Must read: You can now wear your chocolate

The Salon Du Chocolat that starts this week in Paris is often referred to as the Paris Chocolate Show - and it is 200,000 square metres of pure chocolate heaven. For anyone in the trade, this is the show to be at, as over 500 participants from five different continents are expected to be a part of this year's edition. But now, thanks to the newly opened Boutique Le Chocolat at City Walk, you don't need to attend a trade fair for a chance to taste the best chocolate. You can do so right here in Dubai.
At 13,000 square feet, Boutique Le Chocolat houses 28 brands from all over the world and expects to add 60 more to the menu shortly. Whether it be Japan's Le Chocolat De H or France's Boisser (which has been in the business since 1827), the place boasts of all the best "vintage" chocolates and goes beyond being a chocolate retailer - it offers an 'experience' in chocolate. It also has an adjoining coffee shop called Boutique Le Chocolat Café and, at their restaurant Cocoa Kitchen, each dish, whether savoury or sweet, has an accent of cocoa.
Good chocolate-making is truly an art. You need to know your beans to really understand your chocolate. And chocolate snobs will only eat handmade chocolates that were made from "bean to bar" - meaning, every step of the process would have been handled by one maker, from the picking of the cacao beans to the making of the chocolate bars.
"This region has always had a love for indulgence - and what can be more indulgent than good chocolate?" notes the boutique's general manager Michael Currie, who discovered the region's passion for chocolate when he first moved here. "A lot of it has to do with gifting, of which there is such a deep culture in the Middle East," he says. And this is where Boutique Le Chocolat's bespoke service fits in. As you walk past the store, you might be forgiven for thinking it has a fashion 'store in store', thanks to the six-foot-tall mannequins wearing dresses, as well as the array of handbags, necklaces and shoes on display. A closer look reveals that all of these are, in fact, edible!
In-house chocolate artist Richard Cueva is the man behind these creations. The trained chef had originally come to Dubai in 1996 to work on a local hotel's Japanese offerings. Sushi chefs are known to be highly skilled with an eye for detail - but Richard soon realised he preferred pastry to sashimi, and so moved on to work with desserts.
Creating bespoke delicacies became his speciality, and his sculptures - which can last up to three months - look so good, you may want to keep them displayed, instead of eating them! Good chocolate needs to be stored between 15-20°C, according to Michael - so you needn't worry about keeping the sculptures refrigerated, as an air-conditioned room would work just as well. Made of couverture chocolate - a very high-grade chocolate that is packed with cocoa butter, thus making it suitable for tempering - the good news is that they are also gluten-free.
Making a custom-made chocolate sculpture is like creating a piece of couture. Each one starts with a mould and the boutique has around 25 moulds ready, although a bespoke one can be made in a day. They are currently working closely with Tanagra, the lifestyle and design store that houses brands like Lalique, Baccarat and Daum, to name a few. This means you can now have bowls made by these luxury lifestyle brands, filled with fruits made of chocolate that look like they came straight from the greengrocers.
But what catch most customers' attention are the fashion pieces. A dress takes two chocolate artists five days to make, and a handbag takes one artist two days to make. For the dresses, the process starts (as it does with fashion) with finding the right fabric. About 40 per cent of the large dress sculptures is actual fabric - the rest is pure, decadent chocolate. And with prices ranging around Dh15,000, these are designer pieces, no less. Accessory prices start at around Dh200 - so a Boutique Le Chocolat bespoke handbag is far more affordable than its fashion counterpart.
Michael says that in the few weeks since their official opening, there have been many inquiries about the dresses for use as décor pieces at weddings and other occasions. The accessories are already being sold as gifts, or even as alternatives to birthday cakes with candles made of chocolate for a complete 'choco-experience'.
For now, Richard works with one more chef but, as the concept takes off, he may have to increase his team. Any good pastry chef with a passion for chocolate can become a chocolate artist, he believes. "At culinary school, we are taught about edible arts, be it with vegetables or pastry." And though this art originated in Europe, Richard feels this region is the one really taking the craft forward, thanks to its love of all things bespoke.
Some of Boutique Le Chocolat's works will be on display at France's Salon Du Chocolat (the two are collaborating). "I am ready to work on all items of luxury in chocolate," says Richard. "Recently, I was asked about a Ferrari, and cars are something I expect to become as popular as our fashion-based designs."
Boutique Le Chocolat, City Walk, Dubai, www.boutiquelechocolat.com
sujata@khaleejtimes.com