Creativity flows

As Fraboulet highlighted, chocolate is known for being a versatile ingredient, suited to hot and cold dishes — and not just for use in desserts.

Saraswati remarks: “It adds richness to many dishes, whether savoury or sweet. In savoury dishes, chocolate is usually used as a condiment, and the intensity of it depends on personal taste. Many people enjoy dark chocolate with salt or chilli.

“For sweet dishes, the options are endless. Chocolate can be used as a main ingredient or for final touches. However people choose to use chocolate, it is sure to add richness to any dish.”

Cocosia Artisan Chocolate founder and chocolatier Qudsia Karim says chocolate has very distinct characteristics, which can be used with different ingredients to bring out flavours and textures.

“The flavours are unique to each chocolate’s experience and artisan chocolatiers understand how to incorporate them, so you can have a lot of creativity,” she explains.

Mirtova concurs, stating: “Chocolate is an amazing material for creating masterpieces, and it can be shaped in any form or size. For example, last month La Marquise ran 3D chocolate workshops in partnership with Decosil, an Italian brand for handcrafted 3D white silicon moulds.”

Crafting chocolate into any shape is part of its appeal, though the type of chocolate has to suit the use. “It’s important to note that for such creations, you should use chocolate with high percentage of cocoa butter, which enables you to work on the smallest details of the mould,” Mirtova shares.

Hassan says that today, the need for creating innovative products is stronger than ever “especially in chocolate market”. This should not phase chocolatiers, given how easy it is to use. As EMF general manager Pierre Feghali puts it: “Chocolate is a versatile ingredient where the only limit to what you can do with it is given only by your creativity.

“It can be used as a main ingredient or in conjunction with any spices or herbs in ganaches or creams, or can be crafted in a beautiful showpiece, or moulded into a simple bunny.

“There is a growing demand for special chocolates which goes from creating your own chocolate blend to a customised shaped chocolate.”

Sourcing considerations

Recent news reports have warned of soaring demand and slowing production combining to create a ‘chocolate deficit’.

“There is an increasing global demand for cocoa and chocolate products, especially in the Asia Pacific region ,which by 2017 is expected to consume more cocoa ingredients than North America,” Feghali says.

It is an inescapable fact that chocolate production is affected by many factors, such as the weather and climate fluctuations in cocoa-producing regions, which can disrupt supplies and, therefore, cause prices of cocoa to rise.

Hassan shares his sumary of the key issues: “The world faces several challenges in maintaining cocoa beans supplies; cocoa prices can be volatile due to nearly two-thirds of the global crop comes from just four countries in West Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria) and the rest coming from countries within 20 degrees of the Equator.

“The majority of smallholder cocoa farms are struggling with ageing, low-productive trees, and limited infrastructure in rural areas. Cocoa is competing with other cash crops like palm, rubber and soy for land.”

Mirtova says that “obstacles in supply chain” can come from weather conditions. “High temperatures are harmful for the chocolate, therefore we have to make sure that in each part of the transportation and storage process all the needful temperature requirements are met,” he clarifies.

Karim also makes this point: “The product has to be stored and transported with very delicate handling as the chocolate couvertures must not exceed the desired levels of temperature.”

Chocolate’s popularity also plays its part in the ‘supply and demand’ situation, with a growing middle class in many countries having more disposable income to purchase luxuries. Saraswati says demand has grown 3% per year for the past three centuries, adding: “Cocoa is traded in the world market as commodity and its price can fluctuate depending on supply and demand.”

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