Chocolates from Inverness – Scottish Style

Sweet taste of success for chocolatiers – The Inverness Courier
All right, so David Suchet is actually English, but as the man who has been famous for portraying detective Hercule Poirot for over 20 years, the Belgian connection was too good to ignore – though Ingrid did ignore the literal translation of his name opting instead for a “poire” (pear) centre.

“Poireau means leek, but that would not have been so good in chocolate,” Ingrid explained.

Not that she is above some unusual ingredients. Their shop in Inverness’s Victorian Market, Story’s Belgian Chocolate (without the “e” of their real surname) has become well known for its Belgian-Caledonian chocolate line, notably its range of whisky filled chocs. However, it could be argued that the couple took the Belgo-Scottish connection a little far when Ingrid agreed to a request for chocolates with a haggis centre.

“It was not a success,” Lucas sighed.

Between the letter from David Suchet and a signed photo from another celebrity sampler of the Storey’s wares, fellow Black Isle resident Penelope Keith, is the Storeys’ own moment of screen stardom.

The couple were asked to create marzipan Nessies for the final episode of Highland comedy drama “The Monarch of the Glen” and the photographs signed by the cast record its appearance on the hit BBC show.

Monsters are not the only items Lucas can conjure up from marzipan. Though the couple do not make cakes, they do decorate them with such items as a pair of walking boots, boats, motorbikes and even Posh and Becks.

Yet the Flemish-speaking couple were relatively new to the confectionary business before moving to Scotland, even though their home town of Aalst, 20 miles from Brussels, has a tradition of chocolate making.

Ingrid, a housewife who worked part-time for a dentist, made her own chocolates long before she decided, at the age of 50, to get serious about it and go to college.

Because Ingrid could not drive, painter and decorator Lucas also signed up for the Belgian Federation of Chocolatiers course.

Two years later, the two oldest students on their course qualified with the highest marks, impressing their tutors by presenting them with a complete range of chocolates previously unseen in Belgium, featuring 16 different Scotch whiskies.

The whisky theme also surfaced in their most ambitious chocolate set-piece.

“We made a whole whisky distillery out of chocolate with stills and everything,” Ingrid said.

“We called it Glensgeul – Sgeul is Gaelic for story. Even the water was made with glucose sugar and the stones were made with marzipan.”

The couple’s fascination with Scotland goes back much further. Lucas points out that the Storey family are a branch of the Clan Ogilvy. After meeting his clan chief, he is now the official clan representative at the annual commemoration of the Battle of Culloden.

“When we visited Scotland, it was never going on holiday. It was always ‘going home’,” Ingrid added.

Armed with their new qualifications, the couple decided to follow Lucas’ heart and on 16th November 2002, they opened their shop in Inverness where they found their wares a hit with the sweet-toothed Scots.

“It was very scary. We didn’t know what taste the people had here,” Ingrid recalled.

She need not have worried.

“After that first Christmas we found we had sold three times more than we had estimated,” she revealed.

“That was hard because it was day and night working. We didn’t even have time for a meal.”

Ingrid and Lucas Storey with some of their confectionary creations. Iona Spence

The workload has since eased, even though the couple have since opened a second shop on Fortrose High Street next to the kitchen where they make their chocolates.

“At the beginning I could make five or boxes. Now I can make 18 boxes – 18 kilos – in a day, but it’s really time consuming,” Ingrid said.

“That’s why the chocolatier schools in Belgium are closing one after another. Young people don’t want to do it because it is so time consuming.”

In contrast, the Storey’s pride themselves that they can still make chocolate completely by hand, though it is not always easy.

“It’s a live product. Chocolate is not always the same,” Lucas pointed out.

“It can be very frustrating,” Ingrid agreed, revealing that when she is totally stuck on a problem she will call her former lecturer in Belgium for some advice.

“It can change with the weather – it can be too wet, too dry, too cold…”

Though they use unique recipes and many local ingredients, the final products they produce are still Belgian chocolates – and not just because they are made by Belgians.

Every year the couple import three tonnes of chocolate.

“The butters I use are Belgian butters, but you can hardly find them in Belgium,” Ingrid said.

“They are special de-hydrated butters because chocolate and water and moisture do not get on well. Water is the enemy of chocolate.”

The chocolates have not just proved a success with customers in Inverness and on the Black Isle. They have also found fans in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London.

“A youngster came into the shop last year and said to us: ‘You’ve saved my life!’ He came from London and before he left his friends told him: ‘Don’t forget to buy chocolates in Inverness or you are a dead man!’” Lucas laughed.

The Storeys have now been joined by oldest son Guntter, who plans on marrying and settling down in Scotland too.

Meanwhile, his parents form a successful creative partnership with Lucas responsible for the artwork as well as being the point of contact for the customers in the shop, leaving Ingrid to do what she loves best, creating the flavours.

At the moment the Storey’s have 86 flavours to choose from, though even that is a reduction from the 105 the couple once offered.

Though they agree this is probably too much, Ingrid has no plans to give up creating new flavours and is already thinking about how to fulfil a request for a Guinness flavoured chocolate. However, she has no intention of emulating another chocolatier in Belgium who used chicken skin for one of his chocolate creations.

“I’m going to make one with pickled ants!” Ingrid declares in disgust, making it clear that, haggis centred chocolates aside, she does not want to create flavours just for shock value alone.

“There are so many beautiful flavours over here. Retirement? I don’t think I will ever retire from chocolate. I have so many ideas!”