Pierre Marcolini invited me to an event at The Ned to taste some of his new products. I took my daughter who then wouldn’t let me ask for a photo with him as it was “soooooo embarrassing” – why did I listen to her? Now I’m writing a review without a photo of the man himself, who was very engaging and passionate about his chocolates.
The chocolates even more so – showing off his new products for the summer, in stores in May, including Melove Cakes and chocolate ganaches with fruits and flowers:-
He is one of the few chocolatiers to master the entire production process for his products: from sourcing all the raw materials to final assembly, including sorting the beans, finding the best vanilla pods from Madagascar, the finest hazelnuts from Italy, pistachios from Iran, pink peppercorns from Morocco, almonds from Slovenia and lemons from Sicily, through to maturation, preparing ganaches and tempering. He even roasts his beans himself.
“I like things that look simple…but are hard to make.” he says. I didn’t show my daughter that quote as she would have said “well, maybe he’ll like you then mum”. We were served delicious gin-based cocktails whilst we drooled over his new beautiful collections of desserts in glass cabinets:-
He has a workshop in Brussels with about 80 artisans working with him, so it’s a huge endeavour and the best bit? He has built up a reputation, not just for his chocolate, but for his ethical standards and is working on new ranges including a hazelnut spread that does not contain a drop of palm oil. Maybe he might like to share the recipe with Nutella so that they can help save the orangutans?
Maison Pierre Marcolini now has over 30 stores in several countries, including Belgium, France, the UK (Harrods and Selfridges), Monaco, Japan and China
We got a goody bag to take home – with a beautifully packaged box of these little babies – delicious marshmallow light chocolates infused with delicate aromas and a crunchy base. Needless to say, they didn’t last long:-
