Want to come on a chocolate tour with me?
Special public chocolate tours during a VERY exciting time, plus where Gordon Ramsay gave me a knife.
Hello… Thursday,
This was all queued up to send yesterday but I was waiting on one thing. My day was long and the thing never came but I fell into bed and now I’m finally at my desk and sending it as is. 🤷🏻♀️
I spent 12 hours at the Speciality Fine Food Fair these last two days and have a LONG list of things to tell you about. Hopefully that will be with you next week. There are so many exciting products launching!
Last (Tuesday) night, as I was putting my five year old to bed she told me that dad was her favourite so he would get the gold medal, but I wasn’t to worry because I was her second favourite and that meant I’d get the silver medal. 🤨 Of course I had to scratch the wound and ask why dad was the favourite. “Because he’s really cute and he has good ideas and because he usually wears blue and that’s my favourite colour.” 😆 Well. I’ll take comfort in the fact that she’s quite fickle and sometimes I am actually her “very best”. 🙃
I like to think I have good ideas too. Including some in this email! 🥰
Chocolate Week is coming back!
Some of you might remember Chocolate Week and it’s accompanying chocolate show that started as Chocolate Unwrapped in a hotel in Mayfair in 2010 and became The London Chocolate Show at Olympia. There were events across the country and it became a beautiful time to celebrate craft chocolate, to help people understand why it’s so special and bring people in the industry together.
Earlier this year Aneesh Popat of The Chocolatier coralled a group of us into bringing it back. This year there’s no website but you can follow along on the Instagram and we will save events in the stories highlights at the top of the profile.
https://www.instagram.com/ukchocolateweek/
If you own or work for a chocolate company, bakery, restaurant or other food business we’d love you to come up with something special for the week. Do get in touch!
Just for this special week in October, I’ll be hosting two bespoke chocolate tours that anyone can book on! And as a special subscriber offer (you do susbcribe, right?) you can get £10 off tickets for the next week (ends next Wednesday) with the code CHOCWEEK24.
The tours are on Friday 18th October at 10am and Sunday 20th October at 10.30am. They will be slightly different to each other, but more or less the same variety of chocolatey deliciousness. I’d love to hang out with you!
These tours will not be the same as the tours I currently offer, but may include places those tours visit. It will be a mix of patisserie, gelato and chocolate that we’ll be trying. With an excellent hot chocolate too, of course.
ALSO
Do you want me to show you around Salon du Chocolat in Paris?
I asked this after I got back last year and a few of you said yes so I’m blocking time in my calendar.
If you’ve never been to Salon du Chocolat, the largest chocolate show in the world, it is ENORMOUS. I’ll be arriving Thursday afternoon and plan to be there all day Friday too.
I thought I’d offer a tour on Saturday at 10.30am based on what I discover in my first 1.5 days.
The show is pretty hectic, but I can show you what not to miss for around 2 hours and then you can enjoy the rest of the show yourself. You can reserve a spot to join me here. If you’re interested but the time/day doesn’t work for you then let me know in the comments or by reply. 😊
If you’re thinking of coming, here’s a link to book tickets on the Eurostar *, here’s more about Salon du Chocolat and here’s the best priced hotel link *.
Gordon Ramsay gave me a knife
With instructions not to open it on the tube. Which was funny because earlier in the day I’d been with a group on a full day tour (savoury things this time, thanks for asking) and as we had lots to see and taste I thought maybe I could get ahead by cutting into a loaf of bread we were going to try, whilst sat on the tube. As I started to reach in my handbag for the knife I carry with me most of the times I know I’ll be going to a bakery (most days I leave the house! 😄), I realised this was probably not a good idea. I left it in its protective covering in my bag. It doesn’t have a sharp point, it’s essentially a serrated butter knife that I love dearly, but it probably still wasn’t wise. 🤦🏻♀️
The gift from Gordon Ramsay was this Hexclad knife * and it is so nice to slice with. I mean, it could just be because it’s brand new, but I feel like it might be sharper than any knife I’ve had before. I’m in love and all my other knives are being case aside (except my sweet sharp butter knife!).
I wasn’t the only person to get a knife from GR. They were a parting gift to all of the “most influential people in the industry” (I’ll take that!) who were invited to preview the launch of his new space in the new building 22 Bishopsgate by Liverpool Street Station. The three restaurants opening - Bread Street Kitchen, Lucky Cat and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay High - next February will include his 100th restaurant. What an incredible achievement.
So, yes, I guess this mention of the restaurant openings was sponsored by the gift of the knife (thanks again!) and the champagne and canapes on the night, but I would still recommend it to you once I’d been up and seen these views because WOW.
On the 61st floor Lucky Cat Terrace will be the highest public roof top terrace in Europe. It is fully enclosed with glass except for the retractable roof so it’s very safe. They are floor to triple-height ceiling windows so the views of my favourite city in the world are spectacular. The views are equally stunning on the 59th and 60th floors, even on a misty evening:
This isn’t even a third of it. The views are almost 360. You can see St Paul’s as well and so much more.
If the canapes are indicators of the food to come then you’ll be sorted there as well. And as always with GR restaurants the service will be impeccable. I went to Petrus 15 years ago as I was reading Gordon’s biography and he talked about service and attention to detail and how to get customers to spend more on drinks. 😅 Fair play, it’s a business!
Gordon shared a lesson he’d learnt about how important it is to put stamps onto a letter straight because every little thing says something about you and what you care about, particularly about how you care and show respect for others. It stuck with me ever since (pun not intended!), although that one boss I was too often late for must have been my subconscious leaking out. 🫣 It’s something I hope I managed to pass on to the people I’ve mentored since as well.
Pre-book your lunch or dinner at what will be the UK’s highest restaurants here.
I’ll be back with the Speciality Fine Food Fair highlights next week! There are lots of new places in London to tell you about and York too.
Tell me in the comments the best chocolate you’ve had this year? I’d love to know!
This post is free to read so please share with anyone you know who loves chocolate or might want to be part of chocolate week!
love and deliciousness,
Jen x
* some of the links above are affiliate links. It won’t affect the price you pay but might help to keep it possible for me to keep writing every week and keep most of it free!
Are you planning to be at the Chocolate weekend in Farringdon on the 12th and 13th? If so, we'll see you there! We've booked for three of the tastings 😊
I am SO keen to come on a chocolate tour! Will see if I can entice a couple of friends too for one of the October ones if there are still spaces x