By Frances Cook
Chocolate lovers have descended on New Zealand’s first chocolate festival, held at Wellington’s Intercontinental Hotel this weekend.
The event covers the full chocolate experience, including cooking demonstrations, tasting workshops, chocolate produce galore, and a savoury chocolate five course meal.
Swiss chocolatier Rene Fellmann is leading tasting sessions throughout the event.
He is passionate about putting quality first, saying sellers such as Cadbury have their place but that artisan chocolates are another level of sensory experience.
“The more people know about chocolate, the more they appreciate what we are doing, and the more they are prepared to pay for it,” Mr Fellmann says.
“Some people take cheap chocolate, stuff it full of chilli, and sell it for $100. That’s not quality chocolate.”
His classes use five chocolate disks per person, three to cover a range of dark chocolates, then a nod to more mainstream chocolate with one milk and one white disk.
He instructs each participant to let each disk melt on their tongue for 15-20 seconds, before breathing in through the nose to experience the full flavour range.
“Some people buy the chocolate, put it in their mouths, and straight away say ‘mmm it’s nice’,” Mr Fellmann says.
“But you have to give it some time.”
Also taking centre stage is pastry chef Arno Sturny, who will hold demonstrations on chocolate tempering.
Tempering is the final process of chocolate making, requiring a scientific level of control to maximise sheen and make sure the chocolate snaps rather than crumbles.
“Cocoa butter is quite a unique fat; it’s rock solid, one of the hardest fats you can get, so you have to treat it differently,” Mr Sturny says.
When he teaches at Auckland University of Technology, handling chocolate is one of the things each crop of students struggle with.
“On the first lesson with students they have chocolate from top to bottom, shoulders, aprons, everywhere.
“But over time they learn to get it where it’s supposed to be.”
While tempering is a challenging process even for professional chefs, people who watch his demonstrations will at least learn how to avoid mistreating chocolate, Mr Sturny says.
He warns to keep chocolate out of the fridge or the sun, and avoid burning chocolate when melting it.
Executive chef for the Intercontinental Hotel Ed Weicherding is in charge of the hotel’s chocolate offerings, and organised their chocolate Welly on a Plate menu to compliment hosting the festival.
“Chocolate is mainly used as a sweet, so we wanted to show people what you can do with it,” Mr Weicherding says.
“I think most people were surprised, and I think that is what actually attracted them.”
The savoury chocolate dinner has been a hit, with flavour influences ranging from bitter to sweet and sour, before finishing with the more traditional sweet treats.
“When you cook with it in savoury dishes it is a lot different from desserts,” Mr Weicherding says.
“I look at the chocolate as one ingredient in a dish that I am trying to create.”
Senior sous chef Andreas Reinhardt says although savoury chocolate may surprise western cultures, the chocolate originally traded by Aztecs was unsweetened, and chocolate is used in savoury dishes throughout South America.
“It’s nice to work with chocolate because it’s so versatile.”
For savoury use bitter dark chocolate is best, as it brings strong flavour even in small amounts, Mr Reinhardt says.
Weicherding and Reinhardt will be giving cooking demonstrations throughout the festival, using slightly altered recipes so that specialised chef tools such as liquid nitrogen can be replaced with ice water.
The success of the festival has lead to organisers considering making the event an annual one, with a decision to be made on Monday.
3News