends are working with Florence Fuller Child Development Centers in Boca Raton, which serves economically challenged families, to develop a music program. They have donated five keyboards and eight guitars to the centers, he says.

In addition to collecting money to purchase instruments, Musical Cares accepts donations of used instruments that would otherwise be sitting around collecting dust.

The next task is creating a spring fund raiser. “My group and I are brainstorming. We need a big one,” says Bloom, who aspires to create positive-message films one day, like his hero, Walt Disney. “I like to make people happy,” he adds.

Musical Cares, www.musicalcares.net, contact Bronsen Bloom at 561-306-4315 or Bronsen@musicalcares.net.

—Elizabeth Rahe

Photo: Florence Fuller Child Development Centers students Jennifer Monteiro and Jamal Decius with keyboards presented by Musical Cares members, from left, Brandon Sack, Noah Glachman, Bronsen Bloom and Erin Blankstein.

Three South Florida Tastemakers, whose creative contributions have influenced South Florida style, share some of the tastes that have influenced them.