Joanne Harris and David Greenwood-Haigh

Chocolat author Joanne Harris and award-winning chocolatier David Greenwood-Haigh talk about the history of chocolate, its exotic appeal, its relationship to love and human weakness, and its place in folklore and literature. Discussions will naturally be accompanied by some tastings.

Harris’s novel, Chocolat, tells the story of young Vianne Rocher, a single mother who sets up a chocolaterie at the beginning of Lent in the village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. She scandalises the village as the battle lines are set between the Church and the pleasures of chocolate.  The book was turned into an Oscar-winning movie starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. The fourth novel in the ensuing series, The Strawberry Thief, was published last year.

Greenwood-Haigh is a chocolatier with more than 40 years’ experience in the food industry. He set up Coeur de Xocolat, a business that specialises in chocolate events and demonstrations and that allows him to share his passion for chocolate. He has been a judge for the Great Taste Awards, the International Chocolate Awards and the Academy of Chocolate. He has also produced his own range of premium chocolate bars and is a winner of the Great Taste Gold Award and of an Academy of Chocolate award.

This event lasts 1 hour 15 minutes