Over the years, chocolate has become integrally linked with Easter. Which is a little surprising, as the patron saint of chocolate makers is St Nicholas, AKA the big guy in a red suit with an aversion to driving a delivery van like every other courier.

I suppose that’s how Easter got its mascot in the Easter Bunny, based on a judgemental Lutheran Easter hare who has compiled the ‘naughty or nice’ list for German kids since the 17th century.

Easter eggs are a more ancient idea – eggs originally being linked to images of rebirth and fertility suffusing pagan feasts such as Eostre. They only became chocolate eggs, though, first in 19th-century France and Germany, once chocolate went from being drunk to eaten.

Has any other ingredient inspired the acres of prose and poetry dedicated to the joy of chocolate?

First encountered by European explorers as a spicy, savoury drink flavoured with chilli in the Aztec court of Montezuma, chocolate surely is the greatest gift of the Columbian exchange; even when held against everything else that came our way from Central America, like tomatoes, avocados, chilli, corn and vanilla.

Perhaps it is because its effect on us can be similar to that of being in love – and let’s face it, chocolate is far more reliable than some men…

Okay, so we have wandered a long way from the Easter Bunny but myths have always been part of the history of chocolate, as has darker legacies such as child labour, which is why the industry has spent over US$150m on social programs to help address poverty and improve education in chocolate-growing regions since 2001.

The industry has also poured funds into researching potential health benefits of chocolate over the past 20 years. And while beans, pulses, fruit and vegetables still offer healthier sources of the micronutrients polyphenols than chocolate, they seldom have the hypnotic draw of the dark master.

With all this in mind, chocolate is at its best as a celebratory food, shown in a setting where it lives up to the old saying that ‘God gave the angels wings and humans, chocolate’.

For when you feel compelled to give in to its allure, these are my top 10 ways to put chocolate on the table.

1. My self-saucing chocolate pudding
2. Chocolate mousse – whether made with cream, eggs, olive oil or just water
3. My irresistible salted chocolate sour cream cheesecake
4. The collapsing flourless chocolate cake from Fast, Fresh and Unbelievably Delicious – but any chocolate cake, brownie or chocolate mud cake would do
5. My spiced rum and chocolate torte with chocolate ice cream
6. A fudgy Tuscan torta cioccolato from Panzano, in Italy
7. My roasted white chocolate tart
8. My chocolate, olive oil and sea salt toasts, made with 70% dark chocolate
9. Warren Mendes’ easy, oozy-centred chocolate fondant
10. Michel Roux’s chocolate soufflé

Related gallery: 62 of our favourite Matt Preston recipes

Find Matt’s recipe for the self-saucing chocolate pudding pictured above, here.