Valrhona chocolate is the current favourite with many leading Hong Kong chefs and dessert experts, and is appearing with increasing frequency on menus at many of the city’s high-end restaurants. Learn more about this French chocolate, the leading choice of the professional, a try the recipes at the end of the article.

Some call it the La Grande Dame of gourmet chocolate, while others the Ferrari of chocolate. It has received extensive international media coverage.

Valrhona produce a professional range which is marketed to the catering and restaurant industry as well as the artisan chocolate maker.



It also produces a selection of chocolate for the consumer that is often sold at luxury food retailers. 

The chocolate is rich, creamy, smooth, and balanced, with a pure chocolate flavour. Like wine, the packet labeling includes tasting notes. 

The Bean
Established in 1922, by a French pastry chef from the Rhône valley, Valrhona produced chocolate for trade and professionals only for the first sixty years. In 1984, it became the first chocolate maker to introduce a 70% cocoa chocolate to consumers.

Today it is one of the leading producers of chocolate in the world and the firm favourite of connoisseurs and critics.

The company is credited with pioneering the production of high quality chocolate from carefully controlled sources and started the trend of featuring the percentage of the cocoa solids in chocolate. It has its own plantations and takes great pride in using traditional growing and production methods, such as sun drying the beans.





It is also the official partner of the Pastry World Cup.

The Chocolate
The introduction of their ‘grand cru’ chocolates in the eighties was the first chocolate that included known origins. It is the only company that produces vintage chocolate that is made from beans produced by a single year's harvest sourced from a specific plantation.

The company also introduce rare or limited edition chocolate. For example in 2006 it launched its limited-edition Porcelana de Pedregal. It was a 311gram bar of chocolate made from the rare Criollo bean, which had been shaped to resemble the cacao flower. It cost approximately US$80 per bar. It was reported that gourmands were distraught when the run ended and the company is said to be contemplating bringing the chocolate back in another form.



Valrhona is also the chocolate used in the most expensive chocolate in the world, the Knipschildt truffle, which is priced at US$250 per truffle. The chocolate actually contains a Perigord truffle. Made to order they only have a seven-day shelf life.

The Secret
Experts say that the key ingredient in creating superior chocolate is growing the most perfect bean.

Valrhona is said to grow perfect beans, this is large factor in the praise, and recognition from top pastry chefs, and the company has a strong commitment to growing the best cacao in the world.

Other secret ingredients in its success is the high percentage of cacao content and the use of pure cacao butter, both of which result in strong aromas and full flavour.

The Praise
When reviewing the company’s Noir Amer (71% cocoa solids) one chocolate aficionado wrote, “Noir Amer is almost a religious experience. It is as close as I have ever come to experiencing pure chocolate essence.”



Adding, “What happens is that you taste the sweetness and the bitterness at different times. You taste the sweetness first, but it is quickly overwhelmed by the total suffusion of chocolate flavor…I live in awe of whoever the head chocolate formula person at Valrhona is.”

Fun Fact
It takes 10 cocoa pods to make six bars of 70% chocolate.

More Information
In addition to company information the website www.valrhona.com has a fascinating history of chocolate, information on how Valrhona makes its chocolate, tasting notes, and recipes.

It also runs the École du Grand Chocolat, a school for professional chefs with a focus on chocolate-based dishes and pastries.

In Hong Kong, Great, Taste, ThreeSixty and City’super stock the chocolate.

Photo Credit: All photos, except Chocolate Mousse courtesy of Valrhona.

Recipes
The Peninsula’s Valrhona Chocolate Mousse with Semi-Whipped Mint Cream – serves 10



Mousse
380g Valrhona chocolate (55%), chopped
200ml Cream
200ml Milk
40g Sugar
80g Egg Yolks (approx. 4)
40ml Kirsch
10g Gelatine
500g Whipped Cream

Bring the cream, milk and sugar to the boil, pour onto egg yolks and cook to a custard.  Strain and add the softened gelatine, mix well pour over the chopped chocolate.  Stir slowly until smooth, fold in whipped cream and kirsch, mix well, fill the mousse in the desired moulds or in dessert glasses, refrigerate until set and serve with mint-flavoured cream.

Mint Cream
5dl Cream
50g Fresh Mint Leaves
Wash and dry the mint leaves, mix with the cream and steep for 24 hours. Strain and slightly whip to a soft peak, serve.
Recipe courtesy of Florian Trento, Executive Chef, The Peninsula Hotel

Anastasia’s Flourless Valrhona Chocolate Mud Cake (for serious chocoholics)
400g Valrhona dark chocolate
1 cup thick cream (45% fat)
2 tbs Armagnac or Brandy
1 tsp Cinnamon
 6 Eggs
 ½ cup Brown Sugar
Melt chocolate, whisk cream until peaks form, stir in brandy and cinnamon. Beat the eggs and sugar in a warm bowl (place bowl in warm water bath) until pale and thick. Fold in the melted chocolate and cream mix. Pour mixture into greased tin, bake at 150c in a baking dish half full of water. Cook for 1 hour. Cake is cooked when set on edges and soft in centre; cool and then refrigerate. Turn out when cold using a hot knife (a hot cloth on the bottom of the tin may also help) and apply icing.



Icing
120ml thick cream
160g dark chocolate
1 tablespoon butter
Bring cream to the boil, remove from stove. Add chocolate and stir until melted, add butter and stir until smooth. Cool, spread onto cake and return to refrigerator. Decorate with fresh berries and passion fruit; serve with cream or ice-cream.