What happens at Salon du Chocolat in Tokyo? Essentially, it is a multi day commercial affair where Isetan tries to make as much money as possible. This is not exactly the same as Salon du Chocolat in Paris where industry people come to check out the latest developments and catch up with colleagues. Is it any coincidence that the Salon du Chocolat is timed to occur just before Valentine’s day in Japan? Nonetheless, it was an eye opening experience indeed as I saw and met many chocolatiers from around the world. Continue reading
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Chocolate Tastings Part 2 – Salon du Chocolat, 2009, Isetan Tokyo
12 chocolates to taste in a morning means one helluva tired palate. Not an optimal amount but hey, its a tough job and someone’s gotta do it 
On to the last 6 chocolates on the taste list.
Chocolate Tastings Part 1- Salon du Chocolat, Isetan Tokyo, 2009
Having shamelessly plugged Artisan du Chocolat in the first post on the Salon du Chocolat here, ’everyone else’s’ shall be shown here. Yes yes, I am really biased. However, the Salon du Chocolat did uncover a few gems and allowed me to sample lots of stuff that did not require:
- Money
- An air ticket to chocolate destinations
With many chocolatiers in one place, its no wonder the Japanese go all gaga over this event. Its even better if you worked for an exhibitor like me. Read: Free samples everywhere, esp. if you do the rounds with the boss. Ever had Sadaharu Aoki ply you with enrobed macarons or praline chocolates? Be jealous….VERY JEALOUS! (Don’t really be coz I was begging him for a job to no avail!).
It was packed day in and day out, making it really difficult to sample everything on offer. However, a friend, C and I persevered by lining up to do a tactical scan on what each chocolatier offers. Basically, the salon has a ‘Chocolate Bar’, where we can purchase chocolates to eat in along with drinks or champagne.
The advantage of having 2 people is that we get to double up on everything and taste a bit here and there. With an hour of lining up providing sufficient time for decisions, we chose 12 chocolates from 12 different chocolatiers to taste from. This post will document the first 6.
Salon du Chocolat, Isetan Tokyo, 2009 – Artisan du Chocolat
We went off to a shakey start at the Salon du Chocolat, with the goods elevators jammed up from every exhibitor scrambling to get their stuff from Isetan’s storage area in time for the 1630hrs press only ‘meet and greet’.
The downside of not being a French company meant that we had to join the rest of the ‘not so godly’ chocolate makers at the back of the line whilst the Henri Le Roux’, Fabrice Gillottes of this world get to to go first.
