On the surface, a chocolate company is one that makes and sells chocolate products. While any amount and type of packaging can be wrapped around chocolate, any sort of graphics can be applied, and any form of marketing angles can be plied, with chocolate, it’s what’s inside that counts. And what is inside is due to who is inside the company’s chocolate factory. The ideal core of a chocolate brand and their chocolate factory is a Master Chocolatier.
There are chocolatiers and then there are master chocolatiers. A master chocolatier can make the difference between good chocolate and great, world-class chocolate.
Introducing Patrick Peeters, the master chocolatier for the Chocolove chocolate factory. Peeters is as humble as he is great at his art. Let’s say hello to Patrick and hear his story.
Born in Belgium, Patrick speaks Flemish, French, and English. Early on he worked in local bakeries, but found his calling at the Confectionary, Bread and Pastry Apprentice School in Leuven, Belgium, where he also received a diploma with high honors.
He soon became the executive pastry chef at a well-known, world-class hotel chain, winning regular awards and acclaim. Peeters worked in a technical capacity at several of the largest food and chocolate companies in the world, to round out his technical excellence. He also started from scratch and ran his own chocolate shop and bakery.
Over the years to keep his creativity flowing, he assisted and worked with other master chocolatiers, including Jean-Pierre Wybauw. Peeters is a member of an elite cadre, The Barry Callebaut Chocolate Ambassadors Club.
Taking into account his 5 years of early work and formal training, combined with his life-long career of 45 years, Peeters has a total of 50 years of dedication to the art of chocolate. Another way of looking at what makes a master chocolatier: 125,000 hours of work making people happier.
So why does a master chocolatier call Chocolove home? Peeters says he loves “the freedom to innovate and create without restriction, the use of the best ingredients available, the great atmosphere, and updated facility.”
At Chocolove, Peeters oversees the nuance of aroma and flavor in every item the company makes: from chocolate bars, such as Almonds and Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate, to his seasonal gourmet collections. Peeters adds that he thrives by being “surrounded by a team that has the can-do mentality” and his “ability to work every day with an ingredient that I respect and love.”
Chocolove together with Patrick Peeters: making great, world-class chocolate.