What does "Master Chocolatier" mean anyway?

This term, as well as "maitre chocolatier" are floating all around the chocolate world, but my research hasn't turned up any authoritative entity that gives this title. It seems like people are pretty much free to confer it upon themselves. I wonder how much meaning it really has.

Tags: chocolatier, maitre, master

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Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on February 6, 2008 at 10:28am

I think the confusion may be one of transliteration, not translation. Instead of focusing on the literal meaning of maitre (master), let's focus on it colloquially and conventionally.

From Wikipedia:

The *maître d'* (short for /*maître d'hôtel,*/ literally "master of the hall")

In this sense, the maitre chocolatier is the master of the chocolate shop, not literally a master of the craft. This is especially likely in France, where they reserve MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France - or more literally master of the ouevre - style or subject ) for masters of a craft such as chocolate. They have MOFs in just about everything. Chocolate is a separate discipline from pastry, and there are woodworking MOFs, MOFs in working with glass, etc.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about this. Etymology is a very interesting subject and false cognates abound. If you know better, I want to learn from you.

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Permalink Reply by Chocoflyer on February 8, 2008 at 5:01pm

Maybe its like Master of your Domain- being the kitchen or choc shop in this case. Or its the title for anyone with any type of formal education on chocolate making- who has then taken that training and now produces a product of their own, so they are the Master Chocolatier of that business (like Head Chef). I wonder what those under them are called - sous chocolatiers? ha ha

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Permalink Reply by Bethany Thouin on March 10, 2008 at 5:22pm

There is probably no correct answer for this one. I do know, that it should not be a self proclaimed title. None of the master chocolatiers that I know would dare to refer to themselves as such, but they would be humbled and honored to be introduced or referred to as one.

A master chocolatier doesn't need a title to be recognized. It is something that is known through his/her achievements. So, he/she would be referred to as a master chocolatier by his/her peers, by the press or when being introduced.