A woman who set up a hand-made chocolate business with her chef husband after they were both made redundant is set to share her culinary skills with cookery school masterclasses.
Jo and Toby Beevers of Kokonoir turn out hundreds of mouth-watering chocolate delights every week from their Broughton home for both shoppers and local businesses, including hotels, farm shops and restaurants.
Now Jo has been recruited to pass on her secrets to keen amateur chefs at the cookery school at Bodnant Welsh Food Centre in the Conwy Valley.
Jo explained: “Using chocolate in recipes is easy, once you master a few tricks of the trade and you can’t beat giving hand-made chocolates as a wonderful, thoughtful gift.
“I will be running a few different courses at Bodnant Welsh Food centre plus I will be hosting hen parties at the school – we have one booked in July where the party will be making their own wedding favours. I’ve already met a few of my fellow tutors, several of them professional chefs, at a get-together and it’s been great to swap ideas and tips.
“I enjoy making chocolate treats, I actually find it relaxing and I can’t wait to get into the cookery school for the classes.”
Bodnant Welsh Food Centre managing director Chris Morton is looking forward to seeing Jo’s chocolate masterclasses in the cookery school.
He said: “The cookery school is now becoming very popular with amateur chefs who want to improve their skills.
“The courses are also increasingly being given as an unusual but practical gift to cooks by their family and friends – who end up benefiting in the end when they taste the results.
“Kokonoir’s delicious chocolate treats are already stocked at Bodnant Welsh Food Centre’s �6.5m base at Furnace Farm in the Conwy Valley, as part of the company’s commitment to support local producers.
“In addition, 45% of all products sold in the shop are produced at Bodnant Welsh Food centre, and three-quarters come from North Wales, including specialist foods from over 100 artisan producers.”
Jo and Toby set up Kokonoir after they saw the increasing interest in specialist chocolate products during a trip to Australia. Jo had just been made redundant from her role as an office administrator and was searching for a job that fitted around caring for the couple’s two young children – Amelia, who is about to celebrate her eighth birthday, and Ben, now aged seven.
Toby trained as a pastry chef and worked under Simon Radley at Chester’s Grosvenor Hotel before becoming head chef at Chester University and the Glynne Arms in Hawarden. He’s now part of the Welsh Culinary Team, racking up a clutch of prizes in contests around the world, and is chairman of the North Wales section.
Jo, originally from Bangor, said: “We’d both been made redundant but we had the holiday to Australia booked, so we went ahead with it. While we there, we decided to start our own business, based around the boutique chocolate shops we saw on our trip.
“We started making them in our kitchen at home but now we’ve been able to create a dedicated chocolate room, where we make our hand-made products.
“We also supply local patisseries, hotels, farm shops and restaurants with products such as petit fours and desserts like cheesecakes.”
