People Ready to Roll

I trained the team today. I love training!

Only a 2½ hour delay while the driver brought them to the training room, via head office on the other side of the island, where we didn’t ask for them to go. “Take it easy, Lynn!” That’s Ali’s favourite saying. Ali is the General Manager for Hotel Chocolat over here.

I took it easy, and availed myself of a free Costa latte while getting the training room ready.

Got some Wow! factor in to get the guys in the mood for a bit of HC love. A Chocolatier’s Table went down incredibly well and set the scene. Now they know what originality means! Here’s Lorence getting stuck in.

Ronald was rather taken with the cocoa pods. I was rather taken with Ronald’s biceps! (Yes, that’s an official quote from our People & Ethics Director.)

Hazel couldn’t wait to check out her uniform and those apron strings went round her waist twice. They go round my wrist twice too.

Down to work, and after watching Fredrik’s film and seeing the Hotel Chocolat journey, mission and values, the team had a go at identifying who our guests will be. Some good thinking on their final flipchart and I hope I’m there when the King of Bahrain checks in. I think they get the idea though and the sense of humour is tucked in there too already. These people will be lovely ambassadors and are already feeling proud to be the first franchise team.

We explored the wonderful world of chocolate and Ana got all bossy with the process cards. Apparently, tempering is a very important part of the fermentation process, and just before we conch, we do a bit of winnowing. But it’s all new stuff for the whole team and we laughed a lot as we saw photos of Rabot Estate and Hadley Park, and got the whole process sorted out. Hazel said to me, “I worked in a chocolate shop for 3 years and I never knew how chocolate was made.” Well, now she knows. And she can also tell you how being a cocoa grower and chocolatier makes HC stand out from the crowd.

On to the history of chocolate, and a bit of Montezuma, sacrifices and rituals. Ronald was chuffed to find out that a male slave cost 100 cocoa beans and a female slave a paltry 50. Chuffed, that is, until Lorence mentioned that that was 3000 years ago and he needs to move on. We adjourned to the kitchen to make a cocoa drink and raise a froth with some high level pouring, just like the Aztecs used to do. We cheated a bit by adding milk instead of water, but the Aztecs would forgive us, I feel sure. Ana got the prize for the best froth raising, and everyone chose their favourite story for sharing with guests.

The team has to wait until tomorrow to meet the real products but we explored the categories and the packaging, and much fun was had trying to reconstruct the products by reference to the catalogue. Ana helped Lorence to lace a bodice on the Fruity Affair, while Ronald Peeled Me An Orange and Hazel sealed a Magnificent Heart.

We’ve only just started the journey here, but we’ve got a great team of really enthusiastic people and that’s all I could wish for. Tomorrow we’re going to merchandise the store. Can’t wait for that.