Chocolate Graduation
Spring is in the air folks! Can you hear the birds, bask in the sunshine, smell the flowers – and all those newly-minted degrees! April was a big month for me – I graduated TWICE!
I graduated from Ecole Chocolat, gaining a certificate as a professional chocolatier! I have been studying since January and it has been a fantastic boost for this project. My motivation for taking the course was not to become a professional chocolatier. Instead, I knew studying this course would give me access to knowledge and practical experience that would be essential to informing and strengthening my project proposal. It has been one of the best decisions I made and exceeded my expectations.
I started as such a novice in the kitchen, but my confidence and skill set has really improved. It was my first time participating in an on-line course, and I was initially skeptical, particularly because of the hands-on skills I wanted to develop. The course and format surprised and impressed me! As an on-line course it is cost-effective and also gives the students more flexibility in when they want to study. I think it would be a great training tool for when this social enterprise is launched in Tanzania. As long as we had consistent internet access, within a period of 3-months, it would be possible to train several new chocolatiers in the foundations of working with chocolate!
I have gained insight into the art and science of chocolate – from learning about the history of chocolate, researching chocolate industry, experimenting with recipe development, learning about professional equipment, the art and science of tempering, and hands on experience in creating flavored chocolates, truffles, infused ganaches, decorative molds, and much more!
So how exactly did it work? I had an “on-line student page” where I would find readings, resources as well as a weekly assignment. The course began with the history of chocolate. We explored the ancient cultures of the Maya and Aztec people who are considered to be the first to grow Cacao and considered it as both a divine gift and a health food. Originally these cultures would mix ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to create a frothy and spicy chocolate drink!
As each week went by I studied well-established chocolatiers to learn the challenges they overcame, and the reasons behind their success. I began to work with chocolate and developed the most fundamental, and ironically most frustrating skill of “tempering”. This is a process of heating, cooling, and re-heating the chocolate that at a micro-level is realigning the particles to give the chocolate a shiny appearance and a snappy texture.
One of my favorite assignments was to hold a “tasting night”. I invited my friends over and prepared a selection of chocolates – dark, grand cru, milk to white. Similar to a wine testing, we spent the evening taking time to really “taste” chocolate – paying attention to aspects like aroma, flavor tones, and “mouthfeel”.
After a few more weeks in the kitchen I was ready to move on to molds and discovered my new favorite store in Montreal – Chocolat Chocolat. Assignments included recipe development and experimentation, sourcing out chocolate suppliers, researching professional equipment, business plan development, to marketing and packaging assignments.
But that was just the first graduation of the spring. I also graduated from the Sauvé Scholars Program – that will be in the next post!!!
If you would like any info on the Ecole Chocolat, please ask me! I’d be happy to share more!
