A young Scottish Chocolatier has said that she is ‘truly delighted’ to be one of only 25 food and drink businesses nominated for a prestigious Golden Fork Award this year.
Chloe Oswald first trained to become a patisserie chef in fine dining restaurants across the country from Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles to Scotland’s only green Michelin-star eatery, Inver.
In 2020, the 27-year-old took a 'leap of faith' by launching Chocolatia from her home kitchen in Angus and now produces around 2000 chocolates each week with plans to expand to her first commercial premises soon.
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Earlier this month, the Guild of Fine Food recognised Chocolatia with an impressive three gold stars for three of its chocolates: the Hazelnut Latte Bonbon, Pecan Pie Bonbon, and the Sea Salt Caramel Filled Bar.
Further stars were awarded for its Coffee Caramel Bar, Raspberry Cheesecake Bonbon, Passion Fruit Bonbon and Scottish Chocolate Coated Honeycomb.
It has been reported that this year's Great Taste Awards attracted 14,195 entries for products from across the world with only 5,904 of those earning a star.
Following on from her incredible success, Chloe has now been shortlisted for the Golden Fork Award, which will see her products judged once again by an expert panel before the winners are announced during a ceremony at Battersea Arts Centre on Monday, September 11.
After learning of her nomination, she said: “I’ve never entered these awards before and am truly delighted to have been recognised like this.
“Starting Chocolatia was a real leap of faith and I’ve been blown away by the support and success I’ve experienced.
“It’s a dream to be in a job where I can create delicious flavours and share them.
“Feeding people is how I show love and so this really is a dream job for me. I can’t wait to head down and meet some of the talented makers of food and drink from the UK and beyond.”
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Working with ethical suppliers, each Chocolatia chocolate is handmade and painted in small batches by Chloe in Forfar.
The young business owner is said to have inherited a passion for sweet treats from her family, with her maternal grandfather born and raised on a cocoa plantation in Trinidad and her paternal grandmother teaching her to bake Scottish favourites like tablet.
"My family has a background in cocoa going back over the generations," she continued, "so this means so much to me."
To celebrate her Golden Fork Award nomination, Chloe has now produced a nine-piece box of the three chocolates that were awarded three gold stars which is available to purchase from the Chocolatia website.
Find Chocolatia online here.
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