Chocolatier
A chocolatier (from French) makes chocolate products. He is a pastry chef or confectioner who specializes in chocolate and makes sweets out of chocolate. Chocolatiers work by hand with prefabricated chocolate mass and are therefore to be distinguished from industrial chocolate manufacturers.
In the food industry it is at the major known chocolate brands often food technologists or engineers for Food Technology ( FH ), which deal with development and advancement of chocolate products. For the industrial production of chocolate and chocolate products, a three-year training course has been set up in Germany as a specialist in confectionery technology . The central technical college of the German confectionery industry (ZDS) in Solingen offers further education and training.
Initial and continuing education
Chocolatier is not an independent training occupation . Chocolatiers usually start out as confectioners , but anyone can become a chocolatier through recognized schooling and self-taught learning. Sufficient further training is necessary in order to get a job as a chocolatier or to be able to work as an independent master chocolatier. A master chocolatier has perfected the art of working with chocolate; he creates beautifully shaped and skillfully crafted works of art from chocolate. This requires years of experience and good background knowledge of confectionery and baked goods .
There are a variety of culinary schools and even specialty chocolate schools, such as the École Chocolate in Canada or The Chocolate Academy run by Callebaut with thirteen different schools around the world. The French Culinary Institute in New York City offers courses for future chocolatiers.
To become a chocolatier, one must first learn how to make chocolate. In increasing degrees of difficulty, one learns the working techniques for the creation of handcrafted works of art, which above all have to be tasty. Usually, training starts with how to make chocolate from a wide variety of ingredients. Once the trainees have learned how to make chocolate and begin to understand the physical and chemical aspects of chocolate, they can work with chocolate in a wide variety of applications. Since chocolate is a versatile food, various courses offer knowledge on different techniques for processing chocolate. Only when one is well trained in all uses of chocolate or has specialized in a specific application is one considered as a chocolatier. Advanced training and courses can lead to a better understanding of the ingredients of chocolate and how sculpting can create admirable masterpieces out of chocolate.
Professional chocolatiers have knowledge of
- the history of chocolate
- modern techniques of processing and refinement
- the chemical properties of flavors and surface structures of chocolate
- Tempering , glazing, decorating and molding of chocolate
- Confectionery recipes with ganache , sugar syrup and / or fondant
- Business knowledge in the areas of marketing and production.
Competitions
The best of the chocolatiers compete in competitions such as the World Chocolate Masters , which was launched by French and Belgian chocolate manufacturers. The competition evaluates in four different categories, including modeled pralines , hand-glazed pralines, gastronomic chocolate desserts, small and creative chocolate showpieces. Some of the best chocolatiers of today are Naomi Mizuno from Japan, Francisco Torreblanca, Spanish master chocolatier, Pierre Marcolini from Belgium, Yvonnick Le Maux from France and Carmelo Sciampagna from Italy. These master chocolatiers are among the best in the world when it comes to designing and sculpting with chocolate.
techniques
Tempering : Tempering is the thermal and mechanical treatment of melted chocolate in order to influence the crystalline structure of the cocoa butter when it cools. This is necessary, for example, so that it has a shiny surface without fat bloom and a crisp mouthfeel . A chocolatier needs to know how to correctly temper chocolate for various applications or desired properties. There are machines that can do the tempering, but most chocolatiers use marble slabs and hand tools to cool and work with the chocolate.
Mold casting : Mold casting is a design technique used to shape chocolate in a quickly repeatable manner. Liquid chocolate is poured into a mold ( model ) and hardens there.
Sculpture : Sculpture is a form of three-dimensional craftsmanship and in the case of a chocolatier, only chocolate is used to create the artwork. Sculpture may involve using molds and pieces of chocolate and decorating with chocolate embellishments.
literature
- Chantal Coady: chocolate. The manual for connoisseurs. Taschen Verlag , Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-822-87596-1 . (Introduces the leading chocolatiers across Europe on two pages each).
- Pierre Hermé , Danielle Monteaux: Carrément Chocolat. Agnès Viénot Éditions, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2-35326-058-4 .
- Ewald Notter: Handicraft Chocolate: Techniques - Recipes - Showpieces. Matthaes Verlag, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-87515-126-8 .
- Oriol Balaguer: Obsession. Matthaes Verlag , Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-87515-131-2 .
- Fabian Rehmann: Bean to Bar: From cocoa beans to chocolate bars. Practice book. Leopold Stocker Verlag , Graz, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-7020-1780-4 .
Movies
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Kings of Pastry. Documentary, USA, France, 2009, 87 min., Director: Chris Hegedus, DA Pennebaker , production: Pennebaker Hegedus Films, film page .
Observations from the annual Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) competition in France a. a. in the production of the fragile chocolate showpieces under tension and with the participation of the jurors. - Chocolate country Salzburg. The art of seduction. Documentary, Austria, 2014, 10:40 min., Script and director: Matthias Vogt, production: ORF , first broadcast: August 8, 2014 in ORF III , series: Unser Österreich , summary by ORF, ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in Internet Archive ).
Web links
- Chocolate in Switzerland . Dossier on swissworld.org
- Initial and continuing education. Handcrafted . In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 20, 2009
Individual evidence
- ^ Skilled worker - confectionery technology - chocolate. In: Federal Employment Agency .
- ↑ Training and further education offers ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the Central College of the German Confectionery Industry (ZDS)
- ↑ Leaflet on confectionery training. ( Memento from January 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Deutscher Konditorenbund , (PDF; 705 kB).
- ↑ Chocolate School - Chocolate Making Courses - Chocolatier Classes (English, French)
- ↑ a b The Chocolate Academy of Callebaut (German)
- ^ Chocolate Candy and Confections. In: The French Culinary Institute , (English).
- ^ Professional Chocolatier Program ( Memento of November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of the École Chocolat in Vancouver .
- ↑ WCM 2005 - 2015. In: worldchocolatemasters.com .
- ↑ Naomi Mizuno of Japan is crowned World Chocolate Master of 2007. ( Memento from January 26, 2018 in the Internet Archive ). In: pastryprofiles.com , October 22, 2007.
- ↑ Pierre Marcolini Chocolatier - Best Belgian Chocolate. In: thenibble.com .
- ^ World Finals: Report. In: worldchocolatemasters.com , 2007.
