Meet the Chocolatiers
Behind
L'Artisan du Chocolat is a team of partners in life and in
chocolate: Gerard Coleman and Anne Weyns. The first is a chef and
chocolatier passionate about his products and hands on in our
atelier; the second a repented business consultant looking after
everything else that a growing business needs.
We employ a
small number of dedicated production and retail staff . We
concentrate our resources on buying high quality ingredients and
controlling all quality aspects of our production instead of
spending on marketing, sales, packaging design etc. We do not want
to sell the image of luxury chocolates, we aim to sell memorable
and exceptional chocolates skilfully crafted - only that is the
true essence of luxury.
Chocolate Vitae
1995:
Gerard is a pastry chef at Grammercy Tavern in New York and Anne
gets a Master's degree in science|1996: Anne enters the
intriguing business world at McKinsey&Co|1997: Gerard
trains at Pierre Marcolini in Brussels|1998: Welcome to
London|1999: our first samples are made and Gordon Ramsay
puts them on his menu. We start a stall at Borough Market every
Saturday |2000: Our first tobacco chocolates are served
at the Fat Duck|2001: Our Chelsea shop opens in
London|2002: Our chocolates fly on the Concorde|2003:
Liquid salted caramels are born and flying out of the window. We
start legal proceedings against Barry Callebaut, one of the largest
chocolate producers in the world for trademark infringement in the
UK. A year long battle starts that will pump much of our cash and
our energy, but not our pride|2004: Best Producer Award, by
the Observer Food Monthly|2005: the O collection and
the pearls are created|2006: we move from a 3000 sqft
building to a new 17000 sqft building|2007: we
start producing our own chocolate from ground cocoa beans,conching
and refining in our atelier. Our chocolates are sold in
Tokyo|2008: 4 new salted caramels
and opening of our Selfridges shop and first chocolateria|2009: opening of our Notting
Hill shop and chocolateria at 81 Westbourne Grove, Launch of our
chocolate cocktails, ice cream, brownies and salted caramel
tart|2010: opening of 3 regional concessions
in Selfridges Manchester and
Birmingham.
meet the chocolatiers
