Past Events

UK Chocolatiers Share Recipes for Success

The Academy of Chocolate are delighted to bring you the first of 2024 events.

It will be an hour-long webinar hosted by Keith Hurdman. As a Master Chocolatier and AOC Board member, Keith is uniquely well placed to chair this webinar. He will be joined by a very distinguished panel of UK AOC Award Winners:

Duffy Sheardown of Duffy’s Chocolate in Grimsby. Since he was the AOC’s Best British Newcomer 2011, Duffy has steadily won many awards over the years.

Joanna Brennan founded from Suffolk’s prestigious Pump Street Chocolate with her father Chris Brennan in 2010.

Remy Kuijken became Liverpool’s first bean to bar chocolate maker when he founded Table Chocolate with his wife Andrea Porto.

Over this hour-long session, we’ll find out what makes these chocolatiers tick. What inspired them to become a chocolatier in the first place? How do they avoid the inevitable pit falls along the way! Where do they see fine chocolate in the UK developing…

With such an interesting lineup of different personalities and approaches, the webinar is set to be as informative as it will be fun.

EVENT DETAILS

Date : Thursday 4th July 2024

Time : 19.30-20.30 (BST)

Price : £15 per person (Non-refundable)

Zoom link will be shared via registered email 1 day prior to event.

Registration deadline: Tuesday 2nd July 2024, 12.00 (BST)

Panelists:

Duffy Sheardown – Duffy’s Chocolate

Joanna Brennan – Pump Street Chocolate

Remy Kuijken – Table Chocolate

Moderator:

Keith Hurdman – AoC Board Member, Chocolate Consultant & Educator

|About Duffy Sheardown & Duffy’s Chocolate|

In 2008, Duffy Sheardown heard on the radio that Cadbury’s was the only company in England at the time to make its chocolate directly from cocoa beans. It sounded like a challenge and a gap in the market. Later the following year, on holiday in Guatemala, Duffy bought a couple of 500g bags of cocoa beans with the idea of teaching himself to make chocolate. Back home, he spent the next 18 months learning the techniques, experimenting with recipes and honing his skills. Then he took the plunge, rented a small factory in his home-town in Lincolnshire and Duffy’s Chocolate was born, becoming the first small artisan bean-to-bar chocolate company in the UK. Now, over 10 years and countless awards later, this dedicated, hands-on approach is still at the heart of Duffy’s Chocolate.

|About Joanna Brennan & Pump Street Chocolate|

Pump Street is a family run, award–winning bakers and craft chocolate makers from the village of Orford, Suffolk. Founded in November 2010 by father and daughter team Chris and Joanan Brennan, it is the result of Chris’ years developing his skills as a self-taught baker and later chocolate maker. After mastering the art of naturally–leavened bread, they ventured into making chocolate from beans imported directly from single estates and cooperatives around the world. Provenance and process are key in producing the finest Pump Street Chocolate bars, sourcing cacao from only the best growers who ferment and dry the beans at origin. In April 2023, Pump Street was awarded The King’s Award for Enterprise 2023, achieved only by ahandful of outstanding businesses in the UK.

|About Remy Kuijken & Table Chocolate|

Remy Kuijken is a Dutch graphic designer turned pastry chef, chocolatier and chocolate maker. Born in The Netherlands, he first graduated as a Chef to afterwards dedicate his studies completely to Pastry attending the Star Class Specialisation in Amsterdam. His experience within 5 star hotels, Michelin-star environments and fine dining restaurants in different countries has allowed him to see many aspects of gastronomy through an array of languages and cultures. After working professionally with what he considered high quality chocolate for over 10 years, he then discovered we only know the tip of the iceberg of cacao varieties. Obsessed with the fascinating bean to bar world and after moving back to the UK at the end of 2020, within a year of trial and development he founded TABLE together with his wife in November 2021.

|About Keith Hurdman|

Keith has been working since the age of 16 with chocolate in one form or another so more than 40 years now in confectionary and its affiliated industries, mostly in Switzerland, though also for 10 years or so in England. An outstanding Master-Craftsman, he completed his basic patisserie and confectionary training at Westminster College and the National Bakery School in London and was further educated in the art and science of chocolate and confectionary in England, France, and the world renowned Richemont School in Lucerne Switzerland where he also later taught chocolate confectionary. He was until recently Corporate-Chocolatier for one of the world’s leading fine chocolate manufacturers and is currently a lecturer in Chocolate, Confectionary and Patisserie in Switzerland where he is also a consultant to both small artisan and large international chocolate companies.