[PHOTOS] In a remote Scottish town, a chocolatier is chosen for the Oscars

CAMPBELTOWN | His unlikely story could be the inspiration for a film. Fiona McArthur, a young vegan chocolatier in a remote Scottish port town, was asked to make chocolate for the Oscars in Los Angeles in March.

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They go to nominees in the main categories and Fiona, who opened her small chocolate factory in Campbeltown in the west of Scotland in 2019, has to pinch herself to believe it. “You will all have one of my chocolate boxes. People like Cillian Murphy, Bradley Cooper, Lily Gladstone, Emma Stone, it's incredible,” she told AFP from Fetcha, her chocolate factory, of which she is the only employee.

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An avid cinema lover, she watched most of the films in competition at the local Art Deco cinema, which opened in 1913, with a notebook in hand to take notes. From there, she designed six vegan chocolates inspired by the top-ranked films.

The chocolate, inspired by the film Oppenheimer, a drama about the father of the atomic bomb, Oscar favorite with 13 nominations, resembles a ball of fire. This yellow-orange truffle with a sparkling candy inside has a “pretty hard shell, so when you bite it it basically explodes in your mouth,” explains the 37-year-old chocolatier. A little chili leaves a little spiciness in the mouth.

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The black comedy Poor Creatures, a sort of female Frankenstein that has 11 nominations, inspired a white chocolate in a milk chocolate box with a hint of cinnamon.

Barbie has her heart-shaped pink chocolate with strawberry and rose flavor. But the hearts that Fiona McArthur takes out of the mold and puts on a plate are not smooth.

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“It fits the story,” she said. “They are rough cut, similar to her journey through Barbieland into the real world. It wasn't a smooth journey, it was full of angles.

One of their other chocolates celebrates the film Maestro about composer Leonard Bernstein with musical notes of cocoa butter delicately placed on top of the salt and pepper chocolate.

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Salt and Pepper were chosen to “celebrate the difference and complementarity in Leonard and Felicia’s lives.”

Sold out

Killers of the Flower Moon has its dark chocolate caramel ganache with hints of lilac, yellow and green, and for Those Who Remain, Fiona McArthur came up with a dark chocolate shell with cherry stone and ice cream.

Before she closes each of her boxes, she includes an explanation of her inspiration.

His chocolates will be part of the “Goodies,” gift bags worth tens of thousands of dollars offered to major Oscar nominees.

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The chocolates are all vegan, dairy-free, egg-free and alcohol-free.

The chocolate “is made from rice milk powder,” she explains to AFP. For the ganache she uses “water ganache”. No gluten is used either.

She herself is vegan and confirms that several nominees are too, including Emma Stone and Paul Giamatti.

Fiona, who started testing her chocolates in her mother's kitchen, is thrilled with them. His “luxury micro-enterprise” does not use plastic. In her presentation note, she states that “trees are planted for every order and that she uses organic and fair trade products as much as possible.”

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Enough to attract the attention of the company responsible for the Oscar “goodies,” which contacted him two years ago. Fiona had thought it was a hoax. She had searched on the Internet. The business existed.

In Campbeltown, where she grew up, she feels like a minor celebrity. People stop her on the street to congratulate her, she says. Her shop, where her mother helps, can no longer meet local demand.

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“Unfortunately not in stock,” says one poster.

There was a small red carpet in the window. “Fetcha goes to Hollywood,” reads a small sign.

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His chocolates have already been sent there by post.