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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 13TH MARCH, 2016
A black sorrel flower soaked in white rum
, spices and
sugar, then dipped in dark chocolate – have you ever eaten
something so decadent?
I have; thanks to Matthew Escalante, the chocolatier at
UWI’s Cocoa Research Centre (CRC).
Matthew, 28, trained at the Trinidad and Tobago
Hospitality Institute in Chaguaramas (TTHI) before joining
the CRC to do his Master’s degree in Food Technology.
Between classes Matthew whips up vanilla ganache
hearts and gold-patterned cardamom-and-pepper squares
that joyfully explode in my mouth. It’s a tough gig...
He is constantly experimenting with flavours and
textures. His bubbly personality belies a well-trained palate
and his carefully considered alchemy. Yes. Alchemy.
When we meet, Matthew is in a white lab coat, pacing
up and down the laboratory-cum-kitchen, brimming with
excitement and talking at high speed in the language of food.
“I’m fat, and I love food,” he says. “Food is about
passion. If you lose your passion, you can’t create.”
His culinary acumen honed by years in restaurant
kitchens, led Matthew to CRC as their chocolate maker in
February 2014. Working on a carbonated cocoa pulp drink
as his final year project as an undergrad in Nutrition and
Dietetics, brought him into close contact with the CRC.
His research won the Freeman Prize for best third-year
undergraduate project in cocoa, so when their current
chocolate maker left for French Guiana, they immediately
thought of Matthew.
Matthew takes the raw cocoa bean from fermentation
to the artisanal stars and hearts that melt in my mouth and
leave me craving more. Which apparently only the best
chocolate can do: no aftertaste, and you can’t stop eating.
The fridge in his lab is filled with Ziploc bags of the batches
of chocolate that came out with the perfect desired taste:
raisin, red berry, passion fruit.
He never stays still and is up and down the lab, opening
cupboards and flasks, unzipping bags and unwrappingmore
delightful concoctions.
“Do you like milk chocolate?” he asks.
I hesitate and tell him I now find it too sweet; I used to
eat loads of milk chocolate and have now switched to dark.
“Most people think it’s bad and dark chocolate is the
only one that’s good for you, but there’s no ‘good’ or ‘bad,’
it’s just different.”
Matthew slides open a bag that holds the biggest slab of
chocolate I’ve ever seen, breaks off a chunk with a satisfying
snap and hands me to taste: it’s silky and raisiny, a result of
Matthew’s hand tempering that adds shine and snap. I am
amazed by its subtle delicacy: not too sweet; I immediately
want more. This is milk chocolate? It is nothing like the stuff
you find on supermarket shelves.
We then try a tiny frilly-edged button chocolate that
has a distinct passion fruit taste. Absolutely delicious.
Matthew pops one into his mouth to confirm my findings.
He’s delighted to help.
The beans CRC gets for chocolate making are from the
International Cocoa Genebank in Centeno and are picked
from their fields and sent as one batch.
The first stage after the beans arrive is fermentation.
Matthew takes me to the fermentation building where the
raw beans are in ventilated wooden boxes covered with a
layer of banana leaves, then a layer of the crocus bags the
beans are transported in. The sour flies that flit around us
influence the growth of yeast.
RESEARCH
The
Alchemist
Matthew Escalante finds his creative passion
B Y A L L I S O N S H E P H E R D
There is a not unpleasant hot wine-like smell in the
roomwith an underlying bitter chocolate aroma. Matthew
measures the temperature of the fermenting beans.
After three days the beans have reached a temperature
slightly above 44 degrees Celsius and are ready to be
turned. They are then left for six to eight days. After
fermentation they are taken to the roof of the Frank
Stockdale building (home of the CRC) to dry. We take
the ancient lift to the roof where the beans are laid out
drying in the sun. It is a hot day and the drying gets rid
of any mould.
His chocolate only uses hand-picked beans. “They
should be the same size, plump, no splits or cracks and
mould free,” Matthew explains.
He chooses a couple of already roasted beans, breaks
them open and fills my hand with cocoa nibs. “Try them.”
They’re bitter with a slightly acid sharpness.
Flavour depends on each stage of the chocolate-making
process from bean to bar including genotype, roasting and
conching.
Matthew, always experimenting with flavour, is
isolating the beans from each field to see if the chocolate has
a unique “field” taste. This could then influence the notes of
the chocolate he produces.
“We are trying to determine the flavour potential of
each of the Centeno fields,” he says.
Experts like CRC’s food technologist Darin Sukha are
trained to detect 40-50 flavour notes. Someone like me
should be able to detect around seven including floral, fruity,
nutty and earthy, Matthew says.
I’m thinking I should eat some more – just to see if I
can improve.
To learn how to make chocolate for yourself join one
of CRC’s classes. Courses start at $3000.
Allison Shepherd teaches Medical Communication Skills at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope.
Matthew Escalante at one of the Cocoa Research Centre’s
recent chocolate making workshops.
