When Peter Remmelzwaal meets our new Signature Origins chocolate : OKAPI 65

Peter is an enthusiastic and very passionate pastry chef : Member of the Dutch Pastry Team, on-call pastry chef for the Royal Family, he’s also the winner of the Dutch Pastry award in 2013.
To celebrate our new Signature Origins chocolate range, he worked with OKAPI 65 for several gourmet recipes and accepted to share his experience with us.
Let’s deep dive into the world of OKAPI 65 from D.R Congo !

What makes the cocoa used in the new Veliche Signature Origins chocolates so different?

The new Signature Origins chocolates have a distinctive character. I’m a fan of both Okapi 65 and Usulután 65 and I love to use them in my creations. Usulután 65 from El Salvador has a beautiful, elegant and aromatic taste of nuts, fruits and flowers. Okapi 65 from D.R Congo has a slightly deeper, dark chocolate taste of spices and dried fruits. Those chocolates are fantastic to work with and it is great that Veliche added them to its range !

One feature of the Signature Origins products is the direct connection between chefs and farmers. How and why is that connection important? What added value does it offer to consumers?

Is this product manufactured fairly? Are both farmers & nature treated well ?
More and more consumers are becoming aware of climate change and product traceability is a key factor to make them choose one product more than another.
It’s very common for a chef to care about the origin of the product he works with, because quality goes beyond making a good product and he’s conscious that behind every product there are people with their story and it matters!
Fortunately, the current generation of pastry chefs increasingly see the need to work with local raw materials and want to know where the products are coming from.

Veliche is the brand who empowers Chefs. As a chef yourself, what aspects of the Veliche products excite you the most, and why?

As a chef, I love the wide range of chocolate. That way I can properly pick the right chocolate to match my ideas, my creations. That choice depends on the cocoa percentage, the fluidity but also the price.
For example, I use a different chocolate for decorations than for a tasty dessert.
I’m very proud to use Veliche products because they are sustainable, certified by Rainforest Alliance and this is very important to me because we have to preserve our nature and respect people who work hard to allow us to get the best chocolate to work with.

Again, from your perspective as a chef, what extra value can chefs gain from working with Veliche?

Veliche is great value and the quality of the product is unbeatable.
All the chocolates have an exceptional workability. I like the fluidity that I have not found in other brands.
We can also witness the generosity of Veliche on their website or on Social Media : sharing techniques, and recipes is brilliant.
I had the honor to discover their new packaging and they are just wonderful. Easy to manipulate, recyclable and resealable, they make everything easier for chefs to create.

At the end of the day, the end goal of all products is winning the hearts of its consumers. How do you ensure to reach your consumer’s heart with Veliche?

It’s always a pleasure to create beautiful and tasty pastries with Veliche chocolate! As a pastry chef, I used to invite consumers to taste my creations and they enjoy being surprised by astonishing flavors. My philosophy is simple: if chocolate is your passion, it’s easy to make your consumers happy! And just between you and I, who doesn’t like good, sustainable and tasty chocolate? No one!

Thank you Peter!

Discover Peter’s recipes with OKAPI 65