Around 120 of the world’s top chef chocolatiers arrived in Brazil on May 23 to attend the Barry Callebaut’s World Chocolate Ambassadors seminar in Ilhéus, Bahia. This is a biennial event, which was held outside Europe for the first time.

Getting to experience a country of origin, a cocoa producing country, was a life long desire of mine, and this was shared among Barry Callebaut’s other ambassadors too.

During the three days, the Brazilian cocoa production was presented to us during various lectures and visits to plantations as well as to the Barry Callebaut cocoa factory in Ilhéus. From the growing of the cocoa beans in organic plantations to the processing into semi finished products at the local factory, the company’s UK ambassadors and technical consultants Mark Tilling, Thierry Dumouchel, Julie Sharp, Beverley Dunkley and myself were part of this group on this very special visit.

There are three main types of cocoa: Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario. The characteristics of Criollo, such as a smaller pod that fits into the palm of your hand, round in shape and usually with shades of green and yellow colours, are very sensitive to disease which is why many farms are moving to Forastero types and different hybrids.

Forastero pods are longer and larger, with a rougher textured outside shell, and usually are coloured with shades of greens, yellows, reds and purple. This type produces a less subtle flavour as the Criollo but is also less sensitive to crop disease.

The seminar is an initiative of Barry Callebaut’s Ambassadors Club, uniting the most renowned chef chocolatiers in the world.

In this exclusive club, chefs will become Barry Callebaut ambassadors by invitation only. The duty of the club is to transfer its chocolate expertise and techniques to other craftsmen, chocolatiers and chefs all over the world to support the development of new products, concepts, recipes and training events meeting professional expectations.

Quality, creativity, knowledge of ingredients and leadership are the main assets of the ambassadors, who represent the gourmet brands of the Barry Callebaut Group – Cocoa Barry, Callebaut and Carma.

The club is constantly in contact with professionals focusing on chocolate from various regions around the world, organising theoretical and practical events every week, such as training courses, demonstrations or technical assistance.

Barry Callebaut does not own any cocoa plantations. In these countries of origin, such as Brazil, it works closely with plantations to develop mutually beneficial relationships with their suppliers in their country of origin.

Contrary to recent media reports we were able to view personally how the company strives to improve the livelihood of farmers and their families with the visit to three different plantations deep in the region of Bahia.

The company is extremely serious about its corporate responsibility and is committed to improving production and working conditions in cocoa producing countries. It supports many community projects and initiatives, acting in collaboration with industry associations and non-government organisations.

It invests in the training and professional development of these growing cocoa countries and contributes directly to the economic and social well being of the local communities, for example by supporting affordable housing projects, building local schools and sponsoring medical care and services.

We visited a local primary school built by Barry Callebaut and funded every year for the teachers to educate the farming community’s children locally rather than having to travel more than 30 miles away to the nearest school.

The team was able to see firsthand the intricate differences between the cocoa produced in Brazil compared to other areas in the world. Much like grapes grown and harvested for wine production, it is the climate, terrain and earth that contributes vastly to the different characteristics.

In Brazil this produces a cocoa butter which is softer and finer than other cocoa butter naturally produced around the globe, which means that the cosmetic industry will pay premium prices for Brazilian cocoa butter and certain chocolate decorative companies will only use this for their cocoa butter based colours.

During the factory visit, there was a presentation on ‘black cocoa powder’ which is used in the production of Oreo cookies and is the only factory in the world to use the process of adding potassium carbonate with ammonia to act as a catalyst to the process in turning it literally black.

The darker this black cocoa powder becomes, the saltier it tastes, but it is a rare ingredient that some chefs are trying to experiment with in their own cookery at the moment.

On our final day at Caesar São Paulo International Airport Hotel, top Brazilian chefs Flavio Federico and Rodrigo Oliveira gave us a demonstration. These chefs are known for their preference in working with Brazilian products and demonstrated a host of dessert recipes.

This was a fantastic opportunity to begin to fully understand the true conditions and innovative work local growers are committing to in order to produce even better, delicate and more consistently flavoured chocolate for chefs to use.

World Chocolate Masters 2012
Back in Europe, the World Chocolate Masters final was held in October. The event took place at the Le Salon du Chocolat Professionnel exhibition at Porte de Versailles in Paris.

Since its creation in 2005, the competition has developed its unique identity for being the most challenging chocolate contest that focuses on the individual skills of each contestant.

This year the competition featured 19 finalists from different countries around the world. Over the previous 18 months, each of them successfully competed for the title of National Chocolate Master in their own country, thereby qualifying for the final.

The UK was represented by John Costello, who has gained experience at many established companies, and recently took part in the World Pastry Team Championships in Phoenix for Team UK. He is currently working as chocolate innovation chef at Park Cake Bakery in Oldham, Lancs.

The theme of this year’s final was “Quetzalcoatl’s Gift”, which asked participants to find inspiration in the mysterious origins of cocoa in the rainforests of South America.

Each contestant produced a chocolate entremet, two different pralines, a chocolate dessert, a chocolate showpiece and an artistic necklace based on the theme. Competitors were given just three hours to assemble the showpiece in front of the jury and eight hours to create the remaining five items.

This year Frank Haasnoot, winner of the Dutch pre-selection competition, was crowned World Chocolate Master 2011 by an international jury of 22 leading chocolate professionals. In second place was Yoshiaki Uezaki from Japan and in third place Palle Sorensen from Denmark.

With up to 40 pastry students from Westminster Kingsway College, friends, family and many top UK pastry chefs giving John Costello probably the best support and encouragement of all countries, the atmosphere over the three days was thrilling.

Live global media coverage made this a truly essential chocolate event of the year and it was well presented by the hosts Barry Callebaut. John and previous UK contestants such as Mark Tilling and Tony Hoyle are flying the UK flag higher than ever to rid the world perception that our shores are stuffed with poor, overly sweet and below average chocolate confections.

Although John did not make the top 10 places, his work was acclaimed by international judge Erick Chen for its “exceptional quality and innovative working techniques”.

It is now important that talented UK pastry chefs and chocolatiers use this momentum and support from Barry Callebaut UK to carry the torch of UK chocolate even further over the next few years. We have many highly artistic and committed pastry chefs who are capable of competing at the highest level. We look forward with greater optimism to the national pre-selection finals in 2012.

• For more details, visit www2.barry-callebaut.com