Laurent Bernard Chocolatier Blog

After months of experimenting and fine-tuning recipes in my kitchen, I am delighted to share that I have just launched a new menu with various new chocolate creations – ranging from chocolate pralines and truffles, hot chocolates, homemade ice creams, to classic French pastries.

Because chocolate pralines and truffles are my specialty, I will first introduce to you some of my exciting new chocolate pralines and truffles.

The Whisky Chocolate Truffle is one of my new personal favourites. Whisky and chocolate is really a match made in heaven. And Nikka is one of my favourite whiskies. It is rich and complex with a slight sweetness which pairs very well with dark chocolate. For me, the Whisky Chocolate Truffle is a great after-dinner treat and I believe many gentlemen would think so too.

Another of my new chocolate creations is the Caramelis Praline – this is a chocolate praline featuring lovely, smooth salted caramel. You must also try my new Jasmine Praline. While it may sound exotic, jasmine and chocolate is a very good combination. For those of you who are curious to know the difference between a chocolate praline and a chocolate truffle, a praline is a filled confection and normally integrates caramelized sugar, nuts and sometimes icing. A truffle (named after the fragrant, highly prized French fungi due to their similarities in appearance) is a purer form of chocolate, made of chocolate ganache and rolled in cocoa powder.

In fact not long after I introduced the new pralines and truffles in my café, aides of a member of the royal family of a certain Middle-Eastern country came to order my chocolates! We specially put together a large, beautiful, luxurious box filled with a wide selection of my best pralines and truffles. It is a great honour to know that my chocolates are sought after by royalty!

Someone asked me the other day, “Why did you open your second outlet?” Most people think that it was natural for me to expand my business, seeing the relative success of my first café at Robertson Quay. But in fact, the second café and chocolate bar was born out of my quest to make better chocolates, not to make more chocolates for sale. My Portsdown outlet has a bigger and better equipped kitchen, which gives me more space and freedom to experiment and make flawless creations…creations worthy of your attention and enjoyment.

My cafés are more than a business; they represent my lifelong passion for chocolates. I have been working with chocolates for more than 20 years now, which has brought me from my hometown in France to London, Bermuda, USA and Israel before I settled in Singapore and set up my own shop. From the day I opened my first café in 2006, I have been spending long hours in the kitchen every day, tweaking recipes over and over again until they are perfect. Recently, I spent three full days just perfecting my chocolate éclairs. This means that when you order a chocolate éclair at one of my cafés on your next visit, it will taste better than the one you had previously. I only serve creations that I am proud of. I am very thankful to have my wife, Iveta, who takes care of the other details of running the business so that I can concentrate on my craft. She understands me like no one else does, and shares my ambitions and love for chocolates and desserts.