Welcome to Glamour's new weekly column, How I Got My Job, featuring one woman with an amazing job, and the real route to get it. Looking for career inspo? For this week's instalment, world-class chocolatier Suzue Curley shares her CV...
Who? Suzue Curley, 40.
What? Award-winning chocolatier with her husband, William. They've won gold at the Culinary Olympics as founders of William Curley Patissier Chocolatier.
The CV:
My degree was about how to manage a business and make it run efficiently. For our finals, we had to pick an industry to write about. I chose the restaurant business, as I already had some experience of it (growing up, my parents owned a noodle bar in Osaka). I went to culinary school for the day and realised I wanted to be part of that world.
Although I knew my heart lay in patisserie (Iâve always had a sweet tooth), my parents didnât think I could make a living from it, so I moved to London â with very little English â to study classic French cuisine. To qualify in chocolate-making and patisserie, I had to go to Paris for five months. I would wander around the big patisserie houses, such as LadureÌe, witnessing the craftsmanship, textures and flavours first-hand.
At the time, William was head pastry chef at The Savoy. He had seen my work and offered me the job of making afternoon tea, but it was really hard â there were seven different pastries, and at weekends Iâd have to make 200 of each. Iâd start work at 8am and finish at 2am the following day. Sometimes I questioned my demanding career choice, but I stayed for a year, then William and I got married and left to launch our own consultancy firm in London.
Our job was to spot market trends and brainstorm ideas before coming up with new desserts for the big supermarkets. Our rst client was Marks & Spencer (I had a contact there), and soon Waitrose and Duchy Originals heard about us. My favourite product was the blackberry and apple pie we created for Duchy â it had a high fruit content and good quality pastry.
We opened our first shop. At the beginning, people didnât understand why our products only had a shelf life of a day or two. We had to explain that we donât use artificial colours or preservatives, only natural herbs, spices and pureÌes. Making chocolate truffles is simple, but creating something like our chocolate ganache bonbons is a real science. It helps if, like me, you have cold hands.
After testing the waters with a pop-up shop in Mayfair for a year, we opened our flagship store in Belgravia, complete with dessert bar. It was followed by a phone call from Harrods, asking to sell our chocolates and macaroons. It was exciting to have our work recognised by such a prestigious department store, but ultimately itâs my love of the job and customer feedback that drives me.
Follow your dreams. You will never work hard at, or gain satisfaction from, a job you donât care about
Be prepared for criticism. I was mortified when a VIP at The Savoy once sent back a Madeira cake Iâd made; pick yourself up and start again.
Challenge yourself. Itâs never too late to try new things. Iâm always experimenting with new ingredients and techniques. My latest task is to incorporate Japanese muscovado sugar into a recipe.
