Indulge your sweet tooth

With Valentine’s Day less than a month away, it seems fitting that Shinjuku Isetan will be hosting the Salon du Chocolat, the world’s largest chocolate festival. The festival was first held in 1995 in Paris, France and quickly became an international event, held in locales such as America, China and Russia with the involvement of a myriad of countries.

October 2009 saw the 15th Salon du Chocolat, held in Paris, with 17 countries in attendance and drawing approximately 200 chocolatiers and pâtissiers and 140 exhibits, with over 100,000 visitors over the event’s five days. The festival encompassed the very human theme of ‘Opera’: the rapture of love, anger and sadness. Figuratively, the opera played out in the emotions that are inextricably bound up with feelings associated with chocolate, something common to all chocolate addicts. In reality, the drama played out with opera singers, a fashion show, and objets d’art rendered in chocolate that stunned and delighted the crowds.

In keeping with this enthusiasm, Shinjuku Isetan will be hosting the Salon du Chocolat for the eighth time, continuing with the Paris theme of ‘Opera’, a first for a festival with an overlapped theme. Expectations are high as the sweet scent of chocolate wafts its way from Paris to Tokyo, bringing with it 70 brands and chocolatiers from 15 different countries, with the hopes of spectacles showcasing the deliciously uncanny mix of glamour and engineering that goes into making extraordinary chocolate.

Here’s our exclusive insider’s guide to the items that you can’t get anywhere else, and a sneak peek into what’s in store at the Salon du Chocolat.

Salon du Chocolat

Location: Shinjuku Isetan 6th floor Exhibition Hall
Date: Wed Jan 27 – Mon Feb 1, 2010
Open: 10am-8pm, final day until 6pm
Website: www.isetan.co.jp/sdc

6 in 1: The Opera Box

Take 6 of the world’s current top chocolatiers chosen by 6 people who love opera and you get this one-box combo of theme and chocolate. Japanese favourite Jean-Paul Hévin contributes a ‘Don Giovanni’ illustrated chocolate to start, with long-time Paris chef-pâtissier veteran Jaques Genin bringing in Mozart’s ‘Don Juan’ to steal the ladies hearts. With the backdrop of the traditional brown of the chocolate, the box comes to life with vivid hints of colour that captivate the eye as well as the palate.

One hundred boxes were available for pre-sale on the Salon Du Chocolat website; however they’ve already sold out. Your best bet is to try the first day of the festival.

Selection Opera (12 pcs.) includes DVD ¥5,250

Legendary and ultra-luxe: Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc

Perennial celebrity favourite and ‘world’s most beautiful hotel’, the Côte d’Azur’s Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc is located 15 minutes from Cannes in the south of France. As a hotel dedicated to pampering its well-heeled clientele, Eden-Roc opened a chocolate laboratory in April 2009 for the sole purpose of creating chocolate fantasies for the guests. The chocolate has begun to attract the attention of the general public, too. Finally, the hotel is revealing its chocolate treasures to the public. The hotel is situated in a fig producing region, so these chocolates feature fig paste, as well as dried fig paired with cashews and enrobed in chocolate to create luxurious bonbons.

Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc selection (16 pcs.) ¥4,935

MOF chocolatier Christian Camprini: Citrus chocolate

Christian Camprini is a recipient of the MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) honour, a distinction given to only France’s most highly-skilled craftsmen. In lieu of having his own shop, he operates as a freelance chocolate consultant, which keeps him globe-hopping on a regular basis. Camprini actively researches chocolate and its production in a backyard laboratory at his home near the Côte d’Azur in France. This box of chocolate inventions is full of southern French variations on a citrus theme, beginning with the region’s characteristic lemon notes and taking cues from the wild thyme that grows near his home-laboratory, along with local berries and nuts.

Christian Camprini selection (4pcs) ¥1,575

Love triage: Sweets First Aid

In the north-eastern French town of Metz and Jarny, MOF pâtissier Franck Fresson has set up shop whipping up whimsical chocolates such as this first-aid themed box. Fresson invites people to play around a bit and smile with bandage guimauves and caramel syringes, making it the Valentine’s Day ideal prescription from the love-doctor.

Franck Fresson Sweets First Aid (7pcs) ¥9,450

Destination Dubai: Al Nassma

Milk chocolate: predictable. Camel’s milk chocolate: a first for nearly everyone. With a charming design and clear exoticism factor, this makes a memorable gift.

Al Nassma camel’s milk chocolate (1pc/130g) ¥1890