Le Chocolatier Ivoirien: chocolate bars from Africa, handcrafted by an ex-banker

What did you do before becoming a chocolatier? “In university I studied international public law and I have a master’s in taxation. My parents wanted me to work in a bank, so I did. But I found it boring. In my work I met entrepreneurs who seemed very joyful compared to us bankers.

“I also saw the big transactions of cocoa and thought it’s fine to export cocoa, but not all of it. Two million tonnes of cocoa are exported from the Ivory Coast every year to big companies like Nestlé. It’s absurd. More than 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa comes from Africa, and there were almost no local brands of chocolate.”

How did you go about becoming a chocolatier? “I was 23 and had worked at the bank for almost two years. In 2012, I was invited to an event in Abidjan [in the Ivory Coast], where I met pastry chef Salif Koné. He had worked in Cannes and Paris, and I was interested because he made chocolate, ice cream and pastry.

“Chef Koné taught me how to make chocolate in six months. We worked more than 10 hours a day and even some Sundays. Afterwards, I improved my chocolate-making by going to Paris and Germany, and by watching YouTube.”

How did your parents react to the career switch? “When I went from banking to chocolate, my mother cried. But now they are proud of me. My mother is happy I train women in the village. It helps them and their families. They have more money than before.

“I have trained a lot of people around Africa. I taught a cooperative in the Ivory Coast to make chocolate and they were invited to a chocolate fair in Amsterdam. I taught women in Cameroon how to make chocolate and now they are selling it in the super­market. And in the Congo, I taught a woman who is a nurse in France; her father has a cocoa farm.”