Benoit Lorge is originally from Nancy in the Lorraine region of France. He’s a chocolatier, owning a chocolate shop in Bonane, co. Kerry.
What brought you to Ireland?
I love travelling. I’m originally a pastry chef and when I
was younger I chose this occupation because I knew it would be easy to travel
and to find a job anywhere. I lived in Scotland
for a year in the beautiful highlands: mountains, lakes, castle. I had a very
good pastry chef job in Inverlochy Castle which is a beautiful place. After that I worked in Corsica for a year but
then I wanted to move to a similar place to Scotland so I moved to Ireland.
First I lived for a year in Athlone, the central location was ideal to travel
around Ireland in my camper van during my time off. I loved Ireland straight
away and visited a lot of places around the country at that time. Then I moved
back to France for a little while but I wanted to live again either in Scotland
or in Ireland. I was offered a good
position in England but I didn’t want to take it and when I got a job offer
offer from Sheenfalls Lodge in Kenmare, a 5 star hotel, I decided to move back to Ireland. I didn’t
know if I’d spend one or two years... I’ve been living in Kenmare 15 years now (laugh).
How did you decide to
open a chocolate shop?
I’m originally a pastry chef and when I arrived in Kenmare I
was pastry chef in a 5 star hotel for 6 years. I loved Kenmare but I thought
that staying for 6 years in the same company was a bit long, I wanted to do
something else. I wanted to make chocolate, I previously made chocolates for
fundraising and I loved it. The beautiful thing about making chocolate is that
it’s not a big financial investment like a pastry shop, you can start with not
much. I wanted to make chocolates for hotels and shops only. I found this premise
where I could rent a small part of a post office to make my chocolate. The rent
was cheap and it was in the countryside, 10 km away from Kenmare. It went
really well, it started becoming a bit too small tough. The post office closed
and I moved my kitchen into their main area and I transformed my old kitchen into
a chocolate shop open to public. Thanks
to word of mouth the shop became more popular and became my means of living and
I wasn’t providing hotels with chocolates as much. I started spending more time
in the shop and decided to create different activities around chocolate making.
I do children workshops where I teach them how to make chocolate. We also
organise 2 hour chocolate making workshops for hen parties (20-24 ladies per
workshop). I also teach for professional purposes to 3-4 adults per weekend for
chocolate making or pastry courses.
Where does your
passion for chocolate come from?
I was originally a pastry chef because I’ve always loved
sweet treats. I love working with chocolate, it’s fine, you create an infinity
of flavours with chocolates: spices, herbs, alcohol, fruits, dark chocolate,
milk chocolate, white chocolate... You can always create something different
it’s what I love about chocolate.
What are the most
popular products?
When I started there wasn’t the same interest for the
chocolate, there wasn’t a chocolate culture as much has now. Milk chocolate
used to be the best seller but now I sell as much dark chocolate. My shop is located in a touristy area so I
have customers from all over the world and the tastes vary depending where
people are from or even their age. American
people only buy dark chocolate, Germans love pralines and marzipan. Younger
customers would prefer exotic flavours but older Irish people would buy milk
chocolate or caramel flavours. Swiss people tend to buy milk chocolate. I had a
few French people visiting the shop last year but less since the last
presidential elections (laugh).
Do you get original
requests?
We do a bit of everything. We make wedding cakes, we have
many different requests. For Easter, we change the design of our eggs every
year. It’s like a different collection so people don’t get the same egg from
one year to another. One year we made a 8kg chocolate egg with holes in it,
looking a bit like gruyere cheese with birds on it. Our creations are more
about flavours than the design of them.
We constantly create new flavours , we have about 60 different kind of
chocolate. I use new spices or flavours all the time to create new products. I’ve
even been asked By St Tola to coat their goat cheese with chocolate for Valentines season. You can mix chocolate with
everything: spices, tea, herbs. It’s endless.
What do you like
about being in Bonane co. Kerry?
The village is 17km long with 58 inhabitants. It’s very
rural, we are located on the main street. I love the countryside, I like that
people are close to each other, there is a real community spirit. Also living
in the countryside I get this inspiration that I wouldn’t get in a city. I love
Ireland, the Irish life, the Irish people and I hope to stay here for a long
time.
Tell me one thing you
love about your job.
When customers visit the shop, they can smell straight away
the chocolate being prepared in the kitchen. You see the difference when people
go to the bank and when they enter my shop.
They’re always in a good mood in my shop, it’s such a pleasure to be in
the shop making chocolate, serve the customers and see how happy they are. I love touching my products and chatting with
my customers. We don’t only speak about chocolates, we talk about everything,
about life, their culture, where they from. I’m very lucky.
Tell me about your
Easter products.
We make Easter eggs in 3 sizes: small, medium and large.
They can be made in milk or dark chocolate. Some shops will sell them empty or
filled with chocolates inside (5, 12 or 20). We make chocolate rabbits,
chocolate hares and chocolate hens. We make ‘trendy’ eggs and even personalised
eggs.
Is chocolate good for
you?
People tend to think chocolate is fattening but It’s
scientifically proven that a small quantity of dark chocolate everyday is good
for you. Chocolate is one of the strongest anti oxidants, as much as cranberry or
granny smith apples. It reduces bad cholesterol, rises good cholesterol.
Chocolate regulates the blood flow and therefore prevents heart disease. Dark chocolate also has a feel good effect so
it’s like an anti depressant, well or maybe that’s an excuse that ladies use to
eat more chocolate (laugh).
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*All pics courtesy of Benoit Lorge
Benoit Lorge will be signing Easter chocolate eggs in Donnybrook fair (89 Morehampton Rd, D4) on Good Friday.
*All pics courtesy of Benoit Lorge
Benoit Lorge will be signing Easter chocolate eggs in Donnybrook fair (89 Morehampton Rd, D4) on Good Friday.
Benoit Lorge's website http://lorge.ie/
Benoit Lorge on Facebook here
Benoit Lorge on Twitter @Lorgechoc