Ethics and Chocolate: What Flavours Can Tell Us

Karine Guillemette

In this 1 hour curated tasting, you will hear about taste and sustainability, and how the flavours of small-scale bean-to-bar chocolate says a lot about the specialty cacao supply chain. In short, through surprising and different flavours, usually not associated with chocolate, makers express the difference between specialty cacao and commodity market cacao.

Karine Chretien Guillemette has extensive experience in the specialty bean-to-bar chocolate industry. As owner of La Tablette de Miss Choco, Montreal, which specialized in bean-to-bar chocolate, she imported and distributed several bean-to-bar chocolate brands in Canada. She has also hosted chocolate tasting workshops, conferences and pairing events over the years. As a PhD candidate in food studies at Concordia University, she has now returned to her academic roots. Her research, which uses her broad  experience in chocolate, focuses on food pedagogy and critical consumer education in this specialty industry.

Tempering and Working with Chocolate

Dr. Kerry Beal

Kerry has spent 25 years working with all aspects of chocolate, teaching a multitude of people starting chocolate businesses. She is the Quality Assurance tutor for Ecole Chocolat, troubleshooting quality issues with students. In her well equipped lab she is able to test, modify and refine recipes and procedures and can suggest ways to safely extend shelf-life. At other festivals, Kerry attracts large crowds with her mainstage tempering and molding demonstrations. Since 2008, she has run an annual 2-day Chocolate Workshop for professional and amateur confectioners. Kerry also produced a series of educational DVDs on chocolate techniques for beginners. She is the creator and producer of the EZtemper Cocoa Butter Seed Generator - a new technology that guarantees perfect tempering every time. It has been embraced by chocolatiers from Dubai to Australia.