An Evening with chocolate connoisseur, Chloe Doutre-Roussel

“We are here to enjoy as many pleasures as possible.”

What a philosophy! I love it. OK, so I may be paraphrasing slightly but the light and enthusiasm that radiated from this wonderful woman was infectious. Yes, I may be biased because it is chocolate that lights her up so much, but this softly-spoken woman really did have a lovely attitude to life. She really does eat ½ kilo (a pound) of chocolate a day. I’m sure that’s why she’s so positive! She only eats high quality chocolate and only bars. Every few days she might have a truffle, but for her that is not really chocolate. And she only has milk or dark. She balances all this chocolate with an otherwise predominately low-fat diet. She loves good fruit and vegetables and almost never has fried foods or other sweets. She says she doesn’t like to because they spoil her appetite for chocolate for too many hours!

Chloe is a true chocolate connoissuer. She lives and breathes chocolate and did before she was paid to do so. Fortnum and Mason really are blessed to have someone so knowledgeable as her as their chocolate buyer. And their range of chocolate is beginning to reflect her expertise (although, as she said, she can only change one thing at a time!). She just released her book The Chocolate Connoisseur. I have it and love it. Essential reading for the true chocoholic.