Call to Include Chocolate Provenance
Belgian chocolatier, Callebaut, has called on restaurants and kitchens to be more specific in detailing their chocolate desserts on menus.
For example, instead of just saying "dark chocolate", try 'Belgian dark chocolate' or 'real Belgian couverture'.
How the chocolate was sourced is also becoming an important factor for customers. Again, try using 'sustainable sourced' or 'ethically sourced' to describe such chocolate ingredients in your dessert menus.
Callebaut themselves have their 'Cocoa Horizons' programme, which sees the Belgian chocolate giant re-investing in farmer training & tools, turning the farmers into experts & promising them a better living out of cocoa farming.
More and more, customers are looking to the food industry to provide them with the knowledge to make an informed decision on what to choose from their menus. The days of adding the obligatory vegetarian lasagne have long gone as the publics eating habits have changed.
Now everyone is seeking some re-assurance that the food they are choosing to eat is 'morally' OK.
It's not just how the cocoa has been sourced but where from that is also starting to shape the dessert menus of restaurants and gastro-pubs up and down the country.
Chocolate connoisseurs have long held single-origin chocolate in high regard, and with good reason. The nuances and flavour profiles of each growing region, even down to a particular cocoa estate or plantation, are prized attributes indeed.
Now more and more chef's are beginning to pair specific chocolate origins with specific dishes, either to compliment the flavour of the other ingredients or provide a striking alternative in taste or texture.
When creating great desserts or sauces, don't forget to let your customers know key information like origin of the cocoa (estate/country), type of cocoa bean used and the cocoa content (%). Embellish with interesting facts about the origin's climate or rarity of cocoa.
And if the cocoa has come from a sustainable, organic, or farmer co-operative etc, then these make for interesting menu notes.
Our eating habits are changing, both at home and more importantly, when we dine out. As chefs and diners, the provenance of ingredients is becoming a major factor to the discerning diner, and that now extends to the provenance of chocolate.
With a range of blended and single origin cooking chocolates in chip (callets) and block form, Chocolate Trading Co is well placed to provide the exciting range of different chocolates and origins your recipes and customers demand.
Take a look at our range of fine cooking chocolates, real chocolate decorations and chocolate ingredients here.
