Chocolate Unwrapped at The Real Food Festival
Thursday 6th May
Chocolate Unwrapped our dedicated chocolate show is at The Real Food Festival this weekend, 7th-9th May. We’ve brought some of the best UK chocolatiers, along with new international chocolate companies together in one indulgent chocolate-filled area. Visitors to the show will be able to attend demo’s and chocolate tastings from the glitterati of the chocolate world, taste new chocolates and meet their favourite chocolatiers. We’ve got a packed calender of demonstrations at the festival, including from William Curley, Gerard Coleman from Artisan du Chocolat, Paul a Young, Sara Jayne Stanes and Keith Hurdman, head chocolatier at Thorntons.
Other highlights include:
• Artisan British chocolate producer Duffy Sheardown launches his chocolate at the show. Duffy joins Willie Harcourt-Cooze as one of only two chocolate producers in the UK - try his wonderful chocolate for the very first time.
• Paul Wayne Gregory launches his sea salted caramel lollipops at the show. They’ve already won acclaim from The Observer’s Jay Rayner, come and try them for yourself.
• Available only at The Real Food Festival - Original Beans and Sun Trigg of Lauden Chocolates, the UK’s leading female chocolatier, have collaborated to develop the first series of truffles using Original Bean’s Piura 75% couverture made from an exceptional white criollo bean discovered in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes. Since 2008, Original Beans has brought this cocoa variety back from the brink of extinction.
The Real Food Festival have generously offered our chocolate week newsletter subscribers a discounted advance ticket offer: £7.50 for standard tickets (normal price £9.50) or £13 for VIP tickets. Visit the Real Food Festival website, , click on the ‘Buy Tickets’ button and enter the code CHOCUN to book your discounted tickets.
The Real Food Festival is much, much more than a just a food event, or farmer’s market - it’s packed with activities for the whole family and provides a unique platform for hundreds of smaller producers. The chocolate companies exhibiting are Artisan du Chocolat, William Curley, Paul Wayne Gregory, Thorntons, Ooh La La, Co Couture, Lauden, Original Beans, Auberge du Chocolat, Askinosie, The Chocolate Boutique Hotel, Duffy Sheardown and Chocoholly.
Other highlights of the festival include the world-renowned chef Raymond Blanc at the chef theatre, cookery workshops and some very friendly livestock – including Petal, the water buffalo from Laverstoke Park. With over 400 fantastic producers to choose from, come along and sample everything from handmade farmstead cheeses to slow reared British meats, beautiful breads, sustainable locally sourced seafood, the freshest fruit and vegetables and much, more.
Artisan du Chocolat open three new Selfridges concessions
Saturday 24th April
Good news for chocolate fans in Birmingham and Manchester. Artisan du Chocolat have recently opened two new stores in Selfridges, Exchange Square, Manchester and Selfridges Birmingham with Artisan at Selfridges Trafford Centre to follow in June. The three new Artisan du chocolat shops follow Artisan’s design aesthetic whilst also reflecting its location. Gerard and his team now conche and refine cacao beans from South America, Caribbean and the Far East to create a great selection of chocolate bars: from the newly launched limited edition Orchid and Orange Blossom bar to single origin bars and sugar free or even dairy free almond ‘milk’ chocolate. Artisan couture chocolates often feature flavours from familiar (Vanilla, Cinnamon, Ginger) to the exotic (Tonka, Sechuan Pepper, Lumi – Persian sun dried lime) and unexpected, such as the tobacco ganache, first created for Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck. Cups of hot chocolate, again featuring different single origins drinking chocolate and flavours such as Mole Chilli, will be sold to take away, alongside cold and refreshing Cocoa Pulp Juice (made from the fruit pulp that surrounds the cocoa beans), perfect for summer months.
www.artisanduchocolat.com
Artisan du chocolat, Tel. 0845 270 6996
Selfridges, 1 Exchange Square, Central Manchester M3 1BD
Selrfridges, The Bullring, Upper Mall East, Birmingham B5 4BP
Selfridges, The Trafford Centre, Manchester M17 8DA
BBC chocolate programme, The Bitter Truth
Thursday 8th April
We’re a little bit late with this one but if you watched Panorama: Chocolate, the Bitter Truth a couple of weeks ago on BBC1 then you’ll know that it had quite an impact. We thought it was, on the whole, a great programme for raising awareness and promoting the fact that consumers need to have take more responsibility for the food that they’re consuming and for it’s source. Reporter Paul Kenyon travelled to West Africa to investigate child labour in cocoa plantations and uncovered some unpleasant truths.
One of our favourite chocolatiers, Marc Demarquette was very involved in the programme, advising and educating presenter Paul Kenyon about fine quality chocolate and advocating ethical sourcing. Read his description of the programme here at the Demarquette website. There are also a few interesting articles on the subject at Trading Visions
One of the main issues is that chocolate doesn’t generally have a transparent supply chain and for large companies it’s difficult for them to regulate every stage of the process. We encourage consumers to find out a little more about the chocolate they’re buying and where the beans are from. Child labour is generally a problem in West Africa, not in other cocoa producing countries. If you’re buying from a mass market producer then please try to buy fairtrade chocolate. If you’re buying from an artisan chocolatier such as Marc Demarquette then he will be purchasing his chocolate from a quality chocolate maker who has bought top quality beans at a price well above market rate and has relationships with the plantations they buy from so you can be secure that there is no exploitation involved.
Unfortunately, the show is no longer on iplayer but I’m sure the BBC will be showing it again on BBC3. If you missed it there’s an overview here: BBC
New chocolate producer in the UK
Saturday 20th March
We recently went to see Duffy Sheardown, a new chocolate producer based in the seaside town of Cleethorpes. He has a fairly basic set up from which he’s producing some really great chocolate. There’s a full write up of our trip on: seventypercent.com Duffy will be joining the Chocolate Unwrapped area at The Real Food Festival, more details here so you’ll have the opportunity to taste his chocolate before anyone else.
Pierre Hermé arrives in London
Thursday 28th January
Exciting news! The World famous patissier and chocolatier Pierre Hermé is to open up in London. It’s wonderful for London’s chocolate lovers and foodies as Hermé is extremely highly regarded, probably most known for his wonderful macarons. A collection of his macarons and chocolates will be available in Selfridges from 5th February with plans to open a boutique later on this year. We’ve heard a few rumours about where the shop is going to be with SW1 being the most persistent. Pierre Hermé will be a wonderful addition to the London chocolate scene and it’s a testament to our growing sophisticated tastes that one of France’s finest chocolatiers has chosen to open here. Hermé says of the step across the channel – “It has always been a dream of mine to open in London, many of our devotees in Paris are from the UK. I am looking forward to finally work in such an exciting city for cuisine and gastronomy. The energy of London is recognized throughout the world, I am simply delighted to be here at last.”
It certainly sounds as though Hermé has the right strategy in launching into the UK. We were very sorry to hear that Mary Chocolatier had recently closed their outlet but have to question whether opening a kiosk in Westfield was the right move for a respected chocolate company.
We’re very much looking forward to Hermé being in London and Selfridges is becoming a must visit chocolate destination with Artisan du Chocolat’s boutique and Melt having a good presence there.
