Hot Belgian chocolate at Steven
ter Horst’s studio at Norwood

Steven ter Horst’s Chantelle
chocolate made with chocolate
chill ganache enrobed in dark
chocolate and covered with cocoa

Steven ter Horst

Steven’s Elouise chocolate made with Gianduja, praline, milk
chocolate ganache wrapped in
dark chocolate and rolled in
toasted almonds

Choco-Vino marries chocolate
with wine at Hahndorf Hill
Winery, Hahndorf

RICH REWARDS

WITH ARTISAN MAKERS TURNING THEIR ATTENTION TO CHOCOLATE, THE SWEET TREAT HAS NEVER TASTED SO GOOD

Choosing chocolate used to be simple - Cadbury’s or Haigh’s – but a new breed of boutique producers is broadening our horizons with an array of ambrosial, hand-crafted chockies.

Adelaide’s Steven ter Horst is an artisan chocolatier who creates a stylish range of European-style chocolates at his Norwood studio which are named after the women in his life including Chantelle (his partner, artist Chantelle Giardina) which is dark chocolate chilli ganache enrobed in dark chocolate covered in cocoa. 

Anneke, named after his Dutch/German mother, balances marzipan layered with spice ganache.

Others are filled with fresh raspberries, mandarin, lemon or kiwi fruit and Champagne.

“I’m a very small maker and what’s important to me is not being a mass producer, being able to use high quality ingredients and, knowing that we all eat with our eyes before our mouth, they have to have a visual aspect,” Steven says.

“I can’t roast my own cocoa beans so I source two premium Belgian couvertures and blend for the right flavour and the length on the palate.

“When you eat one of my chocolates, you need to taste the chocolate itself first, then the filling, and the final flavour needs to be chocolate again and linger for about 20 minutes.”

Steven, who  studied at  Melbourne’s Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School, uses local dairy products from Fleurieu Milk Company cream and B.-d. Farm Paris Creek, lemons from his dad’s Adelaide Hills property and raspberries, figs and oranges from the Wayville Farmers Market where he also has a stall.

“I don’t want to cheapen my product so I don’t for instance use orange oil because I want a true representation of the fresh fruit I’m using.”

Steven , who also loves cooking but didn’t want to be a chef, uses his natural foodie curiosity to explore interesting ideas such as such as his fleur de sel sea salt chocolate, another dark chocolate made with goat’s curd and lime or a current experiment teaming chocolate with Sichuan pepper and Chinese five spice chocolate.

Steven ter Horst chocolates are on the menu at Assaggio Ristorante and the new Assaggio Café, Citrus, Ciccolatte on Melbourne St,  Felici in Rundle St and Goodine Bistro at Kurralta Park.
The world’s best chocolates are also on the menu at Hahndorf Hill Wines where owners Marc Dobson and Larry have created the new ChocoVino glass-enclosed tasting room which overlooks the vines.

Chocolate and wine matching ideas include the Hahndorf Hill Winery 2009 Pinot Grigio 2009 served with a gourmet Belgian chocolate with a cacao content of 52 per cent and infused with the flavours of Earl Grey tea.

“A gourmet chocolate allows you to actually taste the cacao from the bean and it engages all your senses and even surprises and challenges you … as with wine and olive oil, gourmet chocolate is best appreciated with an adult palate,” Marc said.
 “More and more, the world’s top chocolate houses are focusing on single-origin chocolate which is based on the concept that good chocolate, as in fine wine, has the ability to reflect terroir – that unique combination of factors which reflect where the beans, or grapes, were grown.”

ChocoVino includes fine chocolates from Michel Cluizel in Paris and others crafted from beans grown in the most prized plantations on the planet including Amedei Chuao in a remote area of north Venezuela.
 

www.steventerhorst.com.au
www.hahndorfhillwinery.com.au