'Magnificent!'Jean-François exclaimed.'This is excellent!'. Holding a small plastic white plate in his hand, on which 2 very dark chocolates were lying, Jean-François eyes were looking at us enthusiastically. The chocolates had the form of '8's and were an attempt to create a new signature chocolate to celebrate our 8th anniversary.
'This is good', Jean-François uttered. 'We've done something... very simple...but they will like this... love this!'. With 'they' he meant our customers.
Twenty people stood together around our atelier's kitchen. This morning we had all received an e-mail from Lucas asking to come down to the atelier at 11 o'clock. We all knew what this meant. Every three months we held 'tasting sessions' at Francesco's, in which the whole team would try out one or more new chocolate creations.
'We've taken our very dark chocolate - 72% cacao - and I... we have filled it up with milk, ha ha! Condensed, sugared milk, that is. The '8', what a beautiful number.'
'Look how dark this shiny '8' is a beautiful number. It's very round, it's very feminin. All the Arabian numbers are beautiful but for me '8' is the most beautiful, haha... '
'And you know of course that when you lay down '8' on its side, it becomes the symbol for infinity. And Ellen, you surely know what the Tarot card with the number '8' means?'
Ellen was surprised by the question but she answered immediately: 'Of course. The '8' card stands for strength... fortitude. Or sometimes also lust.' She giggled.
'Thank you Ellen, a most complete answer'.
This was classic Jean-François. And although his enthusiasm was fun and contagious, somebody had to stop him, if not he'd continue his interactive dissertation for another hour.
Lucas clapped his hands, smiling. He spoke with a powerful voice: 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating!' Everybody started laughing. 'Let us taste, Jean!'
Everybody was speaking now. 'Yes, let us taste'.'I want to taste infinity', Damien jokingly said.
Jean-François tried to continue his speech ' And '8' is also the symbol for... ' but nobody was paying attention anymore. ' '8' is the symbol for chocolate!', Sylvia proclaimed cheerfully.
Jean-François had understood now that his audience had become too impatient and he gave in to the pressure. With an official voice he ordered: 'Aicha, Joop, bring in the '8's, please!'.
Aicha stepped to ... followed by Joop. They almost simultaneously seized the big metal door bolt and opened the door. They disappeared behind the door. Few seconds later a big plate with around 20 '8's' appeared from behind the door, carried by Joop. Behind Joop came Aicha with a second plate.
After tasting, the voice of the people was loud and clear. Everybody loved the '8's.
We all enjoyed the gathering, but I felt a little akward also. The way Jean-François was presenting his case, it seemed as if he was the 'master creator'. Although from what Aicha had told me some days earlier, I had understood that it had been Joop that had come up with the idea of the '8's and the combination of dark chocolate with a condensed milk filling. I glanced at Joop. His face didn't show much emotion, it seemed.
