My Life: Claire Gallagher

As Head of Food and Drink Innovation at Bettys she is the Yorkshire café and confectioner’s in-house expert on chocolate and is responsible for developing their chocolate range.

Talking to Scot Claire it is clear there isn’t much about chocolate she doesn’t know – or love. What she doesn’t know about a cognac truffle or a fondant cream isn’t worth knowing and that’s why she is perfect for the job.

“There are so many aspects to chocolate that people just don’t know,” says Claire who gets to visit the plantations in Venezuela and Peru where many of Bettys’ cocoa beans for their chocolates are sourced from fairly traded farmers.

“The taste of the chocolate will differ depending on where the cocoa bean is grown. It also depends on how the bean is processed, that before we even start adding flavourings.”

Claire’s training started in Yorkshire, where she trained as a chef before returning to her native Scotland to work as commis pastry chef at the Carlton Highland Hotel in Edinburgh.

It was there that she cooked for many of the hotel’s celebrity customers including Prince Charles and Kylie Minogue.

After a spell working for a Michelin-starred restaurant in France and the prestigious Crathorne Hall near Yarm, where she developed her passion for chocolate and petit fours, Claire spent three years working as a pastry chef for Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons. Here she was presented with the top Gold award at the British Open Championships for petit fours and chocolates.

“My love of working with chocolate really grew from making petit fours,” explains Claire.

“For me, the finest chocolates only come from using the best ingredients and that underpins everything we do here at Bettys.”

Although her title is Head of Innovation, Claire is something of a traditionalist when it comes to chocolate and isn’t a fan of introducing wacky flavours.

“The classic flavour combinations work so well why would you mess with them? Although I would always support trying different things. Our job is to work on the intensity of the flavours and the quality of and consistency of the products.”

Most people may think of Bettys as famous for its cafés and bakery, but its founder Frederick Belmont was a master chocolatier as well.

“Chocolate is a really important part of Bettys, we have been making them for 90 years,” says Claire.

A few years ago she was involved in revisiting some of the chocolates Bettys produced in the 1930s.

Of course tasting the finished product just happens to be a big part of her job as well.

“Like in wine tasting, you need to have a good palate. We don’t eat the chocolate, we taste the chocolate.

“It is about the entire chocolate experience, not just how it tastes, but its texture and how it makes you feel.”

So does she ever get fed up of eating chocolate?

“No, never,” she says hastily. So what about her favourite?

“I’m not allowed to have a favourite.”

To mark National Chocolate Week next week Bettys is organising a number of meet the chocolatier events in its cafés. For more information visit www.bettys.co.uk.

Win day in the Chocolate Room

To celebrate national Chocolate Week the Yorkshire Post has teamed up with Bettys in a very special competition. Three lucky winners, and a guest each, will join Claire in the Chocolate Room at Bettys Craft Bakery in Harrogate to make their dream flavours a reality, before joining Claire for a celebration meal at the Cafe Tea Rooms, RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate. For your chance to win see details printed in the Yorkshire Post from Saturday, October 12 to Friday, October 18.