Chocolatier Goosens. Behind The Scenes

This weekend we had the 2008 edition of Open Company Day in Flanders. Antwerp’s famous Maître Chocolatier Erik Goossens open his doors too to the public for a free peek behind the scenes in his shop and factory. It was evident that I went for a visit to taste the atmosphere, and with typical Belgian weather, it didn’t take to long to queue.

Erik Goossens is very passionate about making chocolates and also does rather good marketing around it. Next to the famous “Antwerpse Handjes“, a hand shaped praline filled with the typical Antwerp liquor “Elixir d’Anvers”, that inspires ‘hospitality’, he recently also launched a series inspired by the origin of Antwerp typography and printing as a tribute to Plantin & Moretus. Available pralines are shaped as 16th century lead letter for printing pressings. During the visit, you could see all of his pralines come alive from the tempering chocolate wheels, through stuffing and covering machines, getting their finishing touch and disappear in worldwide shipping ballotins, handled with care.

Erik Goossens is also the author of the “Chocolate Codex“, a comprehensive and passionate book I’ll surely buy some time, with a great overview on everything cacao. History, origins & usages, the bean and production process, industry overview and a selection of major brands pass the revue, spiced with some unique recipes. This book or Codex ‘breathes’ chocolate all over, a recommended read that comes with a golden finish.

I was one of the last visitors and while taking some photo’s of the atelier, chocolatier Goossens joked at me if I was taking them for a magazine, and we started chatting. I started talking about my dark cacao passion, to which he at first reacted with caution, probably given the situation that he is mainly working on pralines and sweet chocolate bites. Though since we have a shared good friend, I’ll soon go for a beer with them to continue about pure chocolate bars and origin cacao… In the meantime you can have a look behind the scenes too on my set of Chocolatier Goossens photos on Flickr.