I founded au Chocolat
in 1981, after moving from California and spent 10 years as Master
Chocolatier. au Chocolat started as a luxury retail and
wholesale chocolate making business (the present owners are now
only wholesale) in Vancouver, BC. Our specialty was gourmet chocolate
truffles and we had a multitude of flavors in stock at any one
time.
Our gourmet chocolate truffle centers were hand-made. We then
either rolled the centers in a dry coating such as cocoa or nuts
or coated them with chocolate. We started out doing the chocolate
dipping by hand but as sales increased we moved to an enrobing
machine. The machine was a life-saver - especially during the
holidays when our demand peaked.
Our other gourmet chocolate offerings were chocolate molds (our
signature was a solid chocolate duck with a jaunty bow around
his neck made with a mold taken from our childhood favorite -
a yellow rubber ducky), panned chocolate items such as chocolate
covered espresso beans and our perennial favorite - chocolate
mousse cake. In the summer we would include ice cream products
as well. When time came to semi retire from the day-to-day chocolate
making business, I was able to sell to a friend-of-a-friend who
loved the chocolate candy making business as much as I did.
During that time I also taught chocolate making programs and
courses on entrepreneurship for many different organizations.
Also, I have written numerous articles on chocolate and chocolate
candy making. You can access some of these articles at Sally's
Place.
I wrote my first cookbook, Oh Truffles by au Chocolat and while
the book is now out of print, it was a Best Selling Cookbook with
its second printing. My goal with this cookbook was to teach home
cooks how to work with chocolate and then give them lots of different
types of chocolate making recipes to try.
Besides becoming proficient in making chocolate for the obvious
business considerations, I always encourage creativity and joy
in the chocolate making process itself. Working with chocolate
can be a very sensuous experience. Early chocolatiers used their
hands to temper the chocolate and coat the truffles or sugar fillings
- some companies still do. Like kneading bread, successful technique
becomes one of "feel" - the chocolatier knows just when
the chocolate mass is ready to use.
I wish you much success in your endeavors and will be delighted
if our programs can be of help in getting you where you want to
go in an industry that is my passion.
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