In the spotlight this month is one of our city’s most treasured independents
Remember in the year 2000 when Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp upturned an uptight village with the ‘loose morals’ inspired by the pushing of that most wicked substance… chocolate? Now imagine the little shop in that wonderful film, but times two, and you get Chocolat Chocolat.
Situated on St Andrew’s Street near the entrance to the Grand Arcade, this real-life chocolate factory is the sweet baby of Isabelle and Robin Chappell who set out their stall in 2009 and haven’t looked back since.
Head chocolatier Isabelle was excited by the burgeoning food scene in the city, so it was an easy decision to pick Cambridge as the location for this delicious project.
“I’ve always loved chocolate and when I lived in Paris I fell in love with a little chocolate shop and I just knew I wanted to bring something similar to the UK,” says Isabelle, who trained as a chocolatier in Paris and Belgium.
“We design it both to taste and look good”
Prior to that she worked for some of the largest fashion labels in the world, and the understanding of aesthetics she developed in that industry runs through her chocolate-making, and its design. “I always put the taste of our chocolate first, but we try to make the shop and our products as attractive as possible,” she explains, “as they say, ‘you eat with your eyes!’ Our customers always tell us that the shop is beautiful, and that’s because I use all the techniques I learnt at Laura Ashley and Monsoon to make the product look good. What we do is chocolate making, but we design it both to taste and look good!”
And good-looking it is, packed to the rafters with multicoloured loot, and yet it’s the smell that will get you. Or, we should say, has already got you, because Chocolat Chocolat has already been voted Cambridge’s favourite chocolate shop. (Don’t you love living in a city where there is a range of chocolate shops?) Part of this success must surely be due to the mouth-watering spectacle of watching the chocolatiers at work, creating the sheet-chocolate they make daily. Any chocolate they don’t make on site themselves comes from small and well-loved chocolatiers that the owners have chosen for their quality.
Like wine, Isabelle explains that chocolate can be assessed for its quality by looking out for a few telltale signs. “There are three ways to know a good chocolate: the first is the smell, good chocolate should smell of chocolate; and then it should snap when bitten into; and it should have a good shine.”
If you want to know more about chocolate tasting, or indeed making, the shop runs its own courses, and Isabelle’s enthusiasm for her medium must be the inspiration behind many sign-ups.
“A little high-quality chocolate can help your health”
When asked what the best thing about her training was she doesn’t hesitate: “That’s easy: the chocolate! Working with luxury Belgian chocolate was amazing and learning how to turn it into delicious bars and chocolates was rewarding.” But beware, because when asked what the most difficult thing about making chocolate is, her answer is bafflingly the same: “The chocolate! I kept on tasting it; warm melted chocolate is the best food in the world! I had to work hard to develop my self-control, at first that was difficult!”
And she’s still working on that to this day. Her top recommendation and personal favourite is the caramel, praline and sea salt sheet chocolate. “I first made it as a limited edition four years ago and our customers loved it so much that it’s become a firm favourite and with me too.”
Before diving in and gorging ourselves we had one last question for Isabelle, and it’s a big one, age-old in fact… Is chocolate good or bad for us?
“There is a simple answer to this question, too much is bad for you, but a little, high-quality chocolate can help your health in many ways and it tastes so good as well!” But then when it comes to some chocolate, a little just isn’t ever going to be enough, so we prefer Katherine Hepburn’s take on things: “What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.” We’ll take it.
Events
Chocolat Chocolat will be launching a new Bean to Bar Chocolate Master Class during the Eat Cambridge Festival this month. They are also working with Hotel Felix on their Chocolate Afternoon Tea parties for the Eat Cambridge Festival – book yourselves in, quick!
