The first ever Max Brenner Chocolate Bar in Asia, which opened in Singapore early this year, is frequented mostly by women. Elsewhere in the world, women flock to Max Brenner’s bars more than men do.
"All the more reason that men should go to my chocolate bars," Brenner says.
The bald man, as Brenner has been called affectionately by chocolate followers around the world, opened the first Max Brenner Chocolate Bar in Makati City yesterday. His arrival to Philippine shores is part of a grand plan to introduce a new chocolate culture to the world – one where chocolate is on equal footing with coffee or tea.
Brenner started his idea for designer chocolates in 1995 after years of working as a pastry apprentice in Europe. He took his inspiration from the Parisian world of fashion, using chocolate as a versatile material that, just like fashion, can be molded into a variety of looks, styles and logos, and changes with the season.
"It was really more the fashion than the clothes," he admits.
Since then, he has been traveling around the world, imbibing the differences of world cultures, using his experiences in creating chocolates that have a truly global and cosmopolitan feel to them.
The first chocolate Brenner offers me during our interview is a caramelized pecan candy. The ground pecan is mixed with a fine paste of chocolate that gives a delicate nutty flavor to the chocolate and adds a different texture to the chocolate that encases it.
When he asks me whether I like a dark or milk chocolate praline, I opt for a dark one, hoping it would prepare me for the evening ahead of me. Instead, he gives me a lavender-scented dark chocolate that relaxes yet keeps you attentive. The heightened sensation makes me sit up for more.
Brenner’s business started in Israel. After finding a financier for his chocolate business, he opened a small store where he began to make chocolates using the techniques that he learned from the European tradition of chocolate making but using his imagination in re-imagining them for modern-day chocoholics.
He attracted attention from food critics who saw his move as a revolution in the chocolate industry. It was at the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, California in 2000 that he gained worldwide attention as a gourmet chocolatier. He has since opened shops in Australia and at the prestigious Harrod’s in London, a signal that Max Brenner has arrived.
Now, he is in Manila to offer local gourmets what he knows about chocolate. At this point, I reach out for a chunk of white chocolate and wait in anticipation.
I am offered a hug mug of Max Brenner’s Venezuelan dark chocolat, the chocolate version of the cappuccino. A hug mug is not your ordinary cup. It is shaped like a gravy boat without the handle. You hold it between the palms of your hands. You lift the end of the cup to your mouth and take a long sip. The chocolate warms your insides, while the hug mug warms your hands. Whoever said chocolate is sinful surely has never been to a Max Brenner Chocolate Bar.