A Day In The Life: chocolatier William Poole
Chocolatier William Poole. Pic: Neill Barston
Having spent more than two decades in the food and drink sector including becoming an independent chocolatier, US-based industry specialist William Poole has enjoyed some remarkably rich experiences. Neill Barston quizzes him on a visit to London reflecting on his eventful life and times
Q: What was it that inspired you to initially enter the confectionery business?
A: There were a couple of things that made me want to be a chocolatier – one of my biggest influences was my grandmother, who worked for a company called Brach’s candies, and I remember her telling me stories about the volumes of chocolates that would come down the line, which always fascinated me. Every autumn, my grandparents would also take us shopping and I was allowed to choose candies from a department store – I’d take them home and dissect them, trying to figure out how these pieces of candy and chocolate were made. I’d take notes and wondered how could I make different flavours, and that’s never stopped for me. I’ve always looked at things in a different way.
Q: What was it like getting your first chocolate business up and running?
A: I had been working in Slovenia for a while and came back to start my first company in Denver, Wen Chocolates, and that seemed liked a century ago – it was interesting moment, I’d been working for a business in its pastry department and they offered me the opportunity to sell my own chocolates at the weekends. We then found a rental space within the confines of a spice shop in a beautiful old 1860’s building in the Skid Row downtown area, and we were part of that rebuilding of that part of town. We were approached by two networks during that time and we got some great advertising, and then after that, my partner came up with a really good idea of going to New Orleans back in 2010 – which we did and we found a property that had been damaged by the Katrina hurricane that we renovated as a hotel, which we did for a couple of years, offering cooking class workshops and there was always chocolate and pastries available to people there.
Q: What have been some of your most memorable jobs in confectionery and wider food industries?
A: One of the first jobs in the market came as a later starter in my 30s, I had was working as an assistant pastry chef and from that I had an opportunity to work on the American Orient Express for a year, which was an adventure that I have never really looked back from. It involved planning for different destinations, making sure we had enough food for everyone onboard including those who were working on it, so there was always planning and something to do and being able to be on a train cooking at 80 miles an hour serving 105 people a day three times a day, including pastry and desserts.”
Q: Confectionery Production has recently explored the potential as to whether cocoa for chocolate can and should be made through alternative sources, such as biotech companies like California Cultured – do you believe there is a place for such businesses?
A: I think there is room for companies like that, as deforestation is continuing to happen and crops are also being affected by blight and insects, and there are issues of overfarming, and we are potentially losing chocolate if we don’t find a way to replace the trees that have been lost. Chocolate making could become a lost art because of that. There are also still many cocoa farmers out there who still don’t have the opportunity to taste what they are harvesting from the trees – they are taking a machete to their pods and just getting them out to market.
Q: How important to you has it been to you to be mindful of sustainability with your own work?
A: We have always worked with companies and people who were true to their own craft and artform who obtained their own beans, and it provided a cocoa mass where every penny was going to help their kids, and we have sourced our cocoa largely from South America
Q: What it is that you have loved most about being in the industry?
I think it’s the inspiration of the flavour combinations and what others continue to do with chocolate. It’s a medium and you can put things into it, but the places that chocolate is grown north and south of the equator around the world offer volumes of flavour profiles that people should experience. Whether it’s come from Nicaragua, Philippines or West Africa or Venezuela or Hawaii, each have their own distinct terrior, and I think everyone should taste these at least once in their life.
