Renowned Bean Queen Lyss McDonald-Bärtl & seasoned chefs conduct an intensive 2-day class

by Cook Magazine · November 28, 2015

Love cacao beans and chocolate so much? Learn more and become a chocolate expert and start your very own chocolate business as the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA, Manila), the Philippines’ top culinary school, commences with classes on a much-loved and important ingredient and flavor to Filipinos.

CCA, Manila, in cooperation with BLYSS Chocolate, will be holding special lectures on cacao beans mastery with foremost cacao bean expert and responsible farming advocate Alyssa Jade “Lyss” McDonald-Bärtl, while CCA’s top patissier-masters, Chefs Christine Paredes and Anne Atanacio accompany her in preparing dishes and desserts using locally-sourced cacao and chocolate.

She is a third-generation Australian social entrepreneur, advocate of responsible and sustainable chocolate farming and the founder of BLYSS Chocolate, which sells single bean virgin chocolate that food critics and chocolatiers define as the “purest chocolate in the world.” Armed with the advocacy of responsible agriculture or agro-ecology that she learned from her family, BLYSS Chocolate harvests pure arriba nacionale cacao from 450 farmer families in Ecuador.

On November 30 and December 1, Lyss will be conducting “How to Put up a Profitable Chocolate Business” where she will lecture on the possibilities of a chocolate-based enterprise based on her very own experiences with BLYSS Chocolate, which she founded. To accompany her will be Wicked’s top patissier Chef Christine Paredes, conducting the demo.

Meanwhile, December 2 and 3 will see her at the helm of “Use of Local Cacao”, where she will discuss the exploration and use of locally grown cacao beans in the preparation of innovative dishes and desserts and earning top profits from it. She will partner with CCA’s desserts expert and seasoned instructor Anne Atanacio who will conduct the accompanying demo.

Classes will be conducted at the CCA, Manila campus in Katipunan Avenue from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For inquiries on schedules and fees, call (02) 218-5266 or email: talktoccamanila@gmail.com. CCA, Manila is at 287 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.