Archive for July, 2010
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we have been presented with 3 Gold Awards at the renowned Great Taste Awards, the Oscars of the fine food world. The winners are our delicious new Double Choc, Fudge & Toffee Swirl Chunky Chocolate and our chocolate thins which are made for Duchy Originals; Duchy Originals Organic Milk Chocolate Bezant with natural sweet Spanish orange oil and Duchy Originals Dark Chocolate Bezant infused with natural Mitcham mint oil.
This is a fantastic achievement for House of Dorchester and is testament to the hard work and dedication of our team. Next on the list is the Taste of the West Awards – fingers crossed!
We love this time of year here at HOD, as there is an abundance of British berries out in full. The season kicks off with British strawberries around May and raspberries and juicy gooseberries are perfectly in season as I write this!
British berries are a real summer time treat, whether used as part of an elaborate recipe or simply eaten with a fresh dollop of cream or dusting of icing sugar, they are just delicious. It is these flavours that inspired our 70% cocoa Dessert Chocolate Collection.
With Strawberry Cheesecake, mixed with real strawberry pieces, and Wild Berry Crumble, a sweet truffle whipped with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries – they provide a delicate taste of British summer.
I’ve been experimenting at home with the best ways to fuse our chocolates with the berries being picked and the best one so far has been crumbling a handful of Raspberry and Meringue Chunky Chocolate over Eton Mess – it was a very popular combination in my house! Click here for Delia’s simple Eton Mess recipe, if you want to try it out for yourself!
It’s not been all chocolate and meringue though at HOD. Our Chocolate Factory Manager Paul Barney and his wife Debbie, were hard at work raising £450 for Breast Cancer by taking part in the Bristol Sun Walk – which is a fantastic achievement – well done guys!
Katherine.
20Jul
Last week Jeremy and Matt spent a few days learning about ‘fancy food’ in the Big Apple. They weren’t just eating hot dogs at Times Square or enjoying bagels in Central Park though; they were attending the Fancy Food Show 2010. Organised by the National Association for the Speciality Food Trade, the 56th annual summer food show was held at the Jacob Javis Convention Centre.
More than 2,500 exhibitors from 81 nations gathered from Sunday to Tuesday to display more than 180,000 Speciality foods, among them cheeses, coffee, spices and natural and organic products. Jeremy and Matt scoured the seven acres of exhibits, looking for ideas, inspiration, trends and of course to taste some great food!
Along with some spectacular artisan products there were some more, shall we say unconventional delights, including bacon-flavoured popcorn! Brought to you by the same inspirational foodies that invented ……… bacon-flavoured mayonnaise (baconaise!) bacon-flavoured salt!
Back in blighty, Sue Nash, one of our managers at the chocolate factory, has become a Grandmother, to a beautiful baby girl called Caitlin, born 29th June. Finally I must report that our boys gave a very respectable account of themselves at the cricket tournament organised by the Duchy, here in Poundbury. Our guys didn’t win but they did enjoy the hog roast afterwards!
Katherine.
08Jul
From time to time we have people contacting us to find their nearest stockists. The information is available online but we are aware not everyone is completely savvy with the World Wide Web, including us sometimes! It’s a really lovely feeling to think that people are actively seeking out the chocolates that we work so hard to make, so we are only too happy to help.
One such lady was Patricia Petit from Belbroughton near Kidderminster. Patricia was looking for her nearest stockist and happened to mention it was coming up to her 90th birthday so we decided to send Patricia a lovely box of our Luxury Assortment to say ‘Happy Birthday’! We let Patricia know where her nearest stockist was as well, but hopefully the box of chocolates will keep her going for a bit!
Jeremy and Matt are currently at the Fancy Food Show in New York. With over 180,000 products on show and the sights and sounds of New York City to keep them entertained, they should be having a great time. Hopefully they’ll have some exciting stories for the blog when they return, not to mention some pressies!
I mentioned last week that Jeremy ran a stall for House of Dorchester at the Garden, Plant and Food Fair in aid of St Margaret’s Hospice, at Cothay Manor Gardens. We just found out that they raised £10,000 in total for the cause which is a fantastic achievement!
Katherine.
05Jul
