Food and Drink

Haute Chocolate

Above: Rococo class

It was like finding the golden ticket. Ever since I was 12, and experienced the magic of Roald Dahl, I’ve wanted to see how chocolate was made. I would never have dreamt that one day not only would I visit a chocolate factory, but actually create chocolates myself. Having signed up for the new chocolate making course with south London based Rococo, I was well on my way to living a childhood dream.

As I stepped on the 68 bus, I could barely contain my preposterously childish excitement about the prospect of being surrounded by rivers of luscious chocolate, Willy Wonka-style. Nestled in a south London trading estate is the Rococo headquarters – more of an industrial kitchen with storage space than an Oompa Loompa playground. The course was ‘making chocolate behave’ and I was here with nine other fortunate ‘students’.

Helen Waller travelled from Oxford to attend the course. "My aspiration is to have my own chocolate shop, and this is a perfect place to start," says Helen. "I did some work experience at Rococo’s shop on the King’s Road and I had the time of my life."

Our host, Rococo founder Chantal Coady, has the type of easygoing charm that emanates from people who love what they do. She majestically holds up a portion of chocolate the size of a laptop. "Once we melt this we’ll have to temper it. Tempering gives the chocolate the correct gloss and texture and helps the chocolate shrink away from a mould." But surely we’re all here to get as close as we can to chocolate and eat as much as possible during the next six hours? It turns out however that unlike me, my fellow students are not here only for the love of chocolate, they are here to learn.

Chantal and her assistants demonstrate how tempering is achieved by swirling melted chocolate around on a slab of marble. The chocolate is folded over itself by using a palette knife and scraper. This is much trickier than it appears, as I discover when chocolate-maker Julie thrusts the tools into my hands. Sensing my lack of natural skill, Julie reassures the group that chocolate can be re-melted repeatedly if your initial tempering attempt fails.

Once we all got the hang of tempering a world of chocolate making opened to us. We painted plastic moulds with white and milk chocolate, then greedily filled them up with dark chocolate to create the main part of the shape.

Next, a slideshow of Chantal’s recent trip to an organic cocoa producer in Grenada was fascinating, tracking the process from cocoa tree to chocolate bar. But it was when the trays of over a dozen types of chocolate came out that I was in my element. Like in wine tasting, we were encouraged to explore the differences between the grades, notes and varieties.

According to Chantal, a high cocoa percentage does not necessarily make for good chocolate. "I have tasted many bars of chocolate with a high cocoa content that have been quite filthy, with all sorts of bad ‘notes’."

Bean pedigree, processing excellence and quality of additives are apparently what count. Finding the words to describe the tastes was half the fun and we all had differing opinions. I had of course been sampling my own work throughout the day, and feeling rather replete found myself declining a rare 67% Criollo cocoa organic chocolate.

"Oh you don’t have to eat it – just put it on your tongue and let it melt a bit and then take it out," one of the Rococo staff assures me while handing me an extra napkin to dispose of my un-consumed pieces.

This intense passion for chocolate at Rococo is driven by Chantal who, in her early 20s used her mother’s house as collateral to finance opening up the Rococo shop on the King’s Road. Now, 23 years later there is a second shop and an international fan base for the scrumptious chocolates produced by Chantal and her delightful team.

Jumping back on the 68, I was thrilled to be laden down with an enormous bag of my own delicious creations. My loot included a dark chocolate cat, a marbled (slightly wonky) chocolate box and a chocolate bowl filled with a geranium/orange ganache, all in the achingly stylish Rococo blue and white packaging.

"This is one of the simplest and most delicious chocolate pudding recipes I have ever made. The scalded cream cooks the chocolate and the earl grey adds a delicate perfume. The texture is sublime and it is one of the simplest forms of ganache."

Ingredients:

125g 4 oz real dark chocolate 

350 ml 12 fl oz single cream –

1 tablespoon best earl grey tea

1 teasp orange flower water

Method:

1) Make the tea in a pot using a teacup of boiling water, leave for a minute only

2) Finely chop the chocolate and put it into a heatproof bowl

3) Scald the cream by boiling it, use a pan with plenty of room for expansion. Pour the cream in bit by bit onto the chocolate. Use a rubber spatula to stir it in, ensuring a smooth emulsion. Then add the strained tea in the same way to keep the emulsion before finally adding the orange flower water

4) If for any reason the emulsion splits, use a food processor to bring it back together again.

Pour into small coffee cups, glasses or ramekins and chill for at least two hours.

020 8761 8456; www.rococochocolates.com