I’ve just come back from a very unusual evening out: learning to make chocolate.
A group of us went to My Chocolate in central London, where we were treated to an entertaining talk about the origins and processing of chocolate. We were given samples of chocolate to taste (you can tell this was really hard work) and comment on. A bit like wine-tasting.
We were told which brands of chocolate not to eat because the manufacturers substitute cheap vegetable fats for proper cocoa butter. At this point I started feeling superior because I never did like Mars Bars anyway!
Then the real fun began. The young female chocolatier who was running the evening demonstrated – with help from a couple of volunteers – how to make the mixtures for vanilla cream truffles and dark chocolate caramel fudge. Then we all got down and dirty with the end result, cutting, dipping, decorating (and eating the scraps so they wouldn’t go to waste…) until each of us had a respectable pile of chocolates to take home that we had helped to make.
I’ve rarely seen a dozen adults have such great fun. And pictured above you can see the take-home bundle I came away with. OK, I may not have quite mastered the art of elegant chocolate decoration, but it’s not bad for a first effort. Juliette Binoche eat your heart out!
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