Angus chocolatier singled out from tens of thousands for major award
A Scottish chocolatier, Chloe Oswald, has been shortlisted for a prestigious Golden Fork Award by The Guild of Fine Food after her chocolates won a stand-out seven stars at the internationally recognised awards.
Chloe has run her artisan chocolate business, Chocolatia, from a home kitchen since 2020 and the awards come at an exciting time as she expands into her first commercial premises – allowing her to increase her chocolate production.
Earlier this month, The Guild of Fine Food awarded Chocolatia three gold stars for three of its chocolates: the Hazelnut Latte Bonbon, Pecan Pie Bonbon, and the Sea Salt Caramel Filled Bar. Chloe also received further stars for the Coffee Caramel Bar (2 Stars), Raspberry Cheesecake Bonbon (1 Star), Passion Fruit Bonbon (1 Star) and Scottish Chocolate Coated Honeycomb (1 Star).
To mark this success, Chloe has produced a nine-piece box of the three chocolates that were awarded three gold stars: the Hazelnut Latte Bonbon, Pecan Pie Bonbon and Sea Salt Caramel. The Great Taste Three-Star Collection is available online for £19 plus P&P at chocolatia.co.uk to be delivered nationwide.
This year, the Great Taste Awards attracted 14,195 entries for food and drink products from across the world. Of these only 5,904 of those were awarded a star. Chocolatia contributed three of just 248 products to receive 3 stars and is only one of 25 businesses to be nominated for a Golden Fork Award. The results will be announced on Monday 11th September at an awards ceremony at Battersea Arts Centre attended a prestigious line up of food and drink insiders.
Chloe Oswald says:
“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. My family has a background in cocoa going back over the generations so this means so much to me.”
Before founding Chocolatia in 2020, Chloe had trained for years to become a patisserie chef working in some of the finest restaurants in Scotland including two Michelin star Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles and Scotland’s only green Michelin star restaurant, Inver. Lockdown allowed her to develop her first independent chocolates using dessert flavour combinations and inspiration from the chefs she’d worked with over the years.
Working with only the finest ethical suppliers, such as B Corp-accredited Valrhona and a network of local growers (including fruit from her family’s garden) and producers, each chocolate is handmade and painted in small batches in Forfar by Chloe.
Flavour has always been incredibly important in Chloe’s family. Her maternal grandfather was born and raised in Trinidad on a cocoa plantation. Her paternal grandparents also instilled a love of sweet treats, with her grandmother teaching Chloe to bake Scottish favourites like tablet.
This autumn, Chocolatia will move to their first commercial premises, formerly the North Street Dairy and renovations are already underway to convert the space. This larger unit will help to increase the volume of chocolates produced, with Chloe currently making around 2,000 chocolates each week.
Her chocolates are sold online across the UK at www.chocolatia.co.uk and are stocked in a number of iconic Scottish hospitality businesses from the Micheline-starred Cellar, Macallan Distillery and The Royal Scotsman Belmond train, to independent retailers like The Brownie Barn in Forfar.