Dominique And The Chocolate Factory

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The chocolate-box beautiful city of Bruges is the undisputed chocolate capital of Europe: there's a chocolate museum (Choco-Story) and an annual chocolate festival, while an extraordinary 52 chocolate shops line its medieval streets. None, however, is quite like the establishment run by Dominique Persoone.

It's not that The Chocolate Line - named for the route New World explorers took to transport cacao beans - looks particularly different: an elegant brown and gold frontage on a narrow cobbled street, wooden counters, white uniformed staff.

It's what you find behind those counters that sets it apart. Take a closer look and you'll find chocolates spiked with soy sauce or balsamic vinegar, curry, tobacco and Coca-Cola. You can buy a chocolate lipstick or even test the Chocolate Shooter, a contraption for snorting chocolate snuff which Persoone designed for a birthday party for the Rolling Stones. It's chocolate, but not as we know it.

That's just the tip of the iceberg for the self-proclaimed 'shock-o-latier'. When I meet Persoone in the test kitchen of his factory on the grey outskirts of the city (the letterbox is a giant cacao pod, and the building is decorated to look as if it has been dipped in chocolate), the genial 44-year-old Bruges native reels off a few of his more outrageous creations. "We've done cauliflower, oysters, grass, melon and Parma ham. Rain. Anchovy. Caramel. Chocolate frogs coated in lidocaine..."

It could all be terribly gimmicky, but Persoone has a stellar culinary pedigree. He trained as a chef before opening The Chocolate Line in 1992 and his creations are brilliant, experimental gastronomy: the outlandish combinations not only work, they change your perspective on what chocolate is and how it can taste.

The culinary establishment agrees: Persoone is one of only three chocolatiers in the Michelin Guide, and has the distinction of supplying all of Belgium's three-star restaurants with chocolates. He's also part of Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck 'think tank', and tells me a wonderful anecdote about experimenting with chocolate and a tank of helium, and ending up surrounded by clouds of floating chocolate. René Redzepi of Noma (Restaurant magazine's Best Restaurant in the World 2012) sent his pastry chef to train at the factory last summer.

"I'm a cook, not a real chocolate maker," says Persoone. "For me, chocolate is just another department of the kitchen. A lot of chef colleagues say that working with chocolate every day must be boring, but there are so many things we can do, it's wonderful." The experimental culture extends to his whole team: 12 people in the factory, and another 22 split between the two shops (the second, opened in 2010, is in a gorgeous frescoed space in Napoleon's former palace on the Meir in Antwerp). "We have everything here: bakers, cooks, even a butcher.

The one thing they have in common is they all fell in love with chocolate, and we share the same passion."

Each week the team meets to discuss new ideas, to experiment and taste. The test kitchen is a riot of scribbled recipes and sketched designs, mysterious, industrial-scale pieces of kitchen equipment and jars of esoteric flavours and spices. Current projects include chocolate 'pills' flavoured with walnut, fig and goat's cheese, and a new smoked-tea praline for Michelin three-star chef Sergio Herman of Oud Sluis.

"We use lots of strange ingredients," says Persoone, gesturing at a row of jars. "That's powdered coca leaf from Peru. It's legal to buy there so I brought it back in my luggage wrapped in my socks and underwear!" Developing a new chocolate can take anything from a few hours to six months, says Persoone; sometimes you get lucky, more often you need to test exhaustively. Are there any disasters? Things that just don't work? "Rose hasn't worked out yet. I tried, but it tasted like soap. The challenge is to find the right balance. Of course, some of the flavours we do sound crazy-freaky, but it's important to have an open mind when you taste."

The quest for new flavours and combinations has also taken Persoone to Latin America to explore the roots of chocolate. The walls of the factory are lined with souvenirs of his travels, from machetes, tribal masks and molinillos (hot chocolate stirrers) to traditional wooden implements for creating a cocoa espuma, or foam.

"It's an addiction. I'm addicted to food, to tattoos [he has five, mainly chocolate related, including a Rolling Stones inspired 'Chocolate is rock'n'roll'] and to Latin America." Since his first trip in 2007, he's returned to the region again and again, trips which formed the basis for his prize-winning book, Cacao. Always animated, he's aglow as he describes his adventures of riding deep into the rainforest, abseiling into a cenote (the deep natural sinkholes in which the Mayans grew cacao) and encountering boa constrictors at close quarters.

"It's amazing. It's a completely different story of chocolate than the one we know in Europe. I discovered new varieties of bean, the spices the Mayans used in their drinks, and learned how to make an espuma." Last year Persoone acquired his own cacao plantation, deep in Mayan territory near Uxmal in the east of Mexico. It's partly pure adventure, partly a way of protecting his supply. "We see so many things going wrong with the beans. There's a variety called Criollo Negro, an amazing, wonderful bean, but only 120kg are grown a year, because other crops are more profitable. We thought maybe we could save some varieties."

7 Heavenly Chocolates From Persoone

Cebolla: Almond praline with crisp fried onion.

Tokyo: Bitter ganache with Japanese wasabi marzipan. 

Italian Javanais: White chocolate ganache with fresh basil, sun-dried tomato chutney and marzipan with black olives. 

Bollywood: White chocolate with saffron and curry ganache. 

Atlanta: Coca-Cola ganache and almond praline with fizzing popping candy.

Cabernet Sauvignon: Caramel of Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar with pine nuts.

Havana: Dark chocolate ganache, flavoured with Havana tobacco leaves.

He's growing four types of bean in his plantation (including one discovered at the bottom of that cenote) and the first crop is due two years from now. "We'll never get rich from it, but my big dream is to take all my team to Mexico for the first harvest. It's amazing, it's really fun".

Flemish television has been filming his Mexican adventures, so Persoone's life looks set to get even more rock'n'roll. He already gets recognised on the street, something that leaves him bemused: "People stop me and ask for pictures. It's very strange." Thankfully his wife, Fabienne, is there to keep him grounded. "She's the real boss. I'm a very bad businessman, so she's in charge and she gives me pocket money for cigarettes and beer. It works perfectly."

What's next for this real-life Willy Wonka? There's more TV in the offing, projects in Japan and Qatar, perhaps a new shop, definitely a trip back to his beloved Latin America. He's busy - busier than most of us could imagine - but the word I hear most from him is "fun". "I never feel like I'm working. I have fun, I travel, I follow my passion. It is, if you'll forgive the pun, a sweet life."

The Chocolate Line, Simon Stevinplein 19, Brugge, and Paleis op de Meir 50, Antwerp, www.thechocolateline.be

FR Le Willy Wonka Belge

Rencontre d'Emma Beddington avec le premier shock-o-latier du pays

Avec son musée et son festival dédiés au chocolat, la pittoresque ville de Bruges est, en Europe, la capitale incontestée du chocolat. On y trouve en outre pas moins de 52 boutiques de chocolat dans ses rues médiévales. Toutefois, aucune ne ressemble à l'établissement de Dominique Persoone, La Chocolate Line - ainsi nommée en référence à la route empruntée par les explorateurs du Nouveau Monde pour transporter le cacao. Vue de l'extérieur, avec sa façade élégante de couleur brun et or, sa boutique ne paraît pas très différente. Mais de l'autre côté du comptoir, c'est une autre histoire.

Regardez-y de plus près et vous découvrirez des chocolats rehaussés de sauce soja, de vinaigre balsamique ou encore de curry, tabac et Coca-Cola. Vous pourrez y acheter un rouge à lèvres saveur chocolat ou même le fameux Chocolate Shooter, un sniff de chocolat. Persoone l'a conçu pour la fête anniversaire des Rolling Stones. C'est du chocolat, certes, mais pas sous sa forme habituelle !

L'audace est la marque de fabrique de ce shock-o-latier originaire de Bruges. A 44 ans, Persoone est un artisan qui nous étourdit avec ses nombreuses créations extravagantes.

Tout cela pourrait paraître terriblement gadget, si Persoone ne possédait un réel talent culinaire. Il a suivi une formation de chef avant d'ouvrir la Chocolate Line en 1992 et ses brillantes créations relèvent de la gastronomie expérimentale. L'establishment culinaire s'accorde à dire que Persoone est un des trois seuls chocolatiers repris au Guide Michelin, et qu'il a le privilège de fournir les restaurants étoilés en Belgique.

Je suis un cuisinier, pas un chocolatier, explique Persoone. Pour moi, le chocolat est juste une autre branche de la cuisine. Sa culture de l'expérimentation s'étend à toute son équipe : 12 personnes dans l'usine et 22 autres collaborateurs répartis entre les deux magasins (le second, ouvert en 2010, se trouve dans un ancien palais napoléonien décoré de fresques, sur le Meir à Anvers). Nous avons tout ici : pâtissiers, cuisiniers, même un boucher. Leur commun dénominateur est leur amour pour le chocolat, une passion partagée par nous tous.

NL Belgische Willy Wonka

Emma Beddington ontmoet de allereerste Belgische 'shock-o-latier'

Brugge is ontegensprekelijk DE Europese chocoladehoofdstad. In de middeleeuwse straatjes vindt u een chocolademuseum, een jaarlijks chocoladefestival en liefst 52 chocoladewinkels. Dominique Persoone baat echter het alleruniekste winkeltje uit.

U vindt er chocolade op basis van sojasaus, balsamico-azijn, curry, tabak of zelfs Coca-Cola en u kunt er chocoladelippenstift of een Chocoladeshooter kopen, een heuse chocolade "shot" die Persoone ontwierp voor het verjaardagsfeestje van de Rolling Stones.

De in Brugge geboren, 44-jarige Persoone is een genie. Chocolade op basis van bloemkool, oester, gras, meloen, Parmaham, ansjovis en karamel, chocoladen kikkers met een laagje lidocaïne,... Het zijn maar enkele van zijn extravagante creaties.

Voordat Persoone in 1992 The Chocolate Line opende, volgde hij een koksopleiding. Zijn creaties zijn briljant en experimenteel; bizarre combinaties die je perspectief over chocolade en hoe het smaakt helemaal veranderen.

De culinaire experts zijn het ermee zijn; Persoone is een van de slechts drie chocolatiers die worden opgenomen in de Michelin Gids. Hij levert chocolade aan alle Belgische driesterrenrestaurants.

"Ik ben een kok, geen echte chocolatier", aldus Persoone. "Voor mij vormt chocolade gewoon een onderdeel van het koken. Veel van mijn collega's zeggen dat het saai moet zijn om dagelijks met chocolade te werken; maar je kunt er zoveel mee doen, het is fantastisch." Deze experimentele chocoladecultuur stelt 12 mensen te werk in de fabriek en nog eens 22 in de twee winkels. "We hebben hier echt alles: bakkers, chef-koks en zelfs een slager. We hebben onze liefde voor chocolade gemeen en delen allen dezelfde passie."

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