The chocolate weekly 46 – 2014

News

Welcome to the forty-sixth week of this year. We wish you to be happy and successful and that you will make this week as precious as this chocolate.

Here are our weekly news.

World Chocolate Masters

World Chocolate Masters are near and we are delighted to announce the contestants for the UK and Ireland selection of this great competition:

  • Alistair Birt, Head Chocolatier at William Curley
  • Mary Reid, Pastry Lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
  • Norma Kelly, Pastry Lecturer at Dublin Institute of Technology
  • Richie Heppell, Head Chef at RAF Leuchars

We wish them all a lot of success!

Christmas preparations

Christmas lights are on in London and everybody is getting ready for the festive days. Joanne Todd, the head pastry chef of the Brown’s hotel, has invited us to have a look into the preparations of the Christmas pastries. She is working on some really lovely surprises. Bellow is just a little part of the entire picture. We can’t reveal it all … But we love it!

Christmas tea preparations. Photo: Laura Lajh Prijatelj

How can you become a chocolate taster

Have you ever been wondering how could you become a chocolate taster?

Chocolate, Cat Channon says, is surprisingly hard to work with. “It’s very temperamental, because you’re using a blend of fat as well as cocoa. The amount of time you spend conching – mixing all the ingredients together – is crucial, because the more you blend a mixture, the more you release the flavours.”

Read more here.

Dessert bar craze

Londoners love desserts. We all know it. And that’s the reason for the great success of the dessert bars which are blooming in this city. Have a look of some of them  (Pollen Street Social, William Curley, The Pudding Bar, Ruby Violet, Bea’s of Bloomsbury and Ladurée).

A chocolate orange fondant from Pudding Bar

Chocolate workshops

Chocolovers who are interested to learn to make their own chocolates, cupcakes, pastry or macarons can try the chocolate workshops organized by L’Atelier des Chefs which are situated in London at Oxford Circus and at St. Paul’s. L’Atelier has their cooking classes also at 17 locations in Frace and one in Dubai. All classes are guided by highly skilled chefs. You can learn more about L’Atelier des Chefs here.

The finest chocolate truffles
Which are your favourite truffles? Katie Kelly Bell from Forbes has tasted hundreds to create her own favourites list. Curious? Have a look here.


The Dessert of the Week

And our dessert of the week is:

Chocolate marquise, poached kumquats, salted caramelised macadamia nuts and hot chocolate foam from ‎Hakkasan‬. Pastry chef: Daniel Pearse.

“Money can’t buy happiness.
But, it can buy chocolate, which is pretty much the same thing.”

Hanako Ishii