Belgian chocolatiers face up to changing tastes
BRUSSELS: Belgium is rightly proud as producer of some of the world's finest chocolate but changing tastes and new markets in Asia and the Arab world are shaking up its somewhat predictable scene.
“Belgian traditional chocolates? Some people still do them really well, such as the major brands,” said Laurent Gerbaud, one of the new generation of chocolatiers trying to keep up with a discerning clientele. In his workshop in the centre of Brussels, a customer will find few traces of the Manon, the praline filled with coffee-flavoured cream and covered in white chocolate which has been the industry mainstay for decades.
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Gerbaud instead offers small chocolates made with exotic and unusual flavourings - figs from Izmir in Turkey, the bitter berries of the barberry tree, Cape pears or yuzu, a citrus fruit from Japan.
“My priority is clear, simple flavours, using the best ingredients possible. My chocolates use less sugar and fat in response to increasing demand,” Gerbaud said.
Such chocolates with a bitter and sharp edge were first made in France in the 1990s as artisan chocolatiers came onto the scene.
In Belgium, the trend has been slower to get off the ground in an industry dominated by such illustrious names as Leonidas, Godiva, Cote d'Or or Neuhaus. But that is beginning to change, with new brands coming through, even if progress is slow and Belgium's some 400 artisan chocolatiers remain wary of getting carried away.
“It is extremely difficult to establish a brand, to build up a clientele and to be profitable. After 11 years, I still do not have profits,” says Gerbaud, one of the best in the business.
