Papa Barbieri, my dad, used to forage for sweet chestnuts in London’s Kensington Gardens; long before foraging was a thing. We’d eat them roasted and brought to the table in a dish cloth for shelling. At Christmas, my mum would turn them into Monte Bianco – chestnuts puréed with chocolate and covered in vermicelli cream. Later, when my dad opened his own ice-cream shop, the foraged chestnuts would go into the best ice-cream flavour ever: my dad’s chocolate chestnut gelato.
I’ve long wanted to incorporate chestnuts into something chocolatey, so I approached Peta Leith of Lumi Chocolates and asked her if she could use all her skill, both as a chocolatier and as a pastry chef, to make an homage to my mum and dad. And after quite a bit of to and fro-ing and a quasi indecent amount of testing in the process, she has come up with the most wonderful chocolate chestnut truffles. The innards are chestnuts, hazelnuts and 60% cocoa, which are then all covered in an organic, single origin 80% cocoa Ugandan chocolate and then given a dusting of cocoa. As ever with these collaborations, neither the Observer, nor I, make any money. But I really hope you enjoy them, because how excited am I to have my own truffles! They will cost £12.95 for 12 handmade chocolates if you buy them before 1 January. Also before that date, 10% of profits will go to Crisis at Christmas. They are only available on pre-order (because they are freshly made) and will be despatched from the 4 December onwards.
