Some national awareness days and weeks (Talk Like a Pirate Day, Mole Day, Knitting Week) can elicit a raised eyebrow, or even a sigh – but this is one celebration we can all get on board with. Yes, it’s National Chocolate Week, seven days devoted to the delicious and deadly love of cocoa. If you’re looking for somewhere to indulge your sweet tooth, 12-18 October, then look no further. We’ve rounded up some chocolaty events…
Lobster & Divine White Chocolate Dish @ Bohemia
Forgo the usual chocolate puddings, tarts, and mousse in favour of an altogether more exciting flavour combination. Bohemia’s Steve Smith has created a white chocolate and lobster starter, made with butter poached lobster, cauliflower and Divine white chocolate, with sorrel and caviar. It will be a special starter on the restaurant’s Classic Menu, £59 for a three courses.
Chocolate Fondant Burger @ Sackville’s
£8
Head to this Mayfair newcomer (specialising in posh burgers and truffle infused dishes) to try the Chocolate Fondant Burger. It consists of a chocolate patty, sandwiched between two almond macaroons, adorned with sunflower seeds for that perfected burger bun effect.
Nutella and Mascarpone melt @ Melt Room
£3.50
Usually this single concept, Soho spot serves up savoury cheesy snacks, but for National Chocolate Week they’ve got a sweet melt on the menu. The sandwich is a combination of hazelnut, chocolate and cream, spread between two slices of Milk Bread, toasted.
Chocolate Afternoon Tea @ Bulgari Hotel & Residence’s lounge
Available until 15 November
£35 pp
To celebrate all things chocolate, the Bulgari hotel will launch a Chocolate Afternoon Tea and a Healthy Chocolate Cake, both crafted by pastry chef Alexandre Talpaert, protégé of French über-chef Alain Ducasse. The afternoon tea comprises Gallic delicacies, tarts, madeleines, macarons, and chocolate-chip scones, as well as the Bulgari’s selection of tea infusions. For those not wishing to indulge too much there’s the gluten, nut, dairy and refined sugar-free Cocoa, ginger and yuzu cake. They use the term ‘cake’ loosely here clearly! Available for £8 at the hotel pastry counter.
Perhaps eating chocolate just isn’t enough for some? Well, at The Courthouse hotel’s Sanook Spa you can cover yourself in the stuff, if you so choose. The Soho hotel is offering an ultimate indulgence package which includes a 90-minute chocolate facial. Apparently it’s very ‘coco-therapeutic’ (whatever that means!).
Drinking chocolate
Lifestyle brand Oblique has partnered with Fair Spirits and Divine Chocolate on a series of drinks for National Chocolate Week via a mouthwatering combination of delicious, ethical products. Available at bars across London (Plato, Pearson Room, South Place Hotel and London Capital Club) the cocktails (or choctails if you will) will pair rum with a cocoa kick.
The Chocolate Show
If you’re planning to attend the Chocolate Show (16-18 October) at Kensington’s Olympia Hall then you won’t want to miss…
£18 pp
Cocoa Runners, purveyors of the craft chocolate from around the world, will host the craft chocolate ‘bean to bar’ area at this year’s Chocolate Show, the grand finale drawing Chocolate Week to a close. Sample the wares of producers like Forever Cacao, bringing raw and organic chocolate sourced from Peru; spiced chocolate and Madagascan cocao from Ã…kesson’s; small-batch maker Omnom from Iceland; and Original Beans, with its commitment to sustaining the rainforest. Also attending will be Menakao, one of the few producers making its chocolate entirely at source in Madagascar; Duffy’s, taking a scientific approach to crafting chocolate in the UK, and the creator of Vietnam’s first artisan bean to bar, Marou.
Visitors to the salon will have the opportunity to meet the makers, taste samples and attend craft chocolate lectures held over the three days. It will also see the first of Cocoa Runners’ own Craft Chocolate Collection, featuring stem ginger, crunchy cacoa nibs, coffee beans and whole hazelnuts coated in chocolate and presented in a box.
