loveFOOD meets... a chocolate shop owner
Isabelle Chappell left a career in fashion buying behind to learn the art of the chocolatier.
“I’m very ambitious, but also a perfectionist,” chocolatier Isabelle Chappell tells me. It’s not surprising. Chocolate-making is an art form – and this artist creates it in front of her customers in her Cambridge shop Chocolat Chocolat.
With a background in visual merchandising and buying for fashion stores Laura Ashley and Monsoon, it was a stint in France when inspiration struck Isabelle. Seeking a location for a new Monsoon Accessorize store, she came across a chocolate shop in Paris and spotted a gap in the market for something similar in the UK.
Learning the trade
Isabelle spent time with a French chocolatier to learn how to make chocolate before taking the decision to set up the new business with her husband Robin. “You don’t need to be a chef to be a chocolatier,” she says, “but you need to learn the art of chocolate. My mother’s French and she was always cooking and making pastries, which helped too.”
At the annual trade chocolate fair in Cologne, Isabelle was introduced to a Belgian chocolatier, now in his 70s, who used to run the chocolate museum in Brussels. “I spent a lot of time working with him,” she says. “I had my own ideas of how I wanted to make the chocolate and needed to work out how to make moulds for it.”
Getting hands-on was always part of the plan. “We didn’t want to just buy chocolates from suppliers. We wanted to make our own and make it front of customers in the shop. That’s very common in Belgium, and a little but in France, where every town has a chocolate shop, but rare in the UK.”
Open for business
Chocolat Chocolat opened in Cambridge in May 2009 and the pretty shop has developed a strong local fanbase. “We wanted a strong brand but something very French, so it looked like a traditional French chocolate shop,” says Isabelle. “Classic yet modern. In fact, people come in and say ‘I’ve seen you in Paris’ even though they haven’t, because of the traditional French colours, packaging and lettering.”
An authentic French feel with innovative, not faddy, flavours, has been key to the success of Chocolat Chocolat. “We try to feature something seasonal that’s different – but not too far off what people want,” says Isabelle. “We were perhaps a little ahead on the sea salt trend. We’d seen it in Europe and played around with the flavours. Our caramel, praline and sea salt chocolate is our biggest seller.”
What’s the key to a successful flavour combination then? “Well, when I stopped making the caramel, praline and sea salt chocolate, we had so many requests for it that we now make it three times a week and always sell out,” she says. “We use a mild French sea salt from the Atlantic coast, similar to Welsh salt, so the flavours aren’t too aggressive. I work hard on getting the flavours perfect and tweak until it’s right. And when it is, it’s wonderful to hear that from customers.”
Top of the chocs right now
Currently, a milk chocolate with rose oil and rose Turkish Delight on top is proving a winner, but their second bestseller is white chocolate with freeze dried raspberries and pistachios. “My personal favourite is number three, a dark chocolate with espresso coffee in it and coffee beans on top,” Isabelle tells me. “I spend a lot of time talking to other chocolatiers about new flavours and trends. Watch out for chocolate with liquorice with chocolate which is getting good feedback.”
She also enjoys trying chocolate from other countries. “Whenever anyone I know goes abroad, I ask them to bring back some,” says Isabelle. “I had one from Sicily recently. It was untempered, and lovely and crumbly. Going to cocoa plantations is also interesting. Often, the producers have never tasted the end products. They’ll eat cocoa beans or drink cocoa but not the actual chocolate.”
So how has life changed with Chocolat Chocolat and what’s next? “I miss weekends,” admits Isabelle. “When you work for yourself, it’s seven days a week.” But her previous job had different challenges – constant travel, pressure and juggling a career, marriage and two young children. “I wouldn’t work for anyone else now. Once you’ve worked for yourself, it’s hard to go back.”
Isabelle and Robin are currently working on the website to make it look “fantastic” and their chocolate-making courses have proved so popular that a separate venue may be on the cards. “Our daughters are also interested in the business,” says Isabelle. “The older one on the managing side, but the younger one makes chocolates in the shop when she comes from university.”
Slowly but surely seems to be the mantra for this chocolatier. “I like to get everything perfect before the next step whereas my husband wants to soar ahead! I’d love to have more shops nearby if the formula is right.”
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