The Chocolate Shop

The true heroes of Ireland’s culinary revolution are the specialists, those hardy explorers who excavate deeply into a single area of culinary expertise. Thanks to their extreme-sports dedication, these voyagers reveal for the rest of us the riches that they have uncovered: they bring home the treasure. Instead of merely focusing their gaze on a single foodstuff, they instead show us the panorama of an entire culture, and we are never the same again.
This is exactly what Rosemary Daly has achieved in Cork’s Chocolate Shop. Ms Daly has specialised in artisan chocolate but, in confining her work to a single topic, she has illuminated the entire world of speciality chocolate making. In bringing together all the best artisan brands from all over the world, she has gifted us with not just the paradox of choice, but also with the pathway to find the glory of chocolate. It would be a fine thing indeed to work your way patiently and pleasurably through her range, from Cluizel to Wilkie’s, from Nearynogs to Lorge, from Fu Wan to Pump Street. Chocolate unleashes the most extreme commitment from its great practitioners, who understand it to be both an art form and a craft. Rosemary Daly understands this also, and her work in The Chocolate Shop has made our world a better place.