Chocolatier Greg Hook,  founder of Chocolate Arts,  was sourcing organic ingredients and sculpting chocolate art long before other local stores got fancy with their chocolates.

The artisanal chocolate shop he opened in Vancouver in 1992 is now located on West 3rd Avenue – within walking distance of Granville Island – Hook and his team create an incredible range of delicious, beautiful chocolate that would be at home on any silver service.

Antoinette would be pleased to know that she could start her Chocolate Arts indulgence with an intense Hot Chocolate shot. You can sample wafers from 12 single origin cocoas, then choose the one you want for your drink. They will add just enough milk – you can also get soy or almond milk – to make your chocolate hit liquid.

Greg Hook seeks simplicity in the flavourings of his chocolates. ‘We flavour our ganaches,’ he writes, ‘using a variety of methods: cold infusion (in which our flavouring agents are steeped in cold cream), hot infusion (flavouring agents are steeped in hot cream), quick infusions (heating cream to 60 degrees celsius & infusing for 3 minutes) and the distilling of concentrated fruit essences through evaporation.’

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Some of our favourites include:

• The Eagle Wafer – A Milk chocolate wafer designed by renowned Haida artist Robert Davidson. This would make a hearty pistole to help Marie forget her medicine.

• Blossom – Created from House-dried organic Okanagan cherries that have been macerated in cherry juice and coated in chocolate.

• Grand Marnier – Chocolate and Grand Marnier. What else is there to know?

• Coffee Cardamom – And it’s topped with coffee sugar

• Lemon Basil – It’s a white chocolate ganache that has been inflused with Meyer lemon essence and fresh basil and coated in dark chocolate, lemon sugar and cocoa.

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In 2014, Hook actually went to the Or Noir laboratory in Antoinette’s France to go through the complicated process of concocting his own unique chocolate blend. After much blind-testing and re-testing, he learned that his preferred chocolate combination was from cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Peru. He named it Allure 71.1%.

Written by Elizabeth Newton
www.creatorsvancouver.com

Header: Roy Lichtenstein. Reverie. 1965