In 1662, the Catholic church declared that drinking chocolate did not break a fast and so it became popular in monasteries all over Europe. Chocolate has always had something mystical about it, and many famous Europeans believed in the past that it was imbued with certain qualities that enhanced their well-being in a variety of ways.
The Spanish aristocracy once believed that chocolate would help them lose weight and ate it in enormous quantities on waking, whereas the French author Honore de Balzac declared that it improved his concentration greatly. But the French love affair with chocolate truly began when the aristocracy declared it to be an aphrodisiac. Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry were known to have plied their lovers with hot drinking chocolate, but it is Louis XIII who is accredited with introducing chocolate to France in the early 17th century when he married Anne, daughter of the King of Spain, and she insisted on taking chocolate with her, a commodity already popular in her country. Then, in 1780 Marie Antoinette appointed her own chocolate-maker who invented a medicinal use for it, using new ingredients such as almonds for his lady's digestion, or orange extract to calm her nervous disposition.
Today in France, chocolate consumption is low - 4.9 k annually for each person, which places it in only ninth position, well below Switzerland's 10.2 k and just above Italy's 2.5 k. However, when the French do treat themselves, it is with the very best and finest of chocolates. The mere suggestion of adding vegetable fats to cocoa mass to make such a luxurious product seems as ludicrous to the French now as it would have done at any point in the history of chocolate, and so the worst scenario imaginable is the law which will soon be passed by the European Commission.
It will make it legally acceptable to add up to 5 per cent vegetable fats to the cocoa content of chocolate, thereby opening the floodgates for all kinds of "rogue" chocolate, or what the French artisan chocolate-makers disdainfully call "imitiation" chocolate. Chocolate has always been fashionable and much appreciated in France, but there has been a remarkable renewal of interest over the past 10 years. A chocolate trade fair held annually in Paris in autumn is an event which is growing in popularity, where artisans and manufacturers inform, seduce and entertain adults and children with conferences, demonstrations and tasting sessions.
The birth in 1981 of a Club des Croqueurs for connoisseurs of chocolate indicates the importance attached to tradition and quality of chocolate in France. It has 150 members, many of them well-known French personalities such as clothes designer Sonia Rykiel, Lionel Poilane, owner of one of the oldest bakeries in France, and gourmet author, Claude Lebey. Its role is to promote and protect high quality chocolate, with blind-tasting sessions much in the same spirit as wine tasting.
The Club's official attitude vis-a-vis the proposed new legislation is that the customer should be informed if vegetable fat has been added, and make an educated choice. To hundreds of professional chocolate confectioners and patisseries, the proposed legislation is in contrast to tradition and chocolate consumption in France.
The "chocolatiers" in Paris are dedicated artisan chocolate-makers who use only the best of ingredients and are personalities in their own right. Buying good quality chocolate is something that unites the French, who flock to one of the many beautiful chocolate shops as soon as festivities begin, even if that just means celebrating Saturday evening.
La Maison du Chocolat, owned by Robert Lynxe, is part of a chain of five shops in Paris alone, all frequented by a loyal clientele who are for the most part connoisseurs of chocolate. Outlets in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston import the chocolates from Paris, always made from the same ingredients of non-treated lemons and oranges, fennel bulb and exotic dry fruits and plants, sometimes marinated in the best armagnacs.
Michel Richart, a chocolate "designer", is another well-known personality in the French world of chocolate. Design et Chocolat, on 258 Boulevard St Germain, aims to create a direct link between the customer and the finished product. Delicate boxes of musical instruments, witty moulds with messages to loved ones, chocolates for golfers, swimmers, and sailors and even brightly decorated mini mouthfuls for children adorn the shelves. Innovative in taste and form, Richart uses spices and plants such as caraway, basil, lavender, aniseed or green tea.
With the aim of educating those French taste buds early on, this artisan chocolate-maker runs a competition in the junior schools in Paris in search of a design to appear on his Easter eggs.
But for those who prefer to go right back to the origins of chocolate, you can drink it in a chic salon. Angelina's on 226 Rue de Rivoli, is very much a twin-set and pearls place frequented by mothers and daughters, couturiers that work in the nearby rue Saint-Honore and various stars of showbusiness. Six out of 10 clients come here to taste the famous hot chocolate which is a smooth and extremely rich drink, almost a meal in itself. Further afield, Angelina has franchised its salons in Japan which are a huge success as French chocolate is already well-positioned on the market there. Laduree on the chic Rue Royale with its more intimate ambience and small gilt, marble tables closely placed together is really only for a chocolate a deux.
The "chocolat gouter" or afternoon snack for just 75ff, with mini bitter chocolate macaroons, a piece of chocolate tart, a portion of chocolate sorbet and a hot chocolate or coffee is just another reason for insisting on the real thing.
With so many heavenly pleasures available in one country, who in their right mind would want to upset these delicate palates, so finely tuned to savouring only the best? Pity the members of the European Commission then, who have to come to an agreement on what a bar of chocolate should contain. To analyse the amount of vegetable fat in any one bar of chocolate is extremely difficult, as the measure of vegetable fat can vary from between 4 per cent and 7 per cent. But whatever the result, the hard reality for the French is that the Treaty of Rome stipulates that produce within the EU may circulate freely, and therefore any law relating to chocolate cannot restrict the addition of vegetable fats. And that's a fact, no matter how loudly the Galls shout "assez".