MARY CHOCOLATIER - EASTER COLLECTION

read the article on The Culinary Guide here...

Mary Chocolatier have been making chocolate for 90 years, hail from Brussels in Belgium – some might call the home of fine chocolate – and have been producing chocolate by Royal Warrant since1942. With a pedigree like this you’d be forgiven for expecting something rather special: Milk Tray this is not, but do they measure up? And is their Easter Collection worth your hard-earned dollar?

Top end chocolates have a habit of making the same mistake that many top end eateries are guilty of – too much time on the fancy stuff, and not enough time on the basics. Show me a Trattoria that serves a simple, lightly browned, crisp yet moist, tangy yet sweet, ‘with cheese’ yet not cheesy, sensationally tasty margarita pizza and I’ll trust that the rest of their pizzas are exceptional too (in fact I’ll probably insist on trying them for that very same reason). Equally, show me a chocolatier who, with a single piece of smooth, rich, creamy-yet-caustic dark chocolate, can weaken my knees and the rest will almost always slot sweetly in to place.

Mary is that chocolatier. Her chocolate is weak-at-the-knees good – the sort of chocolate that could swing a marriage proposal; or in a more sedate setting could at least guarantee a second date.

The Easter collection features most of what you’d expect: big Easter bells, Bambi-esque bunnies, a big chicken and, of course, eggs; both big and small. They’re all cast in Mary’s dark chocolate and the chicken and egg (or should that be egg and chicken? Which came… forget it) can both be filled with a selection of chocolates from the Mary Chocolatier range, which is where it gets really decadent.

Choose from ganache, crème fraiche, liqueur, truffle, marzipan and many more. There’s subtle layers of flavour in the Badouin ganache where a light milk chocolate shell gives way to an even lighter, caramel-like milk chocolate ganache. There’s big slap-in-the-face flavours like the Truffe Fruits De Bois where the same milk chocolate hides what feels like a whole black forest gateaux. This is good stuff.

There’s an admirable amount of attention gone into the presentation here as well. The cunningly named Escargot is in the shape of a snail (Escargot is French for snail). Some of the ganache and praline range have images printed onto them, while elsewhere, in the crème fraiche and Marzipan ranges, others proudly sport a coffee bean or a walnut.

It can all get a bit much at times – big flavours and awkward combinations can sometimes leave you cold, but Mary encourages you to treat her wares like a fine cheese or wine: to take the time out to really savour the flavours, aromas and textures of each. But if that isn’t your style, just guzzling them all down should suffice to make for one of best Easter’s since the original.

Mary has just opened a new outlet at the Westbury Centre where you can try before you buy, and soak up the chocolate atmosphere, but if you fear you might not be able to control yourself you can also find out more, and order anything you choose online at www.marychocolate.co.uk or call (+44) 0208 749 2088 to order from anywhere in the known world. Be sure to order by April 12 for Easter.