Australian conquers world of Belgian chocolate

Ryan Stevenson was not received warmly by Belgium’s chocolate community after he won the national chocolate contest and the praline award at the prestigious World Chocolate Masters, writes Reuters’ Madeline O’Leary. To a lot of chocolatiers, his victory had been down to beginner's luck. And there was another problem. "Firstly, I'm not a chocolatier," said Stevenson, a tall skinny red-head, with a self-effacing smile, before adding: "I'm also Australian." He set out to prove his doubters wrong. Stevenson, 36, is from Brisbane, where he studied maths in the hope of becoming an actuary, a specialised statistician who figures out insurance premiums. But a part-time job in a patisserie proved more fun and he ended up working on pastry full time. He decided to leave the country and, after stints in Munich and London, headed to Belgium to make a name for himself. He married, and his father-in-law put him in charge of pastry at Le Saint-Aulaye, his cake and bread shop in Brussels. Stevenson credits his maths studies with developing his analytical mind, which helps him solve structural problems and understand the chemical structure of his creations. “If I have to make a swan out of chocolate,” he says, “I break that problem down into small pieces and attack each piece, like you would with a maths problem.” Meanwhile, the Brussels chocolate community has become more international, and continued competition success has helped him gain acceptance. He’s also training young chocolate and pastry chefs: “Now I’m a mentor.”