The Chocolatier’s Tale – The Illegal Gianduja

“I have a confession to make. Our house gianduja is one of our classic, all-time great chocolate recipes. It’s so fabulous, in fact, that it’s illegal. Let me explain.
Gianduja is a blend of chocolate and hazelnuts, a specialty of the Piedmont region of Italy. It’s similar to a praline, except it has a greater proportion of hazelnut to chocolate. A milk chocolate gianduja must contain a minimum of 15% hazelnut, and a dark no less than 20.
Our plan was just to make the best gianduja we could. So we packed our recipe with 65% ground hazelnut. Under EU laws, “gianduja” is a protected name with strict rules on how it’s made, so we double-checked the law to make sure we’d put enough hazelnut in it.
It turned out we had more than enough. Far more. Amazingly, the rules also say: No more than 40% hazelnut.
Yes, we could have changed the name, or reduced the hazelnut. But this is our gianduja, and we
don’t compromise on nuttiness.”