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Filled with chocolate passion

Isabel Jaouen, Managing Director, Forrey & Galland, and her husband, brought an Arabic twist to the art of making luxury chocolates

My chocolate adventure: When my husband and I came to Dubai, we discovered the opportunity to introduce the ‘French know-how’ of chocolate making, involving handmade, refined chocolates for people in the region to discover. We decided to take this idea forward and worked closely with a chocolatier in France to develop recipes that combined local Arabic flavours with a unique touch. We established our own workshop in 1998 and have since developed into a retail store at The Dubai Mall. We have discovered that chocolate has this wonderful flexibility and can be married to many different ingredients to create a sensation of flavours. This is what makes chocolate such an extraordinary product.

Creating chocolate from scratch: Each chocolate has its own process and story according to its ingredients, which we source from all over the world. We carefully select the country of origin that we associate specific ingredients with like a special type of flower or spice, as this has an impact on the quality and taste of our products. This can take up to two days. Although it’s a long process to reach the final product, the beauty in chocolate making is creating beautiful handmade creations complete with their own unique patterns.

Favourite chocolate dessert: Chocolate tarts. They are made with a homemade shortcrust and a thin layer of praline complete with a dark chocolate ganache — the perfect combination for a dessert!

Chocolate facts: Chocolate has always been regarded as a luxury product throughout history, and it was once only accessible to the wealthy — cacao beans were even a valued currency at one point in time. Today, high-quality dark chocolate is a good source of nutrition and contains good-for-you antioxidants. It can even increase the production of endorphins and help to improve your concentration and memory. Eating 70 per cent dark chocolate especially has many advantages for health.

Unusual chocolate dish I’ve made: We developed a special chocolate truffle containing 70 per cent cacao, which we combined with caviar. Although this seems like a strange flavour combination, chocolate and caviar share the same flavour compounds, which makes it a very interesting pairing to work with.

Advice to aspiring chocolatiers: Have a passion for what you do and do not compromise on the quality of ingredients. Having a lot of creativity is also important, especially when it comes to designing a unique product.

World Chocolate Day: In celebration, Forrey & Galland will be gifting customers with a special chocolate tablet that contains an assortment of exotic fruits with any purchase made over Dh200.