Hello, I’m Vanessa Pharaoh.
I started making chocolates to give to my family at Christmas and Easter (is there ever a more welcome gift than chocolate?!) and enjoyed it so much I decided to learn the traditional process so I could begin to make it myself, properly, from scratch.
I trained at the Chocolate and Pastry School in Peebles, founded by Ruth Hinks – a World Chocolate Masters UK winner. Under the masterly eye of chocolate consultant Olivier Nicod, I learned how to make chocolate from the bean. I studied the whole process: from roasting, winnowing to grinding and then blending the ingredients together to make my own unique chocolate recipe.
In my pursuit to master every technique, I followed this up with a specialist chocolate-tempering course at the York Cocoa House.
Pharaoh’s Gold is my own unique blend of chocolate which I make from scratch at home, where I balance artisan chocolate making with bringing up my two beautiful daughters.