Baker Bob is bowled over by the world of quality chocolate

"I wanted a job that allowed me to earn some money and yet gave me Saturday afternoons off to play cricket," he says

So Rob got a job in a bakery working 4am-11am and freeing him to play cricket; but in the end, the bakery won.

"I was so tired because of the shifts I was working that my cricket started to suffer." So Rob became a full-time baker, although he still plays cricket.

Twelve years ago, Rob opened his own business, Walkers Bakery & Tearooms, in Water Street, Skipton, branching out three years later to launch Walkers Exclusive Chocolates.

"I'd done some chocolate work at college but then, when I bought the chocolate business, I travelled to Switzerland and Belgium to hone my skills."

Belgium and Switzerland are the world's chocolate-making capitals, and Rob buys his chocolate from Belgium and then adds a twist of Yorkshire once he gets it home to Skipton.

"Our chocolates are made fresh every day," explains Rob. "We are probably making 1,000 hand-made chocolates every day at the moment but at Christmas and Easter, that can increase to up to 2,000 a day."

Apart from the chocolate, Rob likes to use as many local ingredients as possible. Next week, to coincide with National Chocolate Week, Walkers are launching a new Heritage range of chocolates which celebrates Yorkshire, using Yorkshire violet, lavender and rose, and even Yorkshire cream. The chocolates are presented in his newly-branded packaging, with the Yorkshire rose included, of course.

"Although I trained in Belgium and Switzerland, and the chocolate itself is Ivory Coast grown then processed in Belgium, my Yorkshire roots are hugely important to me and it means a lot to use all

these wonderful local ingredients."

Despite the recession, demand for Rob's chocolates is high.

"On the bakery side, we have seen people cutting back on the basics, but during these hard times, people seem to need a bit of cheering up and are still treating themselves to chocolates."

Rob believes that people's tastes have changed over the last 20 years.

"People travel a lot more and they get to taste chocolate on the Continent and they want to be able to get it over here. People are no longer satisfied with low-cost, mass-produced chocolate."

Rob has also noticed more people asking about the provenance of his chocolate.

"People are a lot more concerned about where things come from these days. They want their chocolate to be ethically traded and know how far it has travelled."

The escalation in cocoa prices over the last couple of years has hit many chocolate makers.

"I buy my chocolate on a 12-month contract. If the price of cocoa goes up, then that can become difficult to absorb. It makes me angry when people trade in foodstuffs as a commodity," he says.

As well as the freshness of their chocolate, Walkers can also personalise many of their products.

PRIZE DRAW

To mark the arrival of the new Heritage range of chocolates Walkers are offering the lucky winner of the online prize draw a fabulous year's supply of hand-made chocolates including not only the Heritage range, but also truffles, creams and pralines. To enter the draw, log on to www.walkershandmadechocolates.co.uk between October 11-November 30.