Chocolate lovers are to be put to the test this week as a new seven-course tasting menu, featuring chocolate in every dish, is to be unveiled at London's Almeida restaurant. In celebration of the UK's National Chocolate Week, the chefs at the North London eatery have devised an enticing menu featuring a myriad of different uses for the sticky sweet stuff.

Chocolate with your fish course?
Starting from Monday 13th October, the menu will offer such delights as butternut squash velouté with a Venezuelan chocolate and cumin stirrer, smoked eel and oyster in chocolate vinaigrette and brill with a hazelnut and coco crust.

This venture is the brainchild of the chef Alan Jones and Camden chocolatier Paul A Young, both former protégés of Marco-Pierre White. After six months of planning, testing and tasting, the two devised a menu which aims to use chocolate in as many different ways as possible, even offering a cheese-and-chocolate course before the dessert of, yes, more chocolate!

Perfect alliance
Jones has headed up the kitchens at Almeida since the summer of 2007 and Young has two luxury chocolate shops in the Camden area, so for the two friends, joining forces was a natural conclusion.

Jones makes it clear that, in his kitchen, it's all about the right ingredients: "The food at Almeida is all about seasonal ingredients and what better ingredient is there than chocolate? Our intention in creating this menu was to show people that chocolate is a lot more than just a dessert component; it has a complexity and depth of flavour that enhances a menu at every turn."

Ethical Menu
As well as providing a top feast for London's resident and visiting chocoholics, Young points out that the duo are working in the interests of small producers when they source their chocolate: "We make sure all our chocolate is as pure and ethical as it can be and to that end we support indigenous producers. For example, with several of these dishes I know the particular family who produce our beans, and unlike many of the large confectionery companies, we pay top dollar and don't fleece small producers."

The Chocolate Menu is available at Almeida for seven days only, starting on Monday 13th October, price £60.