Cacao
Master & Mentor

I work in many areas of the chocolate universe—from the plantation to the Bean to Bar process, including dessert making—both from a practical standpoint and in advisory roles. That’s why "Chocolate Guru" seemed like a fitting name.

To me, chocolate is the most complex and fascinating ingredient I’ve ever known, and it never ceases to amaze me. It gives me life, helps me appreciate it, and sparks a desire in me to share everything I know about it with others.

The more years I work with chocolate, the more I fall in love with it! It is a unique ingredient, not only for the sensory complexity of its flavor or the exciting challenge of trying to understand it, but also for its infinite aesthetic possibilities. It can be used to decorate and sculpt, almost as if it were glass or clay, creating pieces capable of delighting both the eye and the mind.

Each of these areas is so vast that we could spend a lifetime exploring them without ever getting bored.

My mother was one of the worst cooks I’ve ever known. We didn’t have many resources and, at that time in the UK, food was quite basic and, very often, canned.

I had no idea what "real food" was—does fish and chips count?—let alone what "haute cuisine" meant. Besides, I always had a complicated relationship with food, so it’s quite surprising to my family that I ended up becoming a chef. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer!

Over time, I discovered that I liked experimenting, building things, solving problems, and finding ways to fix them. And besides, I’ve always had a sweet tooth!

I trained in hospitality in London and left home at 16. Well, actually, I left my father’s house. I had already left my "home"—my mother, my sisters, and my brother—at 13, when I moved away and they stayed in Wales. My parents had divorced when I was 9.

So I found myself alone in the big city. After finishing my training, it didn’t take long for me to start working in a Michelin-starred restaurant. The intensity of the work and that almost obsessive drive for perfection sparked something in me!

It was there that I realized I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. I knew it at that very moment.

I sought out the best pastry chef in the UK: Robert Mey. With him, I completed my training in classic French pastry.

Then I found someone else I admired and decided to keep learning from him: Patrick Woodside. He recommended I go to Paris. I followed his advice and landed an internship at Jamin, Joël Robuchon’s restaurant. The chef working next to me was... Gordon Ramsay.

Gordon and I crossed paths again about a year later, when he was looking for a pastry chef for the restaurant he had just opened: The Aubergine. I started working there the next day... and I gave it my all: blood, sweat, and tears for the next three years!

But I still felt something was missing, both in my cooking and in my personal life, so I decided to leave it all behind and go looking for it.

Finally, I found what I was looking for thanks to the incredible Roca family, in a small town in Catalonia, where I still live today.

An accident forced me to spend six months in a wheelchair. At that time, my right-hand man was a young Jordi Roca, who knew how to seize the opportunity and filled my position admirably.

In 2007, I moved to the UK and, together with my Catalan partner, Anna, I founded Damian Allsop Chocolates. There, we made my specialty, water ganaches, for high-end restaurants and establishments.

Eight years later, when we closed the business, Jordi bought my machines and invited me to return to Can Roca. For a couple of years, I was making chocolates for El Celler, until Jordi suggested we start making our own chocolate from scratch.

Later, I helped Jordi set up and manage Casa Cacao in Girona. That experience allowed me to become a true chocolatier!

When I left Casa Cacao after eight years, I partnered with the company that manufactures cacao refiners, along with my good friend Bhavani—one of the nicest people in the industry!

We started teaching courses at their production plant in New Jersey, which were very successful. Now I want to offer this same opportunity to many more people.

You can request more information in the services* section of this website.

After many years exploring the world of cacao and chocolate, I feel that a natural part of my path is to accompany others on theirs.

Teaching, mentoring, and sharing experience allows me to help professionals and teams move forward with better judgment, confidence, and sensitivity, overcoming difficulties and finding a more conscious, authentic, and personal way of working.

For me, teaching is not just about transmitting knowledge, but about helping each person discover their own way of understanding and working with chocolate.