Chocolates, sweets and fantasy

“I began making cakes for my daughters’ birthdays, because I could see that everything out there was the same” – a boring old circular cake with a design on top and some candles. “One day I made a 3D cake, and all my friends loved it”, Paula Costa, 44, and co-organiser of the event at “Centro Cultural António Aleixo “ in Vila Real de Santo António, told us.

That was the starting point. Then came the courses in Lisbon, Oporto, Caldas da Rainha and Loulé, where she learnt different techniques in the art of cake design – a contemporary approach to the production and decoration of cakes that always seeks to create irresistible results for the eyes and palate. “There are no limits! Anything goes!” Paula smiles.

“England is the centre of this specialised universe. Here there really isn’t much”. It’s a little more expensive than the norm, because everything’s handmade using natural ingredients – like almond paste.

“But it’s still a good market. We may be in crisis, but there’s always a party, a wedding, a special day” – and, more and more, people are seeking out novelties. For example, the traditional “wedding cake” is a feature of the past. “These days, the tendency is to go for individual cakes, very pretty and beautifully decorated…”

Paula Costa works solely with orders – taking on only as much as she can cope with. Her business already has a client base of hundreds throughout the Algarve; her skills “travelled” via word of mouth…

Beyond showing new developments in the business, the show was about promoting the products and professionals of the Algarve.

“We have oranges, figs, almonds and carobs. These four products have a lot of potential, which could be developed a great deal. We really don’t need anything else”. Who says this is Filipe Vaz, one of the instructors at Loulé’s CFPSA – the professional training centre for the food sector.

Vaz believes in a dynamic confectionary sector, innovative and based on regional products that could contribute to the local economy. Another real plus for the region – particularly during the winter.

But, in reality, anyone looking for “something different” in a traditional cake shop, “has to make an effort” and really hunt. Is this because we lack the necessary professionals?

“No, we’ve got good professionals”, Vaz counters. But they can only show what’s “accepted” at special events because “at their places of work, those in charge have an “old” way of thinking”. According to Vaz, creativity is not often welcome in many confectionary businesses.

“People want to develop, but they come up against a wall” because their bosses “don’t want to spend money on raw materials” like sugars and flours. “Leave it, it’s not worth it. It won’t sell” are the most common ruses for dissuasion.

“How can the market, cakes and pastries and everything connected with them, develop? It can’t!” he laments.

A reflection of this inertia can be seen by the fact that the organisation invited dozens of businesses to attend this year’s event, but many showed themselves to be skeptical. “What they actually said was that they didn’t have enough employees…” explained Paula Costa.

Filipe Martins agrees with her. He came to the show to make his piri-.piri flavoured chocolates “live”. At the age of just 23, he heads the Faro “Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo” confectionary course. Last April, he won 1st prize at the Portuguese “Chocolatier do Ano 2010” (chocolate maker of the year) contest, in Óbidos.

“There are lots of people who know how to make chocolate – but in their place of work, they’re unable to do so”. “It’s a real pity. Chocolate on its own may not make a business – but it makes a difference”, he explains.

For Nuno Machuqueiro, from Almancil’s «Doces Pecados», the secret is to create something new, but keep it simple at the same time. “Four years ago, we were Christmas shopping and saw that people went crazy over chocolate. We thought about it, and wondered if we could do something different. We went to Belgium, visited various fairs, and came to the conclusion that it would be interesting to combine regional Algarvian products with chocolate”.

For the time being, they are not producers. They collaborate with an Alentejan chocolate maker who realises their “creations” – fig and local brandy sweets, among other mouth-watering delicacies. The business tries to attend all the confectionary fairs. “Yes, there should be more of them – particularly for gourmet local products!”

Another chocolate master in love with the Algarve is Belgian Frank Vermoegen, 67. He and his wife, painter Elze Newton, created four years or so ago a small chocolate factory christened «Quinta do Xocolatl», in Luz de Tavira, near Ria Formosa.

It works only from October to Easter. They tells us that business is quieter these days – due to the crisis, and the fact that theirs is a luxury product, retailing at €38 per kilo. Their latest novelties for 2010/11 are a “bombom” made with Algarvian olive oil, and another filled with absinth…