Chocolate feature.pdf - Jenny Linford

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This
month we're
celebrating the
British
chocolate
revolution!
GBF’S GUIDETO…
Expert Advice
Recipe Inspiration
Britain's Best Chocolatiers
Meet the makers
New ways of cooking
with chocolate
Discover the tastiest
bars, truffles & boxes
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These are exciting times for chocolate lovers in Britain, with talented, home-grown
chocolatiers springing up around the country. Jenny Linford finds out more
here’s been an
unquantifiable
revolution in
the British
chocolate
scene in the last ten to 15 years,” says
chocolate expert Sara Jayne Stanes of
the influential Academy of Chocolate,
founded to promote the knowledge and
appreciation of fine chocolate. “There’s
a huge thirst for knowledge now, not
just among chocolate people but among
consumers. I liken it to the wine scene.
20 years ago people just used to say
white, red or rosé, but now they’re
interested in the grape varieties and
where it came from. A similar thing is
happening in chocolate, with people
interested in knowing the country of
origin for the cocoa and which variety
it is.”
Founded in 1983, Chantal Coady’s
chocolate company Rococo was an early
pioneer of quality chocolate in Britain.
“In terms of chocolate it was the dark
ages then,” laughs Chantal. ‘’Dark
chocolate meant ‘bitter’ chocolate which
meant Bournville.” Rococo introduced
flavoured bars – in intriguing flavours
such as chilli or basil and Persian lime –
long before their current fashionability.
“Our Rococo style is classic yet
innovative,” she says, “so, for example,
orange with geranium is our little twist
on classic orange. I think as a nation we
like to experiment with things and tweak
them; we’re a bit irreverent as well. We
like to have our taste buds challenged.”
With Chantal having studied textile
design, inviting visual presentation as
well as quality chocolate has always part
of Rococo’s appeal. “Coming into my first
shop on the Kings Road was a theatrical
experience; you’d be embraced by the
physical environment as well as
welcomed by charming staff. We had
sugar chandeliers and painted ceilings. It
was quite wacky!” In addition to three
elegant shops in London, last year saw
Rococo opening in Chester at the
Grosvenor Hotel. “It’s going really well,”
she says happily, “the customers see that
we’re selling fresh chocolates and
they’re happy to spend a few pounds
buying a real treat for themselves.”
Creative Confections
Having opened his first, eponymous
chocolate shop in Islington, London
seven years ago, award-winning
chocolatier Paul A Young now has three
shops in London and is noted for his
artisan approach to making chocolate.
“We do everything by hand,” declares
Paul emphatically, “that’s our ethos.
When we say hand-made we mean it. It
means we can employ people, not
machines.”
Working with chocolate is a technical
business and one of the key skills is an
intricate process called tempering.
“Tempering introduces hardening
crystals into the chocolate, so it makes
chocolate shiny, crisp, so it shrinks away
from the mould, gives the lovely smooth
texture and feel. We do all our
tempering by hand on marble and
granite slabs. We don’t have tempering
machines.”
For Paul, this hands-on, human
relationship with chocolate is central to
what he does. “When you use a
machine, you know what it does. I’m
relying on myself, on my team; it’s not
guaranteed to work all the time; there
are some days when you can’t get the
tempering right. But if people come into
my shop and see beautiful chocolates,
that means we’re getting it right.”
Ever since Paul, challenged by a
friend, created his iconic Marmite truffle
(still one of his bestsellers seven years
later), he’s been known for his
inventiveness and creativity. In addition
to core favourites, he is constantly
bringing out new, seasonally-inspired
flavoured truffles, from port and Stilton
to goat’s cheese and lemon. “That’s what
brings my customers back; we can’t stop
innovating. I can’t describe the process
of creating flavours,” he muses. “The
process is quite organic and fluid,
though sometimes you spend weeks and
weeks developing it, playing around. For
me, it’s just about being brave.
Sometimes the simplest things are best.
When people are still buying flavours
like my salted caramel or my raspberry
which they have done for years, that’s
when you realise you’re doing it right.”
Golden Ticket
In 2002, inspired by a love of fine
chocolate, Claire Burnet and her
husband Andy took the plunge and left
their “well-paid, corporate jobs” to set
up Chococo, their Dorset-based
chocolate company. “It was one of those
mad ideas that got into my head and
which I couldn’t get out,” laughs Claire.
“It’s been hard work but immensely
rewarding. We are very much anchored
in Dorset, we were the first chocolate
makers to really focus on using fresh
and local ingredients, so our cream still
comes from the dairy farmer we bought
it from ten years ago. Our fresh
chocolates really are fresh; they have a
shelf-life of two weeks. People do make
chocolates that will sit on your coffee
table for months because they use
glucose syrup and lots of alcohol; we
don’t do that. We employ local young
people and, being by the sea, we’re one
of the busiest employers in the offseason,
as winter is our busiest time.”
For Claire, spreading the word about
good chocolate is part of her work.
“Unfortunately in this country we’ve
been eating chocolate that’s had a lot of
sugar added and also, sometimes, had
vegetable fat substituted for cocoa
butter. It’s getting folks to differentiate
that chocolate confectionery product
from premium, proper chocolate and
getting people to appreciate that dark
chocolate is full of flavour, you get citrus
fruit notes, red fruit notes.”
Accessibility is very much part of
Chococo’s approach. “We try to have fun
with our chocolate. We take the quality
of the chocolate very seriously but we
present it in a way which is ‘exclusively
for everyone’, to quote an old M&S
catchphrase. People love to give
chocolate to their children, so give them
great quality milk chocolate that’s high
in cocoa solids, low in sugar, without
vegetable fat and which tastes of
chocolate not of sugar. Ideally, give them
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dark chocolate; educate their palates.”
Chocolatier Karl Berrie of Cocoa Red
is on a personal mission to bring fine
chocolates to the Isle of Man, where he
lives and works. “It’s a beautiful place.
Everyone knows each other and it’s so
friendly. It’s starting to develop a bit of
a good food scene. The price point for
quality chocolate is an issue. When we
win awards, our customers think we
must be doing something right!” Using
local suppliers is also very much part
of their ethos. “We use Manx cream
from Isle of Man Creameries and Cooil’s
Dairy. We have a really good
relationship with them. If I run out of
cream at 1am in the morning, I can go
to the dairy and help myself. As an
island-based community, there’s a lot
of trust.”
Cloud Cocoaland
Many of Britain’s leading chocolatiers,
such as William Curley, trained first as
pastry chefs and learnt about working
with chocolate in this way. Based in
Tunbridge Wells, Kent, creative
chocolatier Damian Allsop had a
glittering career as a pastry chef,
working in Michelin-starred restaurants
including The Aubergine, with Gordon
Ramsay, and Locanda Locatelli, with
Giorgio Locatelli. Damian is known as a
pioneer of water-based ganache, as
opposed to the traditional cream-based
ganache. It was his discovery of how to
make a successful water ganache which
prompted his move to become a
chocolatier. “When I worked out the
water ganache, I knew I had something
different. When you taste one of my
water ganache it’s a purer flavour, you
don’t miss the cream. People think by
taking away the cream you’re taking
away the luxury, but there’s richness in
the chocolate. People say my chocolates
are ‘refreshing’, which is an unusual
adjective to use about dark chocolate.”
This inventiveness is very much part
of Damian’s approach to his work. “I’ve
always wanted to do something
different, I hate copying other people or
doing the same thing all the time.
Chocolate as a medium is so complex,
there are lots of different ways to use it.
It’s exciting at the moment because
there’s lots of new chocolate being
made. Different people are getting
access to cocoa beans. There are small,
artisan producers who are producing
amazing chocolate for chocolatiers to
work with and that’s inspiring. I want to
respect the flavours that chocolate has.”
Among Damian’s recent creations are
a series of Eat London bars – inspired
by London’s multi-cultural communities
with flavours such as chocolate with soy
sauce peanuts and ginger for his
Chinatown bar or mango and basmati
rice crisps for Brick Lane “I wanted to
express Britishness - it’s very accessible
and fun. All the flavours are honest. I
make the elements – like the rice crisps
– myself.”
With the Academy of Chocolate
expecting more entries than ever for its
prestigious Awards this year, Sara Jayne
Stanes feels that we’re only at the
beginning of Britain’s chocolate
revolution. “I think things will continue
to grow; we’re not there yet. There will
be more talented chocolatiers, more
people making bean to bar chocolate –
watch this space!” Damian Allsop is also
looking to the future. “We need to
promote British chocolatiers. We’re now
seeing British chocolatiers among the
top in the world, whereas 10 years ago,
none of us were there. It’s exciting.”
British
Chocolates
2o years ago people just used to say white, red or rosé, but now they’re interested in the grape
varieties and where it came from. A similar thing is happening in chocolate!
79