Tag Archives: Dominique Persoone
Passion 2.0 in Paris, at the Salon du Chocolat

Passion 2.0 in Paris, at the Salon du Chocolat

by on November 1, 2008 in Trips

“Il est 5 heures Paris s’éveille, je n’ai pas sommeil”. It was precisely 5 AM in hometown Antwerp too when my alarm went off, timing was early but I was rise and shine even before my ringer went off. The timing and famous song of Jacques Dutronc couldn’t be more symbolic: going to the Salon in Paris was not only about this infamous chocolate fair itself, it was going back to the city that had me discover and experience the amazing world of pure dark chocolate bars, and moreover the art and craftsmanship required with chocolatiers. Heading back to Paris 10 years after this unforgettable moment, it seems my passion is ready to be unfolded and developed on a new level.

So we are back from Paris and here are some first impressions from this trip to a festive fair, so many things we encountered but only so few means to share this olfactory trip with you!

Paris Salon du Chocolat 2008

Together with Alison, an American friend passionate by food, we jumped on the Thalys to arrive at the fair precisely at 10.AM when doors went open. Friendly Noémie from Zaabär got me a complimentary entrance, and this was actually the first time we met in real, after many messages through FaceBook. Early birds, we had all the time and space to start exploring the fair, and decided to first make a helicopter view tour of the Salon, and keep the shopping and business networking in the afternoon.

The fair was more consumer oriented than we’d expected, however this also meant that every participant was doing its utmost best to showcase their chocolate pies and cacao sweets, show off pralines and bars, and this all in attracting stands and seducing environments. Soon we had checked the very chique boot of Michel Cluizel evoking a lot of craftsmanship, the presence of the Compagnia del Cioccolato representing Domori, Maglio and others, Pralus breathing passion, others went for fashion, spotted perfectionist haute couture chocolatiers from Tokyo, and enjoyed watching the Barry Callebaut World Chocolate Masters preparing wonderful sculptures.

In the afternoon we started our “Let’s get serious”-tour and got started shopping not only for ourselves, but also for the “Original Introduction Sampler” that I proposed to friends and fans. More details on that soon!
The numbers of bars and grams raised at record speed now, getting some dozens of bars at many famous and sought-after brands. I noticed correctly that both Domori and Pralus redesigned their packaging, and reworked their offerings. And armed with that and other knowledge, we also took the time to talk a lot about our passion with the people behind those brands, and we were really inspired by many of them. I gathered great stories, a glimp of a real view behind both passion and philosophy of the different ‘cacaofèvier’s’ and chocophiles.

Time swiftly passed by, our bags started groaning and our backs were moaning, but all the enthusiast people we met, the stories they shared, and the passion we all spread, gave us wings. To finish the day I had a short sniff of cacao and mint with Dominique Persoone from The Chocolate Line, which is a weird experience but you should try yourself too. And from Cluizel I got some original cacao beans of each of his plantations.

An exhausting but wonderful, inspiring and above all encouraging day to move on with Choqoa.com.

The Chocolate Secret of Ferran Adrià

The Chocolate Secret of Ferran Adrià

by on October 9, 2008 in Marketing, On Chocolate & Cacao

That was the title on the cover of a magazine. The founder of El Bulli had a chocolate secret? Even for half an interesting page I had to buy that magazine! The article eventually is a nice introduction into the world of the purest fine dark origin cacao, and breathes my observations on the evolution chocolate has gone through during the latest years.

For long the label ‘Belgium’ evoked an atmosphere of best quality chocolate, linked to the craftsmanship of artisan chocolatiers that made ‘pralines‘, chocolate shapes filled with all kinds of flavoured fillings ranging from elaborated nuts, marzipan, pastes to liquor creams. And with a bunch of world class cacao producing brands on our soil too, we sure have a heritage in chocolate that would fill more than one book. Moreover even a lot of our tourism is driven by this chocolate attitude.
However times change, and since long to me Belgium is no longer a country of dark chocolate, but one of ‘just’ sweet chocolates. This small re-interpretation of the word “chocolate” vs. “chocolates” in English implies a whole lot of differences, it are even to very different worlds. Even our most famous “praliniers” like Pierre Marcolini and Dominique Persoone have actually (very) little to do with cacao or chocolate: they all focus on pushing and experimenting with flavours under the thin chocolate umbrella.

Amedei Collection

This article in Gentleman‘s magazine appropriately puts one of the world’s top cacao brands in the spotlight: Amedei, the house of Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri. Brother and sister Tessieri build their brand after their learning period at the french master chocolatier Valrhona. For the record, Valrhona was the first chocolate brand ever to label a bar ‘Grand Cru‘. The marketing term was coined when the company launched the first single origin bar in 1986 (Guanaja 70%, a mixture from South America).
Since Tessieri left Valrhona and to take revenge for their split, they started to work from Tuscany on what became the world’s premium on chocolate, based on the finest single origin selection of Chuao and Porcelana cacaobeans. Since long Chuao is a tiny village located in the northern coastal range of Venezuela, where beans of a very rare quality are harvested. Valhrona used to be the main taker of the Chuao yields, bit through very hard negotiations and a diabolic price war, Amedei kicked Valrhona from Chuao and obtained the monopoly on the most desirable cacao beans in the world. It’s still unclear where brands like Bonnat get their Chuao beans from now for their signature bars.

In this niche of top level chocolate we also find competitors like Michel Cluizel, Domori, ScharffenBerger, Pralus and some more, but what makes them special is the fact that they work with single estate cacao, and control the process “from bean to bar”. They control the quality of each harvest, buy at the source or even run their own plantations. Secondly they do not rely on blends to maintain a stable taste pattern, but work with the yields of a single harvest. This results in a pure uncontaminated taste that allows variations in aromas depending on the harvest, just like in wine vintages. Valrhona effectively has 3 bars that are launched by single estate and by year: the Grand Couva, Palmira and Ampamakia. I’ve been buying them since 2005, and I’m looking forward to buy the 2008 edition on my trip to Paris later this year.

Valrhona. Single Estate 2007 editions of Grand Couva, Ampamakia & Palmira

For connaisseurs, the Amedei is range is estimated to be the best in the world, lauded by the french Maître Chocolatier Pierre Hermé and the bespoken Ferran Adrià, chef of the world famous El Bulli restaurant in Spain. When I checked the Wikipedia entry for Amedei, to my surprise and pleasure the picture that accompanied the article was a photo of me that I actually took for my Afficionado collection! I bite that one :)