I’m sitting in a wingback chair in the luxurious Gold Lounge of Victoria’s iconic Fairmont Empress hotel, soaking up the spectacular view of the Inner Harbour as velvety milk chocolate melts in my mouth.
“It’s a little darker than your typical milk chocolate with a 46.5 per cent cacao content, and I did that because it has more of a depth of flavour to it,” explains the Fairmont Empress’s executive pastry chef, Gerald Tan. “I was inspired by the ocean so there’s a touch of salt in there, a hint of caramel and honey, and fruity notes. We named it Golden Aura because the sunsets here are so beautiful.”
I’m tasting the Fairmont Empress’ new signature chocolates – the creation of which, I’m told, are a first for a Victoria hotel –and they do not disappoint.
“We try to do things that are special and make us stand out, so I really wanted to have a product that defines the Empress in dessert form,” Gerald says. “The whole idea behind creating the chocolate is to have something unique to the property and something that embodies not only the Empress, but also Victoria and Vancouver Island.”
With notes of bark and pine capturing the woodsy aromas of the West Coast, red berries from Vancouver Island, and a hint of rose to honour the hotel’s lush rose gardens, the 66.8 per cent cacao dark chocolate does just that. It’s called Midnight Bloom – a nod to all the flowers in the City of Gardens – and it’s Gerald’s favourite.
“I love the dark chocolate because there’s just more intensity to the notes and as you taste it more, you get hints of olives and wine,” he says. “It’s a bit stronger than your average dark chocolate, but it’s velvety and there’s no bitter aftertaste.”
To find the perfect combination of flavours, Gerald travelled to Paris to taste all of the delectable options at high-quality chocolate maker Barry Callebaut.
“There are different notes of chocolate that you go through and then you narrow it down to the flavour profile you want,” he explains. “Do you want it to be sweet or to have a strong cacao taste? I went with the more floral and a bit of fruitiness, and they created three different recipes for me that I brought back for the executive team to taste. And then we decided what was the best fit.”
For Gerald – who’s been a pastry chef for 10 years and moved to Victoria a year and a half ago, after working at the St. Regis Hotel in his hometown of Toronto – it was an exciting but also daunting endeavour.
“It was definitely a lot of pressure!” he says with a laugh. “How do you express what the property is about? It was really about getting to know the history of the Fairmont Empress as well as what makes Victoria special. So, I did a lot of exploring.”
Making both the Reserve Noir and the Reserve Le Luminaire chocolates even more special is the heraldic emblem embossed on each delectable piece – another nod to the rich history of Canada’s castle on the coast. Highlighted with gold dust on the piece of dark chocolate I’m sampling, the “Badge of the Empress” features a cougar (Vancouver Island has the highest concentration of cougars in the world) coming out of a crown that’s rimmed with Pacific dogwood, British Columbia’s official flower, and Canadian maple leaves.
“The emblem and the chocolates are truly one of a kind and reflect the essence of our unique property,” Gerald says, adding that both signature chocolates are featured in the hotel’s popular afternoon tea, and will be key ingredients in desserts at Q at the Empress this summer.
The raised arms of the cougar on the Empress emblem mean that it holds onto its good fortune and I’m about to do the same by tasting the four-piece bon bon box ($20), available for purchase in the Lobby Lounge. The flavours emerge as a taste of Victoria, and include Empress honey, which is harvested on the property through the hotel’s pollinator program, and even a Saanich berry, with white chocolate that’s oozing with the most delicious raspberry ganache I’ve ever tasted. And since it’s the Empress, there’s also a tea-infused Earl Grey Midnight Bloom bon bon.
With Vancouver Island as his inspiration, Gerald and his team of 12 are constantly creating new sweet treats, from homemade ice cream to Gin Baba, a new twist on the citrusy Rum Baba that’s made with the hotel’s famous signature Empress 1908 Gin.
“It’s very important for me to make things from scratch because there’s a sense of pride from the team that we came up with this, and that it’s homemade,” says Gerald, who’s always loved baking and grew up making chiffon cakes with his mom. “I find it tastes better, the quality is better and it’s unique – you’re not going to find it anywhere else and I’m constantly amazed at the creativity of my team.”
“What the pastry team comes up with is unbelievable and since Gerald’s changing the menu every season, we always look forward to tasting what the team creates,” Empress public relations director Lisa McPhail tells me. “I was never a chocolate person and now I’m suddenly a chocolate person, which says a lot.”
As I bite into the last piece of chocolate on my tasting platter – Midnight Bloom, beautifully decorated with rose petals and freeze-dried raspberries – I ask Gerald if you can have too much chocolate.
“I have a sweet tooth so it’s very hard not to eat everything!” he says. “We always taste everything we make but I still have dessert at home every night as well.”
