Young Kiwi’s chocolate revolution
Candice Jones talks to Joseph Williams, a New Zealand chocolatier with big plans for his native ingredient-filled creations.
A fan of using fresh and native ingredients, Joseph Williams often gets friends and family to forage for them along the Ka¯piti Coast.
Joseph Williams burns the freshly dried kawakawa with a blow torch in his small home kitchen, releasing a haze of smoke that travels slowly through a clear plastic tube into a bowl wrapped tightly in cling film. The trapped smoke swirls around, infusing the spicy flavour of the leaves and berries into the molten chocolate ganache lining the bowl.
Next, the 19-year-old pastry chef will pipe the ganache into a tray of individual chocolate moulds, shaped like tear drops.
Williams prefers to use native ingredients to flavour his chocolates.
It makes him feel connected to his Ma¯ ori, Cook Islands and Samoan heritage.
‘‘I’m a massive fruit salad,’’ the Aucklander says of his family background.
‘‘There are a lot of native plants and fruits outside that you can incorporate [into chocolate] that people don’t even know are edible,’’ he says, as he chops and folds melted chocolate
Williams tempers the chocolate.
Kawakawa, the herb in these chocolates, was used by Ma¯ ori to treat cuts and rashes, and to brew tea. on a pink and grey marble board.
Williams knew he wanted to be a pastry chef at 16, not long after he landed a part-time job as a dishwasher at Milse, a dessert-only restaurant and patisserie at Britomart, in Auckland.
Manager Victoria Palmer eventually gave him a chance, offering him a job as a pastry chef.
Inspired by his colleague Mitsu Hoshi, who made artisan chocolates, Williams became fascinated with chocolatiering and taught himself
The chocolatier pipes the filling into this chocolate moulds. how by watching YouTube videos and researching late into the night.
‘‘Kawakawa and ma¯ nuka, horopito with strawberry and pink peppercorn, and kawakawa ganache with raspberry are a few native flavours I have created and experimented with.
‘‘I like the designs on my chocolates to give a hint to the customer of what the flavour is inside,’’ he says, as he taps out his finished kawakawa and raspberry chocolates.
‘‘These chocolates here are a mix of different shades of green. I wanted it to represent the dry and natural colours of kawakawa.’’
The herb was used in abundance by Ma¯ ori to treat cuts and rashes, and they would also use the leaves to brew tea.
‘‘Unfortunately, kawakawa is seen as a weed in a lot of places. These native ingredients should be showcased, because New Zealand has so many amazing plants and herbs.’’
Williams hopes to open an online chocolate store in early December, but says he isn’t making chocolates to earn money.
He wants to change the chocolate game in New Zealand, and to be open and transparent with what he is creating, hoping he can inspire future chocolatiers.
‘‘The chocolate industry is really secretive. They don’t like sharing how they do things. I want to change that.’’
The inside of one of Williams’ chocolates.