Gone Chocco

I first met Andy in August, when we formed part of the trio of judges (the third being Helen, a secret chocolate ‘profiler’ who can’t reveal her full name here) involved in a seven-hour marathon session judging chocolate entries for the Chocolate Rush Australian chocolate championships.

Amongst my groaning, he remained cheerful, impressed with the quality of entries and when pressed, told me that he’d been in Australia for the past couple of years to help Heritage Chocolates develop their gourmet range of chocolate.

We met up a couple of weeks later (when our digestive systems and brains had recovered) so that I could find out more about Andy, the beer loving Belgian bloke. 

Born and raised in Belgium by a father who worked at NESTLE (yoghurts people, not chocolate) and a mother who ran a pub (!!), he was always interested in the baking she did on the weekends.  At age 12 he started at the Ter Groene Poortre school in Bruges, famous for bakery, confectionery and patisserie studies.  With such a focus on careers, it was common for the students to work 45 hour weeks and end up completing 6 month internships in their final year of study.  Andy did his internship at Callebaut chocolate, working in the application laboratory where they tested and tried out new products for coating biscuits and cakes.  “I liked the chocolate part of it and wanted to be someone who could get out there, meet chefs and manufacturers and demonstrate how chocolate could be used better.”

Andy did an extra year’s study specialising in ‘Bakery technology’ processes which gave him a lot of technical and practical experience.  “I was always driven by it.”   Not only did he make breads, buns and cakes, but also learned how to create many fancy pastries, sugar-blowing (like glass) for show piece desserts, toffees and caramels. 

When his studies finished, he worked for two industrial bakery companies that specialised in frozen bakery products like croissants and baguettes for shops and cafes.  He became a demonstrator and trained people how to use their products.  Trade shows were part of the job, but “they were very early hours – up at 2am to bake so that they’d be ready in time for a three hour drive at a fair across the other side of the country.”  He then moved into the Research and Development side at a second company, creating new products and investigating what competitors were releasing onto the market. “We looked at everything starting from the box design to the range of tastes inside.”

A posting at Barry Callebaut in their application laboratory (where young Andy had so enjoyed his work experience placement) came up.  He did shelf life tests for chocolate, marketing, demonstrating their range of products to big clients and even providing training to suppliers on how they could use their own machinery better to get the most out of Callebaut chocolate products.

He then found himself in Singapore at their application laboratory, involved in training staff, upskilling local people, reviewing their testing techniques and benchmarking them to European chocolate standards.  “I loved it, it was a completely different culture and I was made to feel instantly welcome.”   He also took the opportunity to educate himself in more detail on making chocolate direct from the cocoa liquor: “I knew that this was what I really wanted to do.”

The hugely expanding Asian chocolate market saw Andy feeling very overworked: “I was traveling 70% of the time and was exhausted.”  A colleague of his joined Heritage fine chocolates in Australia and asked Andy to come over and start the Research and Development side of the business.  “They were keen to move on from just their Easter range.  These sell very cheaply and pay the bills, but Heritage is what we want to do. It’s our passion and aiming for a different market.”

Andy and his partner Adele arrived in Melbourne in 2008, literally one week before the  Chocolate Rush festival.  “I was trying to prepare my session on wine and chocolate matching before getting to Melbourne, but literally hit the ground running talking about chocolate, doing demonstrations, getting over jetlag and trying to find a place to live,” he smiles.

At Chocolate Rush 2009, Andy ran a beer and chocolate matching session.  Noting my incredulous look, he insists, “Beer and chocolate can match but you approach it the opposite way that you do with wine.  With wine you choose a strong one to match a strong chocolate.  With beer, take a light lager with a strong chocolate, or a heavy porter-style beer with milk chocolate.”

From day one at Heritage, he’s been working directly with Michael Simons, owner of Heritage Fine Chocolates, in the creation of new products, production (particularly the hand-made lines), optimisation (looking at the machines, process flows, settings).  He’s proud that Heritage have gone beyond the Australian minimum standards to BRC, an internationally-recognised quality management system that looks at more than just documents but also practical methods, traceability of ingredients, weight checks and hygiene.  “I love that this job has given me the freedom to try new things.”

Such as?  “Embracing some of the more traditional Belgian styles in hazelnut truffles.  Using buttercream instead of ganache which is everywhere here; the tartness of cranberries with the sweet milky white chocolate; mixing in freeze dried fruit for maximum flavour….”

He’s been thinking about salt, herbs such as lavender and bergamot and uses Epinema coffee ground coarsely for flavouring the dark chocolate.  He’s proud of Heritage’s Corporate Social Responsibility too.  “We have some fair trade bars available and it’s in our interest to keep this initiative running because cocoa is difficult to grow and farmers need to see the benefits in growing it rather than shifting to other cheaper and easier crops.  We’d love to get some of the larger retailers interested in buying our fair trade products.”

In his hands is a bag that is heavier than most airline suitcases.  “We focus on big blocks and bars that are generous in size, but are also venturing into hand made, artisan-style chocolates.  We’d like to get into specialty stores and can make chocolates to order as we have the staff, skills and machinery to do it.”  At the moment, Heritage is available from their Rowville factory outlets and shop at the Prahran market. 

What do you eat when you’re at home, on the lounge?
Firstly, he shakes his head, “No, no I don’t eat chocolate at home, I get enough at work,” but with a bit of prompting says he loves Heritage’s Ecuador dark – “It’s got 73% cocoa solids but tastes fruity and light, with low acidity.  I also like Tanzanian chocolate which is much more acidic and not yet available from Heritage.”

So, for a twenty eight year old with a face the makers of Oil of Olay would love, what’s been a success so far?

This: winning Australia’s Best Truffle, 2009, People’s choice.  Andy beams, “People who came to Chocolate Rush voted for it – what better judgment is there than that?”

The victorious raspberry truffle is “more Australian in style” according to Andy because it has a ganache centre, but it is not filled with a puree because it is too sweet.  Instead, Andy uses freeze-dried raspberries that are powdered and retain the full berry flavour.  The truffle is topped with the same raspberry pieces: “I put on my chocolate what I put in it,” he says.

We farewelled each other – he back off to the factory and me back home to pick up my daughter from school and lugging an insanely loaded brown paper bag full of Andy’s inventions.  How could I not try the award-winning raspberry truffles the second I got home?

I can see why it won.  The centre is a delicously soft ganache with a complexity that makes it taste almost like a fruity mud cake.  This is then dipped in white chocolate for a contrasting creamy sweetness against the tang of the raspberries and then finished off with the outer layer of dark chocolate.

My husband, Love Chunks, arrived just as I was reaching for the last one.  He grabbed it and ran out of the room.  A few seconds later I heard, “Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm….. who made this?” and knew that Andy had created a winner.