Purple potato and sake. Yes, these are the new hot chocolate flavours created for the 5th annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival, on until Feb. 13.
A serving of PO-TAY-TO PO-TAH-TO for your pleasure | Photo courtesy of Ruth Javier
This 30 day event is hosted in 24 cafés throughout the city, as well as in Burnaby and North Vancouver. A walking map on the event’s website shows you the locations of this savory experience for a first date or a nice afternoon with friends.
Shobna Kannusamy, owner of Soirette, a Coal Harbour café participating in the festival, is delighted by the craziness of this hot chocolate celebration.
Shobna Kannusamy, owner of Soirette | Photo courtesy of Ruth Javier
“We go as crazy as we can,” says Kannusamy.
Her creative process starts with stress. When she contacted the festival about participating, Kannusamy was given a 24 hour deadline to come up with a new flavour for the beverage. She chose the chocolate first and then thought of ingredients never intended to be mixed with chocolate. This year Soirette came out with two out-of-left-field recipes, already well accepted by the public.
“PO-TAY-TO PO-TAH-TO” is a purple rimmed cup of hot chocolate created with Michel Cluizel Mokaya chocolate, flavoured with sage, cinnamon and purple potatoes, and served with a homemade yam marshmallow. “SAKE TO ME” uses blond Valrhona Dulcey hot chocolate infused with sake kasu, lees of sake production, accompanied by a caramelized Nori Mini Pavlova chocolate. This adventurous recipe can almost describe the passion of Kannusamy creating what she calls her children.
When asked which of the two has been the best seller, she consulted her records to give an accurate number; it turned out they both had been sold in exactly the same quantities.
Sweet organic experiments
The festival has brought a lot of new people into the store and the growth allowed Kannusamy to employ 10 staff, since they are open seven days a week.
Soirette specializes in macaroons and tea, but hot chocolate and all kind of desserts have been featured since day one. Kannusamy found in macaroons a diverse route of baking. Some of the exotic flavours created at Soirette include pineapple wasabi, jalapeno and sun dried tomato.
If you worry about good, healthy food, all the elements of Soirette’s creations contain the best quality organic and fair trade ingredients.
“I won’t sacrifice my reputation for cheap ingredients,” says Kannusamy.
There is still demand even when treats get pricey, because customers respect proper prices for better processes and ingredients.
Love for baking did not come to this macaroon designer from birth. Kannusamy still remembers being 12 years old and telling her mother she would never have a kitchen in her house. Born in Malaysia with Indian heritage, she moved to New Zealand at 16 to pursue engineering school.
In 2003, married and with degree in hand, she decided to enroll in the baking program in Le Cordon Bleu school in Ottawa. Though she had not intended to stay, when her program was finished, Kannusamy decided to settle permanently in Canada. Vancouver was the chosen city and after the birth of her first child, she decided it was the best time to start her dream.
Chocolate for a good cause
The festival shines a light on the creativity of local cafes and can be a great opportunity to find that special spice you love and miss from your home country or special trip, but also supports a worthy cause.
Five per cent of the profit from the 24 locations for the Hot Chocolate Festival goes to the East Roasters. This organization helps women with mental health problems and drug abuse with treatment, housing and training to be back in the work force. Recently they suffered a dramatic cut in their funding from the government and this festival is making efforts to help them staying afloat.
