Taking Chocolate Up A Notch

A couple of weeks back, my fellow gastronomy enthusiast, Jillian, and I trekked over to Richmond in West London. I was fortunate enough to catch a clip on William Curley on one of the episodes from Raymond Blanc's The Restaurant that was aired on BBC. I learned that William Curley, a British pastry chef and chocolatier with two self-named shops in London, was awarded Best British Chocolatier for three consecutive years. Finding out this snippet of information made my week- yes, that is how excited I get. No shame.

So to Zone Four we went. I was intrigued by the clever and unusual combinations of flavours that Mr.Curley boasts of. And boy, was I ready to sink my teeth in to some decadence.

There were a sizeable range of tiny parcels of yumminess to choose from. I ordered the milk chocolate, sea salted caramel and last a schezuan pepper chocolate. The sea salted caramel won the competition hands down. The the sea salt perfectly peaked the flavours of the luxuriously thick, ribbony caramel center and complimented the chocolate like a good red wine does a steak- oh yeah, food analogies!


I finished off my dabblings in excess with pretty much the best brownie I've eaten. And though this deceiving brownie looked like a dry muffin- it was crunchy on the top and gave way to a moist, rich, dreamy chocolate-walnut centre. Totally hit the spot.


The following week I discovered the flagship William Curley store 10 minutes away from my house!!! Not good news for the wallet...or the waistline for that matter. The Belgravia store has a wider variety of desserts to choose from and ICE CREAM- perfect for all of the two days of the British summer!!!! I had the sea-salted caramel ice cream (of course!) and it was divine.

W. Curley brings the icing to the cake. Check them out:

http://www.williamcurley.co.uk/engine/shop/index.html