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COC LA OR E S ch ocola te we e k
t ex t Y I O TA M A L L A S
sweet
SUCCESS
A perennial favourite of the Four Seasons calendar, Chocolate Week sees the Hotel's pastry team enrich their cocoa-themed portfolio annually with new and alluring delights. This year's edition featured the expertise of maestro Antonio Bachour, whose Midas touch led to chocolate gold.
It’s a beloved tradition, perennially steeped in creativity, but the Hotel’s most recent Chocolate Week came with a particularly rich coating of inspiration. Antonio Bachour, among the world’s most celebrated pastry chefs, was invited to curate the November 2023 edition. He mentored the Four Seasons’ dessert masters through a week-long training programme and ushered in innovative ingredients and approaches. The result was not only a collection of 23 show-stopping desserts, but also the fulfilment of a key milestone in the Hotel’s history. “Chocolate Week was an opportunity for us to not only showcase his pioneering work, but also to celebrate our cooperation and friendship - something which we intend to continue for years to come through future exchanges in chocolate and pastry-making,” explains the hotel group’s Food and Beverage Manager Yiannos Gregoriou.
CULINARY GOLD DUST
THE ESSENCE OF CHOCOLATE WEEK It was, therefore, a great privilege to interview Bachour, who elaborated on the thought process behind Chocolate Week. “I believe in accentuating the natural flavour of cocoa with two core principles, which are to keep the sugar content at the bare minimum, and to use simple recipes with a limited set of ingredients,” said Antonio. “It’s where the clichéd term ‘Less is More’ takes on a whole other meaning.” Indeed, the signature servings at the Hotel were borderline salted, but nonetheless mastered the balance of flavour that is characteristic of Antonio's work. “We share a conscious effort to minimise the exaggerated sweetness of conventional dessert-making, and instead elevate the taste of nuts, fruits, spices and other natural elements,” says Gregoriou.
Four Seasons Portrait
Such interaction with industry experts is a key value of Four Seasons’ operations, and Bachour’s insights are intellectual gold dust for pastry-makers worldwide. Parallel to his restaurant empire in Miami and Mexico, Bachour has received international acclaim for his unrivalled reign in the pastry world. “It’s a far cry from my teenage years, helping my father in the family bakery in Puerto Rico,” says Bachour. After a series of stints in renowned establishments, such as
the W Hotel in South Beach and the Soho hotel in New York, he then became the dessert right-hand man of Jean-Georges Vongerichten and his international restaurant group. This background helped earn him the title of Best Pastry Chef in the World in 2018 and 2022 from the Prestigious Best Chefs Foundation, the world’s leading culinary award platform. His consultations and collaborative dinners have also seen Bachour rub shoulders with global culinary greats, such as Massimo Bottura and Joan Roca.
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