During a recent visit to Brussels for Art Brussels, I met one of my favourite young Belgian chocolate makers, Laurent Gerbaud, in his shop opposite the cultural hub BOZAR. His store is like his chocolates: authentic, seductive and pleasant.
Packaged chocolates are displayed on a big central table for those who are in a hurry. For others who take the time to select their favourite, there is a proper “comptoir“ with a view onto the workshop. What I love about Gerbaud’s chocolates is that they are simple – almost basic – and at the same time unique in their combination of very fine 75% chocolate with exciting and unusual products. Gerbaud exclusively uses chocolate from a Turin maker, Domori, which creates exceptional quality products using fine cocoa varieties from renowned single origins.
Gerbaud’s grandparents were already in the pastry-making business, creating chocolates for special occasions. After studying medieval history, he decided to train at the CERIA school in Belgium. He later went to visit friends in China and stayed a few years in Shanghai, becoming fluent in Mandarin and beginning to create chocolates with a less sweet taste to meet the taste of local consumers. It was here that he started to combine chocolate with acidic and fruity ingredients, such as kumquat, bergamot or yuzu, as well as salty products such as salted nuts or even pepper. From his time spent in China, he also kept his current logo, which means “chocolate” in Chinese.
Following his return to Belgium, Gerbaud continued his experiments and produced his new range of chocolates in his grandmother’s basement. These were distributed in several countries including the UK in Waitrose. In 2009, he opened his shop in the historical centre of Brussels. The shop includes a tasting salon and he regularly organises tasting sessions comparing different chocolates of same cocoa percentage. He also takes part in many corporate events and incentives and he is regularly invited to exclusive resorts to give workshops.
His chocolates can be divided into three main ranges. The first category consists of various ingredients such as grapefruit, fig, pear, prune, ginger and orange, covered with pure chocolate. One of his new ingredients is physalis. The fruits are carefully selected, aged and stored to reach a certain consistence when covered with chocolate.
The second category consists of individual round “caraques” finely covered with a single ingredient such as coca beans, roasted Piedmont hazelnuts, almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts or pistachios. Some of these are also offered as chocolate bars. My favorite is the Yuzu bar, with the Japanese yuzu delivering a light, refreshing taste that fits perfectly with the bitterness of the Domori chocolate.
The last range consists of a variety of “ganaches”. The highlight is speculoos (a Belgian specialty similar to the ginger biscuit). Laurent collaborates with Biscuiterie Dandoy, a family owned company famous in Belgium for its range of speculoos.
This is the work of an artist: Laurent works intuitively and always explores new combinations. I can’t wait for my next visit.
LAURENT GERBAUD
Rue Ravenstein 2 1000 Brussels, Belgium
02 511 57 02
You might not think of a summer music festival as an opportunity to do your bit for the environment. However, with many UK festivals encouraging punters to use their bikes to get to the site, it seems that this year you can start a guilt-free party from the minute you leave home.
While many festivals, including Womad and Green Man, have supported eco-friendly transport methods by offering free or low-cost lock up facilities for bikes and other valuables, those travelling to Bestival (6th-9th September in Isle of Wight) or to Latitude (12-15th July in Suffolk) can now join groups of riders ratcheting up their eco-brownie points while their baggage travels in a single vehicle that will greet them upon arrival.
Both schemes also offer the opportunity to raise money for charity, with Bike to Bestival gathering funds for Cancer Research and each Tour de Latitude participant being required to raise £350 to cover the cost of registration, support, logistics, a weekend festival ticket, a £60 donation to Kenyan Orphan Project and a £20 donation to Julie’s Bicycle. (Online registration is now open at www.give2go.co.uk.)
Both rides are open to all standards of rider and the focus is on making new friends, using your legs and having a clear eco-conscience. You can start your ride to Latitude from three different points, either 113 miles from your destination, in Hackney, London, 55 miles away in Sudbury, or just 35 miles away in Ipswich. The whole route is signposted with bike mechanics, cycle guides and emergency response on hand throughout, not to mention free food and, when the festival is over, a bus ticket and bike transfer that’ll take you right back to where you started.
Helping to save the rainforests may not have been one of your New Year resolutions, but a new campaign headed by Vivienne Westwood might persuade you that it should have been.
The ‘No Fun Being Extinct’ campaign by the Cool Earth charity supports impoverished rainforest communities and aims to stop tropical deforestation in its tracks. Founded by Frank Field MP, Cool Earth states, ‘In the next 24 hours deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as eight million people flying from London to New York. That’s roughly 100 acres cleared every minute.’
Dame Vivienne has recruited a host of famous friends to the cause including Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Lily Cole, and is asking us all to help in saving three of the world’s most endangered rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon, the Congo and parts of Asia.
Since its launch in 2007, Cool Earth has protected over 46 million trees and 2.5 million acres of endangered rainforest. Their ground up approach to conservation and community-led forestry management – ‘working with indigenous communities to make rainforest trees of greater economic value left standing than cut down’ – presents a template for governments to follow.
Cool Earth, (which highlights that only 10% of the £390 million dedicated to the Forest Investment Programme by the Climate Investment Fund almost four years ago has been spent on deforestation), was established as ‘a vehicle to allow ordinary people to leapfrog governments and take immediate action in the fight against climate change by protecting rainforests’.
Dame Vivienne has been working closely with the charity for the last 3-years. “Cool Earth has a plan to save the rainforest. If we don’t save the rainforest forget it! I am personally supporting Cool Earth and investing in our future. I’m inviting anyone interested in saving our beautiful world to join me.”
Sign-up and show your support for Europe’s fastest growing environmental charity via their website: www.nofunbeingextinct.org You can also save as little as 3 trees for just £3!
We all know that giving is scientifically proven to make us feel good. But while Christmas shopping frenzies heat up the high streets, it’s worth remembering that it’s the gifts enabling others to have a brighter future that create a lasting feel-good factor. A growing selection of inspirational and increasingly sophisticated presents allow you to not only show your affection for your friend, colleague or relative, but also to deliver some happiness to someone for whom this season is far from jolly.
The Send a Cow charity – whose name hints at just one aspect of the work they do – pioneered the concept of giving virtual gifts many years ago. They provide sustainable solutions to poverty, facilitating small organic agricultural ventures and educational programmes that are being replicated time and time again. They work with 16,000 families across rural Africa who want to work their way out of poverty. The results are so impressive that governments have adopted their development system.
SendaCow “Thank You Joe”
SendaCow’s “Pass it on Principle” means that every family who receives livestock, seeds, saplings and training then passes on the gift to another family in need. For every family the charity helps, on average 10 more benefit. It’s one of the most uplifting charity websites I’ve seen and the thanks you’ll receive for your involvement is likely to get you hooked on this progressive philanthropy.
Closer to home, Coram, a charity working with some of London’s most vulnerable children and young people, has developed six virtual gifts that enable you to assist a neglected youngster. A diary and a pen can help a young person in supported housing to find their feet, or you can help someone to get onto the career ladder with the gift of a suit fit for an interview. With all of Coram’s virtual gifts, the recipient also receives a gift card with chocolate coins and information about your donation so you can both see the benefit of helping to give someone a chance in life.
And if it’s fashion that makes you tick, you may be pleasantly surprised by the selection on offer through the Good Gifts Catalogue. You can buy a dress for an African war widow or, for £75, provide two reconditioned sewing machines to help start a women’s tailoring business, paving the way for sustainable employment in clothing and school uniform production.
For intelligent and cheerful Christmas shopping, go online and opt for presents that make a difference – you may find that you’ll never again succumb to buying pointless gifts.
Lawfully Chic is looking forward to joining Bib&Sola, social entrepreneur Kira Heuer’s glass artworks company, and private members fashion boutique Rous Iland for a fundraising evening in support of Somalia on 25 October.
Ten per cent of profits from the sale of Rous Iland’s clothing range and Bib&Sola’s gorgeous carafe set – Elle Décor magazine’s ‘Buy of the Month’ for November – will go to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mond Nyberg, a UN-HCR representative, will attend the event at Rous Iland’s showroom to chat about the realities of life in Somalia.
In addition to humanitarian and political crises, Somalia has been severely affected by drought. Settlements do not have enough drinking or sanitisation water, with many women and children forced to walk long distances to collect it from wells, exposing them to the risk of violence.
To remind them of the luxury of having clean and safe drinking water, guests will also have the chance to sample Kangen water, which is ionised and alkalised in a process perfected by Japanese company Enagic.
If you are interested in attending the event, please contact Kira Heuer at kira@bibandsola.com.
The Green House is a breath of clean, fresh air for Bournemouth’s hotel scene. They claim to be the greenest hotel in the UK and one could well believe it. The Green House’s emphasis on sustainability and all things eco-friendly whilst remaining impeccably stylish is an impressive feat.
The Greenhouse Hotel – eco-conscious Chic
Fabulous wooden floors from sustainable sources; carpets from 100% sheep’s wool from up the road in Salisbury; beautifully reclaimed Victorian roll top baths; filtered water not bottled; intelligent lighting; Liberty & Green toiletries; solar panels and a CHP unit meaning they produce extra electricity and sell it back to the grid – the list goes on with an attention to detail that could only come from the dedication of a true eco-enthusiast.
The great worry of course, when there is so much focus on all of this is whether or not it’s actually much cop as a hotel. It is. The beds are eminently comfortable (made in the UK by Hypnos with all natural materials since you ask) and the rooms are beautifully decorated with wallpaper by St Martin’s design students alongside eco-paint from Farrow & Ball.
Conscious comforts in The Greenhouse Hotel bedrooms
And the food is fantastic. There’s a new chef called Gordon on the block. Gordon Jones, previously with The Royal Crescent in Bath, is running the kitchen at the hotel’s restaurant and is producing some seriously good cooking. Alongside the A la Carte Menu, he offers a six course tasting menu which draws on a wide range of local, seasonal and organic ingredients of the very highest quality. On our visit Jones and his small team delivered a powerful range of flavours, combining classical techniques with flair and ambition. The tasting menu kicked off with a delicate Jerusalem Artichoke veloute that had some chorizo (yes, from the UK) chunks to give it some extra punch. It was a brilliant start to the meal, light but full of flavour. Pigeon eggs were new to me; scrambled into an emulsion and served with an outrageously good black pudding. A perfectly cooked piece of salmon judiciously left to shine with simple spring flavours was outstanding, as was an excellent citrus tart with feather light pastry to finish. This restaurant creates excellent dishes and if there’s any justice it will be full every night. For the faint hearted, there are plenty more conventional choices on the menu, either way it is highly recommended. And keep an eye out for Gordon the kitchen hotshot, part deux.
Delicious delights from Gordon Jones
With summer just around the corner, The Green House is in a perfect location for a weekend by the sea; just a 2-minute stroll from the cliff walk down to the beach. Take a picnic and hire one of the beach huts for the day to enjoy ‘the English Riviera’ in all its sunburnt glory. It’s well placed for conference goers too and no doubt an infinitely more enjoyable experience than many of the tired hostelries in the area. For a boutique beach break with a conscience, The Green House is hard to beat – it’s a little slice of guilt-free luxury.
In search of a luxury ski break that won’t completely ruin your eco-credentials? The pioneering Whitepod village in Switzerland, could be the answer you’re looking for.
The retreat, which lies close to the picturesque village of Les Cerniers, has been built to blend into the natural landscape, with minimal impact on the environment. Overlooking Lake Geneva, with miles of pristine skiing terrain right on the doorstep, this is the perfect retreat in which to relax with lungs full of fresh alpine air and a clear conscience.
The 15 minimalist eco-pods, whisper Camping Chic, with cowhide throws and wooden stoves, yet every comfort has been considered, with fully-loaded iPods, a spa on the doorstep and the sort of nothing-is-too-much-to-ask-for service you’d expect from a top boutique hotel. Don’t expect to bump into one of your members’ club playmates as Whitepod is so remote (access is by ski or snowshoe only) and only a select few seem to know about this Swiss secret. www.whitepod.com
Nestled in the heart of Chamonix valley, the Isra Eco-chalet is aimed at warming your cockles and not the planet. Created to utilize the unique micro-climate, each feng-shui-inspired alpine lodge is made of renewable materials and comes with a sauna and solar-powered under-floor heating. Enjoy the fruits of the biodynamic garden from the comfort of the sustainably-insulated bar and loft. Founder, Adam Firth explains that it’s a wi-fi and TV-free zone to encourage deep relaxation and to make sure guests truly switch-off. www.israecochalet.com
If you are as committed to improving your parallel turns as you are to saving the planet the Amaruq Eco could be for you. The touring ski has received an avalanche of praise since winning this year’s Eco Responsibilty Award. www.voelkl.com
To ensure your wardrobe doesn’t drag you down, head to Patagonia where you’ll find timeless garments with an inspirational story behind them www.patagonia.com
And for serious piste panache you can rely on the queen of cruelty-free fashion Stella McCartney and her skiwear range for Adidas: www.adidas.com
