<strong>View</strong> voutlook 10 Sugarand Spice …and all things nice. That’s what Trevor Smith’s hand-made chocolates are made of. The Hampshire-based chocolatier reveals the sweet secrets of his success
Trevor Smith, chocolate champion, displays his 2008 awards in his Beaulieu Chocolate Studio in the picturesque New Forest village working on a new chilli and lime truffle,’ says award-winning chocolatier ‘I’m Trevor Smith enthusiastically. ‘I like the fact that I can do what I like. If it doesn’t work, I don’t do it any more. Our chilli chocolate bars sell rather well.’ Trevor has made quite a name for himself since he opened the Beaulieu Chocolate Studio in 2006. Last year he won several accolades at the Guild of Fine Food’s Great Taste Awards – recognised as the Oscars for fine foods – taking two Gold Awards, one for his sherry truffles and the second for the dark chocolate bar with mint. ‘I’m delighted with the awards,’ he says, ‘particularly for the dark chocolate mint bar which I devised soon after opening Beaulieu Chocolate Studio. It has become one of the shop’s most popular sellers. We also won an award in 2006 for Champagne truffles. We’d just opened the shop and entering was the first thing we did.’ Though born in Brockenhurst, Trevor gained his chocolate skills in France, where he studied patisserie and worked in Paris for two years. ‘I then bought my own bakery/patisserie in the Loire valley and began doing a little bit of chocolate. I learnt how to temper chocolate and other basic skills and each year introduced a little more into the shop. It was an accident, in a way, but I found I really enjoyed working with chocolate.’ ‘Clever Trevor bought the machinery with the invaluable goodwill thrown in’ Trevor returned to the UK in 2004 with a vague idea of starting up a patisserie on his home ground but found the costs prohibitive, much higher than they had been in France. Luck was smiling on him, though, when he successfully applied for the job of chocolatier at Beaulieu Chocolates, established in the 1980s and owned by the Beaulieu Estate. ‘I stood a pretty good chance,’ he says with a smile. ‘When you advertise for a chocolatier you don’t get too many replies, so I was on the short list for a start.’ Luck was on his side again when the estate offered the business for sale in 2005 but failed to find a buyer. ‘I said I’d like to buy the machinery and set up on my own in new premises,’ recalls Trevor. ‘The estate was quite supportive, keeping the new building empty while they decided what to do. They wanted to encourage food-producing businesses in Beaulieu so that it’s not just full of gift shops.’ Clever Trevor bought the machinery with the invaluable goodwill thrown in and moved to new, small premises on the other side of the road, taking with him several staff from Beaulieu Chocolates. ‘I couldn’t see the original business ever making money as it was before,’ he says. ‘A lot of people were paid for packing, and the chocolate makers were in the factory a long way back from the shop and we had no contact with the customers. We now make the chocolate in an area that can be viewed by visitors to the shop, and if a customer comes in I can serve. We don’t need to pay people just to serve in the shop, or just to pack, so it’s much easier to manage and we can make a little bit of money. I don’t think I’m ever going to be rich, but I really enjoy my job.’ Trevor says that last Christmas was his busiest yet, but that of the year’s two major chocolate events, Easter is his favourite. ‘I like to make traditional eggs and I don’t know anybody else who makes iced eggs like outlook v ours, which are probably our biggest Easter seller. We also do more contemporary things, like ginger eggs, or chilli and mint. We have lots for children as well, iced eggs and milk-and-white marbled eggs, and try to do a bit of everything. We put chocolate fish and animals inside some of our smaller eggs for children.’ His best seller, though, whatever time of year, is a local speciality product known as New Forest Bark, loved by tourists and locals alike. ‘It’s dark chocolate with toasted almonds,’ he explains. ‘We make it on a large tray and break it as it comes off. The lines running through it make it look like bark. We actually ran out at Christmas.’ He hasn’t yet decided what he will enter in this year’s Great Taste Awards but is considering a dark chocolate and raspberry bar. ‘Awards are always subjective,’ says Trevor. ‘Sometimes I enter something that I think is really good and it doesn’t win anything. But we try to enter new things. If we win, and can put the sticker on the product, it does sell more quickly than others.’ Despite working in his own chocolate heaven, Trevor admits that he doesn’t give in to temptation, and eats only about one chocolate a day. ‘I have to try them, and we also make all our own ganache centres and I have to taste them as well. We specialise in fresh-cream truffles, so we only use fresh cream, chocolate and sugar. The awardwinning Champagne and sherry truffles are both fresh-cream.’ ‘… he’s been asked to make 50 chocolate policemen’ Trevor’s skills are also in demand for bespoke commissions. For his sister’s wedding in August he plans to make individual chocolate ‘flower-pots’ filled with mousse, which will be served to guests instead of wedding cake. And for a July wedding for one of the boys in blue he’s been asked to make 50 chocolate policemen to be placed on the dinner tables as unique wedding favours. ‘Beaulieu Chocolate had many oldfashioned metal moulds, which came to me when I bought the machinery,’ he says. ‘You name it, they had a mould for it. Among them I found a policeman, a little over four-inches tall. ‘The thing is,’ he adds wryly, ‘there’s only one mould, so I’ll have to make the chocolate policemen one at a time. And the old-fashioned metal moulds are actually quite difficult to work with so I’m going to be pretty busy…’ V www.beaulieuchocolatestudio.co.uk 11 <strong>View</strong>
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