The Review - RESTAURANTS Published: 25 October 2007
Hannah Saxton
Mr Wonka eat your heart out!
Hannah Saxton dropped out of art college and spent the last few pounds of her student loan on creating a real-life chocolate
factory, writes Jamie Welham
CHOCLOATE lovers awake from your cocoa induced slumber – Willy Wonka wasn’t just a character in a book – he, or should I say she, lives, and you don’t need a golden ticket to see her.
Hannah Saxton has set up her very own chocolate factory where chocoholics can don an apron and play chocolate alchemist for the day.
Deep in the bowels of Clerkenwell, an innocuous-looking sign on a bland industrial unit frontage betrays little of the decadence below.
You can literally follow your nose through the labyrinth of tunnels, beyond the corridors of identical doors before you reach another place, a fantasy land free from worldly cares and concerns, a chocolate lovers’ Oz that goes by the name of MyChocloate.
It looks something like a 1950s ice-cream parlour and the aroma is divine, but it is the menu that really does it. It will have you salivating like a dog in a desert – Madagascan vanilla cream truffles, gooey dark chocolate fudge, Italian hazelnut praline, orange and chilli chocolate are all possibilities under the expert tutilege of MyChocolate’s finest chocolatiers.
So was it a vivid imagination, a desire to turn fantasy into reality, or an unhealthy love for chocolate that gave birth to the idea? “It goes without saying that I love chocolate, all girl’s do,” says Hannah. “But it was more of a business thing. “I saw a similar thing in Amsterdam when I was a student and realised there was nothing like it back here, especially from a corporate perspective where everything was so macho – you could either go paintballing or go carting and that was it, there was nothing for girls. “It was a big gamble, I dropped out of art school and set up the business with what was left of my student loan. It was manic at first. I was practically running it out of my bedroom.”
Not bad for a college drop-out and now, four years on, MyChocolate is firmly on the corporate entertainment map as well as doing a roaring trade with hen parties and chocolate lovers generally. In addition to crafting and sampling their creations, chocolatiers teach their apprentices the exotic history of chocolate – from bean to bar.
Hannah says: “We are a learning experience as well. We recognise that the diversity of chocolate and the taste depends on the variations in origins, bean type, nature and processes, and we want to share this knowledge with our guests. “Appreciating chocolate makes it taste so much better.”
There are a range of workshops to tailor to every need with corporate champagne workshops lasting three hours, children’s workshops, hen-party packages and catering services.
Just get ready to go cold turkey afterwards.
* See www.mychocolate.co.uk for more information, prices and booking details or call
020 7269 5760.
MyChocolate, 16-16a Baldwins Gardens, Unit B1, EC1N 7RJ
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