Last year I was lucky enough to sample a range of fantastic chocolate-themed afternoon teas, so when my friend told me about a newly launched afternoon tea at The Chancery Court Hotel I jumped at the chance to try it.

I took food blogger friend Kavey along to sample the extensive menu and see how it compares.

The Chancery Court Hotel is a beautiful setting for afternoon tea. Located a short walk from Holborn station, it’s a hidden gem in central London. Afternoon tea is served in The Lounge, a comfortable and relaxed setting facing the hotel’s central courtyard. It wasn’t busy when we were there, but there was plenty going on around us and our tea was accompanied by live piano music.

After being given the opportunity to examine the range of teas on offer, we made our choices and a tiered tray of sandwiches and scones arrived. With simple fillings and fresh bread, they were tasty, but not really what we were there for. A hint of what was to come came with the scones, which were perfectly baked, beautiful and light. Served with delicious fresh jam and clotted cream, it was difficult to resist having more than one each, but we knew we had to save space for the rather exceptional ‘chocolate’ part of this tea.

You see, as afternoon teas go, this is a little different. The main part – the patisserie – is served as a buffet – an all you can eat buffet, at that. At just £23.50 per head, that would be enough to recommend it itself, but this was some of the best patisserie I’ve ever had.

The buffet, arranged around tables and the top of the piano in the centre of the lounge was simply stunning. With beautiful cakes, brownies, desserts and even a chocolate fountain to choose from, it was difficult to know where to start. Knowing that we would soon be full, we went straight for the best looking patisserie and were rewarded with amazing flavours and attention to detail.

The range of items to choose from is extensive and it would be impossible to cover it all here, but they’re made using Valrhona chocolate and look exquisite. The Black Forest gateau comes wrapped in a thin cylinder of chocolate and is packed with flavour, as is the delicous Opéra. The blood orange and chocolate tart, topped with tiny macarons was another revelation, with a thick layer of jaffa cake-style orange jelly in the base.

The rapsberry chocolate macaron was another fantastic looking creation. With a base made from the top half of a macaron, decorated with whole raspberries and chocolate ganache and topped by the cutest, lightest mini macaron you could imagine.

There were so many highlights that it feels a little wrong to mention the creations that didn’t quite work as well for me. The Sacher torte was slightly dry and didn’t have lot of flavour and the pistachio torte looked great, but the flavours didn’t really come together. But those are tiny criticisms of what was without doubt the nicest afternoon tea I’ve had.

For chocolate lovers looking for a refuge from the Christmas shoppers or just looking for somewhere to take someone special, I can’t recommend this highly enough. Wonderful patisserie, friendly staff, a great atmosphere and exceptional value make this an unmissable chocolate experience.

Chocolate Afternoon Tea at The Lounge, Chancery Court Hotel
www.chancerycourthotel.com
020 7829 7059
Served Wednesdays – Saturdays, 2pm – 6pm
£23.50 Per Person

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A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to two book launches in one night. Valhrona launched ‘Cooking With Chocolate’ with a lavish event at Claridges, and William Curley launched this book at a much more intimate event in his Belgravia shop.

As events go, I preferred the more relaxed atmosphere (and better cakes) of William’s event, but of course the only thing that really matters is the book. And this is one of the most beautiful, stylish and exciting chocolate books I’ve seen.

Not only is the book packed with beautiful photos, but it’s a masterclass in chocolate making and patisserie

Like many chocolate books, Couture Chocolate starts with the basics, explaining the different varieties of cacao and where it grows, before moving on to techniques such as tempering and making ganaches. Everything is illustrated with beautiful photos, many of which show William going through each step so you can actually see how it should be done.

The book goes into an incredible amount of detail when talking about technique. This isn’t just a basic recipe book, it’s a step by step guide to making amazing chocolates and patisserie. But Curley doesn’t just give away techniques, there are recipes for some of his best selling couture chocolates too.

Granted, you’re probably not going to become the next William Curley just by reading this book, but for budding chocolatiers, it’s the best guide I’ve seen.

But it doesn’t stop at chocolates and truffles. The book shows you how to make the most stunning patisseries and drinks, and it’s all explained in plain English and illustrated with beautiful photos. Couture Chocolate might be the book that finally inspires me to have a go at creating my own chocolates after five years of writing about them.

I simply love this book. William Curley not only gives away some of his greatest secrets, but demystifies the process by explaining everything so clearly.

If you’re at all interested in making your own chocolates or patisserie, then I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s an essential addition to every chocolate lover’s library.

Couture Chocolate By William Curley. 224 pages, published Jacqui Small, RRP £30.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to Paris for Salon du Chocolat, the world’s largest chocolate show.

Salon is split into two shows, the ‘Professionnel’ trade-only show and the spectacular ‘Grand Public’ show which runs for four days and features hundreds of exhibitors.

The center of the exhibition floor was occupied by a large stage that hosted regular entertainment events and a fashion show featuring dresses made from chocolate – not all of which survived their journey down the catwalk!

Salon is huge with exhibitors from around the world, although the vast majority were French chocolatiers and chocolate makers. France has many more bean-to-bar chocolate makers, and we managed to chat to quite a few of them, but one thing that was striking was just how similar a lot of the chocolates were.

Most French chocolatiers use Valhrona chocolate for their creations, which combined with a French preference for quality over taking risks with unusual flavour combinations meant that we ended up trying a lot of chocolates that were very similar. One of the things I like best about the UK chocolate scene is the creativity and individuality of the relatively small number of chocolatiers we have.

But the sheer number of chocolatiers and chocolate makers in attendance more than made up for that. It was striking to see the scale of the fine chocolate market in France compared to the UK. We’ve still got a lot of catching up to do when it comes to steering the public toward real chocolate and away from cheap confectionery.

Of course, the French are also big on patisserie, and there were all kinds of stunning creations on display. But once again, there was a certain lack of creativity from the bulk of exhibitors, with most being limited to macarons in different flavours, colours and sizes. I’m not the greatest fan of macarons myself, but the French public clearly still love them.

The stand outs of the show for me were Pralus, who transformed half their stand into a bakery, turning out amazing brioche, Abanico, whose chocolates are as beautifully presented as they are delicious, and Pierre Marcolini, who took us to the VIP lounge for share champagne while we interviewed him. You’ll be able to find that video and many more on the World Chocolate Guide blog soon!

Downstairs, the Professionnel show was much quieter as it wasn’t open to the public. It was probably only really truly interesting if you’re in the market for chocolate making equipment. But it was host to the World Chocolate Masters competition and some truly amazing chocolate sculptures made by the contestants.

Many thanks to Mathilde & David whose hospitality allowed us to stay in Paris for three amazing, chocolate-filled days.

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The most chocolate-filled week of my life has come to a spectacular close. All in all, I attended 11 Chocolate Week events, from simple tastings to a lavish Valrhona book launch at Claridges. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a more enjoyable (or more exhausting) week!

The icing on the chocolate cake was Chocolate Unwrapped at a packed Vinopolis in London. The event was so popular in fact that at one point on Saturday we saw people being turned away or asked to wait because there were simply too many hungry chocolate lovers inside. Many of the exhibitors we spoke reported brisk sales with some so popular that they were running out of stock halfway through the first day!

The thing that I love most about this event is the mix of old friends and new faces. We had the chance to catch up with many of our chocolate industry friends as well as get updates on some of the smaller bean-to-bar chocolate makers, and try some extraordinarily good chocolate.

We tried new chocolate from Duffy Sheardown, Rasmus Bojesen, Original Beans, Benoit Nihant, Idilio Origins and many, many more.

One of the more interesting exhibitors for me was actually Lindt. Many fine chocolate lovers might be surprised or even shocked at that, but the very fact that the most mainstream of European chocolate producers was in attendance was an acknowledgement of just how exciting the London chocolate scene is.

When we started Chocablog, we knew nothing about fine chocolate and Lindt was a stepping stone towards the higher end chocolate we prefer today. Although we don’t write about Lindt as much as we used to, there’s no denying they will have been a draw for many of the thousands of average chocolate consumers in attendance, which in turn helps to increase exposure for the smaller, chocolatiers and chocolate makers at the show.

All in all, I think there as a perfect mix of exhibitors large and small, and everyone seemed to have a fantastic time. I can’t wait for next year’s event!

Here’s part one of a series of video reports we made for our sister site World Chocolate Guide. To see the rest, and our coverage of this week’s Salon du Chocolat in Paris, head on over to the World Chocolate Guide blog and subscribe!

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Paul and Peter had collaborated to bring a small group of chocolate lovers a unique menu incorporating chocolate and fine dining, complete with a selection of wines from New Zealand (where else?) to compliment each course.

The evening kicked off with a cacao bean aperitif – a Cacao Nib Sipsmith Vodka Sour, which basically did exactly as you might expect. Sharp, ice cold vodka sour with a lovely cacao undercurrent and a wonderfully sour aftertaste, toped with a couple of sour cherries.

The rest of the menu read like this:

Mast Brothers Chuao 70%
Grilled aubergine, tamarind caramel, grapefruit, green mango, coriander.
Served with a 2008 Seresin Estate Reserve Chardonnay, Marlborough.

Every element clearly defined on the palate, and the grapefruit a surprising yet essential addition in the overall flavour complex. The tamarind caramel was another surprise sweet treat, again, splendidly offset by the green mango and that all-important grapefruit. The wine was a revelation to me, but this is a chocolate blog, so suffice to say it was a big chunk of buttery oakiness. The 70% Mast Brothers Chuao sauce was light enough on the palate but packing enough of a dark chocolate punch to blend in with the mixture of earthy aubergine and vibrant fruit accompaniments.

Michel Cluizel 50% mangaro milk chocolate.
Smoked Eel, sautéed Salsify, toasted Sourdough crumbs, Date chipotle Cilli Purée
2007 Richardson Pinot Noir, Cromwell Basin, Central Otago

Much anticipated and calling out from the plate the second it arrived at the table, this was a real “you thought the last course was good?” moments. The smoked eel was pungent, whisper light in the mouth and combined with the date and chipotle chilli purée (where do I learn how to make that?) the salsify and sourdough it was a truly amazing first mouthful. The light milk chocolate sauce lent a sweetness to the smokiness of the eel which in turn brought out new depths in that fruit and chilli purée. The wine was a surprise choice – until the first sip. An amazing Pinot Noir which added a burst of fruit and some good tanins to cleanse the palate.

Duffy Panama 72% Tierra Iscura, from Bocca Del Toro Island
Master-stock roasted duck, prune sauce, wild mushrooms, porcini powder, broad beans
2006 Kawau Bay Merlot/Cabernet Frans/Malbec, Matakana

Beautiful pink Gressingham duck (the only duck you should ever buy) with a fruity prune sauce, mingling with earthy wild mushroom, enhanced with Porcini powder and sitting next to some vibrant broad beans. A more full bodied wine, and a more full bodied chocolate sauce in the mix. The eel dish was always going to be a hard one to follow, and while you couldn’t fault this as a dish in its own right, I could still remember the eel, and would happily have swapped my duck for another eel.

Valrhona Venezuelan 64% (Paul A. Young exclusive)
Crispy Pork Belly, crusted Ox tongue, Butternut Coconut curry, Pine Nuts
2009 Dog Point Chardonnay Wairau Valley Marlborough

The ox tongue was surprisingly light in the mouth and delivered lovely iron richness, while the pork and curry added further dimensions. Almost a meal of two halves, I found the tongue and chocolate paired extremely well, while the Pork and the curry seemed to be made for each other. Another surprise wine choice – more oaky buttery loveliness. It’s official – I like Chardonnay again.

Åkesson’s 755 Brazil Fazenda Monte Alegre
Braised beef cheek, roast caramelised quince, smoked chickpea panizza
2008 Man O’War Dreadnought Syrah, Waiheke Island, Auckland

For me this course was back up there with the eel dish. The beef cheek was melt in the mouth, packing a ton of rich, deep, meaty flavours. The quince and chocolate took some of the iron out of the meat, with the smoked panizza throwing in a new kick to the final taste. It was a big, smokey, rich mouthful, nd the wine really speaks for itself. A big, fat fruity mouthful with tannins to go with the meat. The choice of Åkesson’s chocolate was again inspired (read the review here). Superb.

Dessert Using Orinal Beans Cru Virunga
Tart of malted Virunga chocolate and sea salted caramel, buffalo milk ice cream, sesame praline
Novat 10 Year Old Tawny Port

I managed to come home without a decent picture of dessert. Blame it on five amazing courses and numerous glasses of wine. Needless to say, the ice cream was much lighter than I expected, and the sea salted caramel and Virunga chocolate were just the right blend of sweet and savoury. The praline packed a good sesame punch, rounding things off nicely with the coffee.

The meal wasn’t just about the food though. Both chefs stood up and introduced each course, giving a short talk about how the dish came about, with Peter filling in on the wines. They were both table-hopping between courses as well, so I had a chance to talk to both Paul and Peter during the course of the evening.

The overall impression was that both men had thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating this very special dinner, and that there had been relatively little in the way of stress or problems. My dinner companion and fellow diners were unanimous in their praise of the dishes, and the intimate surroundings of the upstairs room at Providores was perfect for the introductions and for questions to be heard and answered clearly.

Looking at the menu, there’s a lot of fruit and meat combinations going on there – it’s almost medieval in that respect, but the addition of chocolate to each course (plus the design of each dish) added a further dimension. I thoroughly enjoyed every course (although of course there were a couple of personal favourites) and the wines that went with them.

A unique dining experience, and one I am glad to have shared.

It’s been a big week for William Curley. Last week saw the launch of his new book (review coming soon), and last night I attended the launch of his new pop-up shop, the “William Curley Chocolate Box” in the West End of London.

Located in St Martin’s Lane, and part of the neigbouring hotel, the shop is a mini version of their Belgravia store. The space is usually available to pop-ups for just a month at a time, but William Curley has managed to secure it for three months, meaning it will be open right up until Christmas.

Having the shop for a whole three months is an excellent opportunity to test the waters with a more central location, and one I really hope will eventually lead to a more permanent presence in town. The success of Paul A. Young’s new Soho shop is evidence that the demand for quality chocolate and patisserie in central London is there. Well worth a visit.

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Last week I was lucky enough to be invited (thanks Judith!) to a preview of a rather interesting Chocolate Week promotion; a chocolate themed dim sum platter at the rather beautiful Grand Imperial restaurant at The Grosvenor hotel, right next door to London’s Victoria Station.

The street outside may be filled with commuters, but inside, the restaurant is an oasis of calm. The decor is beautiful and elegant, and the atmosphere is relaxed.

We started our meal with some of the standard (non-chocolate!) dim sum menu, all of which was delicious. But of course we were really there to try the special chocolate dim sum platter, made with Divine Chocolate.

The platter (£6) consists of a ‘canton cracker’, ‘pumpkin bundle’, ‘cashew crescent’ and ‘coconut doughnut’. Each of which is filled with a warm chocolate filling. I didn’t know quite what to expect, but thoroughly enjoyed the textures and flavours of the whole platter, but I think the cocounut doughnut would have to be my favourite.

We finished our meal with two more amazing desserts (including an absolutely stunning Green Tea Brulée – see the photo gallery below!) and a first for me – deep fried ice cream with warm Divine chocolate sauce (£8).

Also on the menu for Chocolate Week are the Divine Chocolate Spring Roll (£5 for 3) and the Divine Chocolate Fruit Platter (£8), although we didn’t get to try these this time. Maybe we’ll have to go back during Chocolate Week.

All in all, a highly recommended and unusual chocolate experience!

The Grand Imperial, 101 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0SJ
Tel: 020 7821 8898
Email: reservations@grandimperiallondon.com

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With the hot and sunny weather we’re currently having in the UK, it’s easy to forget that it’s almost October, and for chocolate lovers that means just one thing: Chocolate Week is just around the corner!

From October 10th – 16th, there’ll be a huge variety of events happening up and down the country, so we thought we’d give you a quick preview of a few of them. You can search for events near you using the Chocolate Week Event Calendar.

The Cocoa Time Bomb

For those who are serious about chocolate and sustainability, SeventyPercent.com are holding a discussion about some of the threats and challenges facing cocoa production. The event takes place at Waterstones, Piccadilly and entry is free but you need to book in advance. Details here.

Rococo

Rococo Chocolates are organising a range of events including a chocolate dinner at Hardy’s Brasserie, a recipe competition and several themed tasting sessions. You can find out more about there plans on their website.

Fortnum & Mason

Fortnums & Mason are celebrating Chocolate Week with tasting events, demonstrations and talks from Monday to Friday. Full details of all the events are available on their website.

Chocolate Walking Tours

Chocolate Ecstasy tours have two special walking tours of Belgravia’s chocolate shops including chocolate high tea! Full details here.

Tastings & Demonstrations

There are chocolate tastings and demonstrations happening up and down the country all week, so if you’re in the UK, there really is no excuse not to try some great new chocolate. There are far too many events listed here, but you can find one near you by clicking here.

Chocolate Unwrapped

The highlight of the week is once again Chocolate Unwrapped at Vinopolis in Borough, the heart of London’s foodie district. The chocolate show takes place of the weekend of the 15th & 16th and brings together chocolate makers from all over the world. There are demonstrations from some of the top names in chocolate (including William Curley, Paul A. Young, Chantal Coady) and over 40 companies exhibiting their products.

Tickets for Chocolate Unwrapped are £8 in advance (buy online here) or £10 on the door.

Great Chocolate Cake-Off

If you’re a home baker, why not enter the Great Chocolate Cake-Off! This chocolate cake baking competition is open to everyone, with entries being judged at Chocolate Unwrapped on Sunday 16th October. I’ll be helping out with the judging, so I’m looking forward to sampling some really chocolatey recipes!

As well as the chance to win some great prizes, all Cake-Off entrants get free entry to Chocolate Unwrapped. But the competition is limited to just 30 entries, so act fast! Full details here.

There’s loads more going on all week, so do check out the web site. And let us know if you’re doing anything special for Chocolate Week yourself!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ZRlFygB7M

I’m excited! There’s a new chocolate maker in town. Well, in Australia. And this time, it looks like the real deal.

So what am I excited about? I’d better explain.

First: some terminology. Cocoa is used to make chocolate, but it comes from the Cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). I’ve seen an explanation for the difference in spelling being attributed to variously, non-standardised spellings until the publication of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, or to just plain spelling or clerical error somewhere between about 1650 and now. Whatever the cause, it seems fair to assume that the explanations are probably apocryphal. Here, I use Cacao to mean the tree, and Cocoa to refer to anything produced from the tree – this seems a fairly common usage.

Cacao trees grow in a tropical, hot, humid environment – hence coming from places like Central South America, Africa, and so on. The rough rule of thumb is “within 20 degrees of the Equator”. And that puts northern Australia into the regions that could grow Cacao. In particular, parts of northern Western Australian, Northern Territory and far north Queensland, provided the soil, rainfall and so on were suitable.

The various Australian State Government departments of agriculture have conducted a range of studies into Australian Cacao, in some cases going back to the 1960’s. In the late 1990’s the possibility of growing Australian Cacao became a lot more serious, when Cadbury Schweppes Australia and the various northern government departments of agriculture formed a steering committee to examine the feasibility of an Australian Cocoa industry.

The committee was not just limited to doing academic studies. Feasibility was examined by study tours of Cacao growing in other countries, as well finding trial sites, obtaining plants, doing trial plantings, examining yields, production methods, flavours, farm economics – you name it, it was considered. The project ran for around 8 years, and the various government departments have released one of the most comprehensive reports ever written (4Mb PDF link) about Cacao growing. Reading the report, I’ve learned a great deal – one of the most interesting topics being fermentation. I’ll leave that for interested readers to dig into more. Suffice it to day, the methods might come as a bit of a surprise.

Some of the trial sites mentioned in the report are no longer growing cacao, while others were destroyed in a cyclone. But some are still going – and in spite of various commercial intrigues there is a small industry just getting started at Mossman, far north Queensland. Whilst Cadbury Schweppes Australia may have had an initial involvement, this is no longer the case.

Based on the promising results from the trials mentioned in the report, several sugar cane growers started Cacao plantations in 2007, and in 2010 joined forces with a consortium of chocolatophiles to form Daintree Cocoa.

At less than 10,000 trees in total, the estates now established are very small by world standards. The growers are taking a gamble – especially knowing that so much of the processing must be by hand, and labour costs in Australia are high. The company has decided on a vertically integrated business; doing everything through growing, picking, pod splitting, fermenting the beans, drying, conching and chocolate making.

Some of this may sound familiar. We’ve heard before about an Australian chocolate company that was making grand claims about sourcing raw material in Australia, which later turned out not to be the case. We at Chocablog were caught in the crossfire of this little fight. To avoid being caught up in similar dubious claims, we’ve done quite a lot of fact checking. This time we seem to have the real deal.

This ambitious project has just taken its first few steps – they have actually made chocolate, with 100% Australian grown Cacao and sugar from the Mossman Central sugar mill. Currently, the beans are processed to the nibs stage in Queensland, then sent to Melbourne for making into chocolate. This arrangement will soon change, with chocolate making equipment on its way to Mossman, where the whole process from tree to blocks of chocolate will be performed locally.

The first commercial batch has just been made, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have received a sample. A proper product launch is expected in October/November 2011 – so we’re fortunate in having a sneak preview.

Commercial chocolate is just like commercial winemaking – great care and attention is paid to sourcing, processing, and blending to get a consistent flavour from batch to batch and year to year. The big makers have their house flavour, and if they deviate too much customers may be surprised or disappointed and might stop purchasing the product. If, like me, you are fortunate enough to live in a region where lots of grapes are grown and wine is made, then an interesting weekend can be spent touring a wine region and tasting the products of the smaller winemakers. Why the smaller? Because with the large makers you know what you will get, and you can pick it up in your bottle shop or supermarket any time. The smaller makers have variety, curiosity, interest, and a high likelihood that nothing from one year to the next will be the same. The vagaries of nature mean you can always find something interesting which will be hard to find anywhere else. And different is good!

So this is the plan for Queensland / Mossman chocolate – single estate origin chocolate will vary between the growing sites, and will vary from year to year. If you want consistency, go to the supermarket. Single estate origin will be interesting, curious, and challenging – so we have an interesting time coming. If the growers can pull this off then there will be chocolate tourists heading to Queensland the way that wine enthusiasts visit the Barossa Valley. Even if it all ends up blended, Australian chocolate will be different to what you will get from other countries. And we can be sure that while the industry is small, there will be variation from year to year.

After all this explanation and build-up – what’s it like?

Firstly – my samples arrived in a post bag, and opening it gives a very pleasant, slightly earthy aroma. Clearly, the bag has chocolate in, but the aroma is has an unusual richness and complexity. It’s hard to describe but imagine a mix vaguely like dark cherries, stewed apricots and brown sugar and you might be getting close.

There are two chocolates: a milk, and a dark.

The milk is 45% cocoa solids and has quite a rich and creamy aroma. Creamy is surprising, and not something I think you can normally smell – but that’s the only way to describe this. The flavour comes in layers, starting very mild and building in complexity – there’s quite a hit of caramel, and it is hard to know if this comes from the cocoa content or the sugar. Because I’m a dark side dweller I’m a harsh critic of milk chocolate, but this I like. It’s a little unusual and I’d happily eat quite a lot of it.

The dark has a closed aroma – you have to work to sniff anything out of it. Nor does it have the same caramel flavour as the milk. This is mild, subtle, sweet, and very very smooth. If I did not know better, I would never have picked this as a 70%, it is however absolutely delicious and by the time a single little sample square is gone I’m ready to open another. Sometimes comparisons help: a Lindt 70% is stronger and more intense in flavour; the readily available Green & Blacks 70% by comparison is huge, big, sharp, and almost prickly. Imagine being caressed by silk handkerchief on a cool spring day.. and compare that hitting your thumb with a hammer. That’s the kind of difference.

This is a very easy eating chocolate and I could scoff it down all day.

Update: You can read Dom’s review of Daintree Estates Australian Chocolate over on the World Chocolate Guide Chocolate Blog.

Jean-Pierre Wybauw is a Belgian chocolatier, chef and teacher with well over 30 years experience in the industry. He has written several books, and publishers ACC Publishing were kind enough to send me a copy of the latest, imaginatively titled “Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate”.

This is a fairly small book, measuring just 17cm by 13cm with 192 pages with nearly half of them being full page photos. That means you could easily get through the whole book in half a day, and still have plenty of time to make some of the 40 illustrated recipes inside.

But although the bulk of the book is taken up with recipes, it also contains chapters detailing the various types of chocolate, its production, nutritional values and current trends. The book may be small, but there’s a lot of useful information crammed into it.

The recipes are particularly interesting to me, as they concentrate on the kinds of topics that would be of interest to aspiring chocolatiers than the average chocolate recipe book. There are simple recipes for all kinds of ganaches, patisseries and desserts, and although they don’t go into a great deal of detail, they are bound to inspire. I can certainly see myself referring back to it for ideas in the near future.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate is available from 28th September, published by ACC Editions. RRP £12.50.