Gráinne and the Galway chocolate factory

Chef Gráinne Mullins tells Siobhán Breatnach about how lockdown and the Wild Atlantic Way inspired her sweet new business

Willy Wonka’s got nothing on Galway chef-entrepreneur Gráinne Mullins. One of Ireland’s lockdown successes, her fledgling but fast-growing company Grá Chocolates has left a sweet taste in mouths across the country.

“The satisfying bit is, people enjoying them, when you get a nice message,” she says. “I got a beautiful card during the week from a lady in Scotland in Scots Gaelic, because she saw that we were using Irish. Something like that will put a smile on your face because you’d never expect someone to write you a card. It’s those small little personal touches.”

Grá’s selection of chocolates is a culmination of the award-winning chef ’s love of local ingredients and her culinary experience. “Having been a pastry chef and worked for so many years, I wanted to express my techniques throughout,” she says. “I knew I had a lot of techniques that would generally not be seen in chocolate - adding different techniques, layers and flavours and using Irish ingredients as much as possible as well. What I wanted to be able to do is fit maximum flavour and texture into one small bite.”

The business started at the beginning of the first lockdown.

“I was stuck for things to do,” she says.

“I was baking and decided to make hand-painted Easter eggs for my friend’s family. It’s something I’d thought about for a few years but never had the time. I bought the moulds, did all the flavours and started posting them on social media. Then people were reaching out trying to buy them but I didn’t have anywhere near the capacity to do that. Afterwards I thought about it and my mum said ‘this could potentially be your business Gráinne’.” Having her own business was always a dream for the 2019 Eurotoques Young Chef of the Year who started working in kitchens aged 16 in places such as Ardmore’s Cliff House Hotel, Ashford Castle, Ox in Belfast and Lignum near Loughrea, Co. Galway.

“I studied science and worked my way up the ranks as a pastry chef,” Gráinne says. “I love pastry so much because it’s so calculated, you follow the recipe and get the results. From there, I stuck with it and have always enjoyed that side of the kitchen. I’d always wanted to have my own business but didn’t know what it would be,” she adds. “Science has always linked in with what I’ve done but my passion was always food.”

It took just three months after those prototype eggs and some market research with the local enterprise office to get her company was up and running. “My family have been very patient and allowed me to take over the house,” she says. “I have a small kiln, which my dad used to use to dry out wood, and that’s been converted into this chocolate factory, so it’s been the perfect location to start from.”

Grá now employs two full-time and three part-time staff to cope with the demand for its confectionary, particularly around peak occasion times such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas and Easter. Plans include growing the company’s workspace so that it can move away from a pre-order system. “I’m having great fun researching Irish ingredients and I know quite a lot of suppliers luckily already, from my years working through restaurants, so I do try and use ones I know are really good quality,” she says.

“Using as local as possible where possible and embracing it. I’m looking at Ryan’s rhubarb for the rhubarb season because it’s a beautiful product, it’s bright pink and it’s grown under candlelight – where else can you find a story like that. Not only a story but it tastes amazing. The support has been crazy, it’s stemmed from people trusting me from restaurants that I’ve worked in before. It’s been fantastic,” she adds.

“Even our surroundings, what we can be inspired by looking out the window or going for a walk around the seaside or up the mountain, I think we’re very lucky that it’s still quite a bit of a wilderness and there can be inspiration drawn from that at any point.”