My Chocolate Journey

Child Protection Social Worker turned chocolatier due to a life altering car accident that made practicing social work impossible.

As a social worker, chocolate was my personal 5-a-day. I would also bake cakes and make chocolates for charity sales. After the accident, initially I would use chocolate to relieve chronic pain and revive from states of unconsciousness…. there were nights when I couldn’t sleep due to the pain and I would go into the kitchen and melt chocolate just because the sight of that beautiful shiny dark brown chocolate and the nutty fruity slightly bitter aroma would lift my spirits.

Gradually I began moulding chocolate and playing around with the spices, herbs, fruits and veg in my kitchen pairing them with chocolate… and before I knew it I was making really pretty and consistently delicious chocolate. Then I discovered Callebaut. I used it for the first time for a Valentine’s day request for a friend. I made a chocolate lattice love heart, strawberry flavoured chocolate kisses and roses with chocolate petals. With that request, I think I crossed over the threshold from chocolate being therapeutic to chocolate becoming my future line of work, ie. chocart.

No formal training in chocolate making until I attended a couple of courses at Cocoa Black, Chocolate and Pastry School in beautiful historic Peebles, Scotland.

I had the honour of training directly under famous and celebrated chocolatier, Ruth Hinks. I was pleased that I was doing all the right things and the courses gave me the confidence to become bolder in my chocolate experiments. I do look forward to the opportunity to go back and learn more of the wonders that Ruth Hinks offers through her courses.