The Best Food
Producers In Britain
Our choice of small businesses making
great local food
The
following article was published in Country Living Magazine
November 2008, naming Lick the Spoon in Country Living
Magazine and Waitrose choice of the eighteen Best Food
Producers in Britain, for the 2008 Made in Britain Awards
competition.
Lick the Spoon, Chippenham, Wiltshire
On opening a box of Lick the Spoon
Chocolates it's clear they are made by an artist. From the
Pearlescent red-gold dome of the chilli-and-lime Aztec
Gold to the tiny pink hearts on the Cinnamon Dream, Diana
Short's creations look as exquisite as they taste. "I
used to paint and sculpt and I knew I'd end up working in
a creative medium" she says. "Chocolate lends
itself perfectly to all my passions."
Cooking has long been Diana's
greatest passion, as well as her living: she was working
as the hospitality chef at a Bristol solicitors' firm
before motherhood prompted her to go it alone. She
believes her professional experience sets her apart from
other chocolatiers. "When you have worked with food
all your life you take inspiration from everything,
whether it's the scent of elderflowers in the air or
blackberries on the hedgerows in autumn," she says.
"I use my knowledge of how flavours go together to
develop chocolates such as The Melba, a peach and vanilla
mousse covered in white chocolate and dipped in raspberry
powder, which is inspired by the classic dessert. My
current favourite is a Cornish sea-salt praline that
mimics the smooth mouth-coating nuttiness and salty tang
of peanut butter."
West Country specialities such as
Somerset cider brandy and Cornish cob nuts, feature in
many of Diana's chocolates, which contain local organic
cream and are made with single origin chocolate. "The
difference between cocoa beans is like the difference
between grape varietals," says Diana, who had just
one day's training with a leading chocolatier before
launching Lick the Spoon in 2007. "I seem to have a
knack with chocolate-I can make it do whatever I
want."
www.lickthespoon.co.uk
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