Stir Cheat Sheet: 6 creative local companies that transform chocolate into art

For these Vancouver makers, cacao seeds are a springboard to mouthwatering designs

By Gail Johnson

At Living Lotus, Audrey Wong makes small-batch finger bars out of ethically sourced ingredients. Photo by Leigh Righton

CHOCOLATE MAY MAKE for a foolproof holiday gift, but for so many Vancouver chefs, it’s the starting point for year-round artistic expression. Here’s an assortment of local culinary ventures doing playfully delicious things with cacao beans.

Living Lotus. Photo by Leigh Richton

#1

Living Lotus

Audrey Wong recalls trying a cacao fruit for the first time several years ago, and how the experience brought on a childlike sense of wonder. Those bites planted the seeds for what would become a future in ethical, vegan chocolate.

“I remember marvelling in the fact the seeds inside the fruit was where chocolate came from,” Wong tells Stir. “I began delving into how chocolate is made and where cacao comes from. This started the deep dive of cacao research.”

Wong went on to start Living Lotus in 2013. Initially a healthy-desserts company, the company now specializes in making bean-to-bar chocolate by hand in small batches using clean ingredients from farmers who are paid a fair wage.

“Our ethos was and still is, what are you eating? How does it make you feel? Are you eating the whole food? Know where your food comes from,” Wong says. “There's so much to know about chocolate that we don't think about. It's important to me to make sure that our ingredients are ethically sourced.”

Living Lotus uses cacao beans, cacao butter, and coconut sugar to make its signature slender bars imprinted with exquisite designs: hummingbirds, berries, flowers, and grasses.

“By making chocolate using the whole cacao bean, we are creating a very different flavour experience than if it was commercially made chocolate,” Wong says. “There is no soy, modified milk ingredients, or any hidden additives.

“The cacao bean itself is not a local ingredient so my thoughts were, ‘How do we make it shine?’" Wong says. “I wanted to make it possible for the cacao beans to be properly showcased in flavour and visibility, and that is why I decided to use the intricately designed finger bars. The cacao bean goes through so much before it gets to us—it’s grown, harvested, fermented, and dried. I think this is the best way to show it off.”

New at Living Lotus is a monthly chocolate subscription, which includes two standard bars and one limited release bar each month. For the holidays, there are chocolate tree pops made of oat milk chocolate or matcha white chocolate; zero-waste oat-milk and dark Arriba Nacional chocolate stars; salted caramel ganache truffles; and more.

Paris in a Chocolate. Photo by John Lau

#2

Paris In A Chocolate

Vancouver chef Ann Kirsebom’s chocolates are unlike any others you’ll find in town. Trained in classical French cooking, including tutelage by Julia Child, Kirsebom runs her own full-service boutique catering company and has travelled the globe as a chef on a luxury cruise ship. Along the way, she managed to secure a licensing agreement with Grand Marnier for her gourmet sauces.

​One day, the light bulb went off after the stamped red-wax seal fell off a bottle of the French orange liqueur she had. A lifelong chocolate lover, Kirsebom approached the brand with a recipe incorporating the elixir, along with the design of a grand cachet-- an exact replica, just larger, of Grand Marnier's iconic wax seal. Paris In A Chocolate was born.

In Paris, she has personally served them at the Canadian Embassy and at the Canadian Ambassador to France’s residence for special events, including Canada’s birthday; she has been a guest at Versailles for Soirees, benefitting the Royal Opera. Kirsebom is also working with the French Canada Chamber of Commerce for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Locally, Paris In A Chocolate is available as singles and luxury gift boxes of eight at Broadway International Wine Shop and floral boutiques, among other stockists.

Beaucoup Bakery and Cafe. Photo by Rich Won

#3

Beaucoup Bakery and Café

Pastry chef Betty Hung is well-known for baking batches of extraordinarily delicious croissants, sandwich cookies, pain au chocolat, brioche, kouign amann, brownies, blondies, tarts, and more at Beaucoup Bakery and Café, which she operates with her brother, Jacky. Now, she’s making beautiful chocolates.

Beaucoup’s inaugural new Maison Collection features pastry-flavoured bonbons and limited-edition holiday sculptures made of premium French Valrhona chocolate.

“I love chocolate and studied chocolate making in Paris,” Hung said in a release. “There is definitely an art to making great chocolate. You need to take into consideration the nuances of white, milk, and dark varieties, and how they complement different flavours. We knew our first collection would be an ode to our favourite pastries.”

Flavours include cinnamon scroll with cinnamon, pecan, and caramel; almond croissant with almond praline, brown butter ganache, and almond crunch; raspberry brioche with raspberry ganache and caramelized white chocolate ganache; cardamom kouign amann with cardamom vanilla bean caramel ganache; rosemary chocolate cookie with salted dark chocolate ganache; and chanson aux pommes with spiced apple.

#4

East Van Roasters

The social enterprise is on par with the city’s best chocolatiers, making bean-to bar bites and drinks as well as takeaway coffees and pastries. Situated in the historic Rainier Hotel, EVR is owned and operated by the PHS Community Services Society and employs women living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside who are looking to re-enter the workforce. COVID-19 has taken a tough toll on the registered charity, as it mentors vulnerable members of the community.

Seasonal treats available for pick up, shipping, or delivery via Fresh Prep and Legend’s Haul include the Holiday Trilogy with Fireside (blood orange, pistachio, and cardamom in white chocolate), Gingerbread Toffee, and Mint Cookie chocolate bars; a 16-piece Holiday Confections Box (which includes the International Chocolate Awards-winning hazelnut caramel and cranberry spruce truffle); the crème caramel toasted white chocolate bar; and a four-piece vegan chocolate box.  E-gift cards for future chocolate indulgences are also an option for a gift that gives back.

Mon Paris Pâtisserie. Photo by Nora Hamade

#5

Mon Paris Pâtisserie

Burnaby-based pastry chef Elena Krasnova grew up in Volgograd during the former Soviet Union’s perestroika period and discovered how food could be an art form after studying in France. She makes chocolates, macarons, classic French pastries and contemporary baked goods like Limoncello tarts, ricotta tarts with jasmine-infused caramelized pears, and coffee-cream profiteroles.

This time of year, in addition to colourful chocolates, she’s creating bûches de Noël in flavours such as pistachio-raspberry and hazelnut and a chocolate poinsettia flowerpot. We love her pure milk-chocolate diorama complete a hanging stocking, pinecone, and truffles.

Rocky Mtn Chocolate.

#6

Rocky Mtn Chocolate

 

The company that got its start in Whistler Village in 1988 by husband-and-wife team of Brian and Tammy Kerzner (not to be confused with the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory) is a member of the World Cacao Foundation, which works toward ensuring environmental sustainability and the prosperity of cacao farmers around the globe. With locations all across Canada, the store makes all of its chocolates by hand in Burnaby.

Among the sweet treats in its Holiday Collection are cherry clusters, tiramisu caramels, eggnog bombs, and cranberry domes.

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