Easy to get taste for being a chocolatier
ALICIA NALLY
“Recognising that the best person to fulfil the role was a true chocoholic, someone born with a chocolate spoon in their mouth, someone who would treat chocolate with the respect it deserves. My blood type is O Chocolate,” she said.
“I’d love to say the best part of the job was exercising my creativity, but of course, it’s tasting, tasting and more tasting.
“After all, we can’t have products on the shelf that aren’t 100 per cent delicious – I have to ensure the very highest quality of every single batch of chocolate we create.”
Most chocolatiers learn the craft of creating the smooth sweets under an apprenticeship to an experienced chocolatier.
Ms Ylstra relished the variety of the job and said the growing number of people wanting to become her friend was also a plus. But they were often fickle, blaming the chocolate maker for a newly acquired chocolate addiction or the reason they cannot fit into their clothes anymore. Resisting temptation, day in, day out, was also a downside of the job.
In the lead up to Easter, Ms Ylstra has been kept busy making pinata eggs filled with chocolates.
She has also been commissioned to make a burlesque chocolate pizza, decorated with corsetry, lace and ribbons and an academic graduation hat which could be separated to reveal chocolates and a congratulations message inside.