Top chocolate-maker Paul A Young's new life in Staithes

As you might expect, there’s a stillness in the village of Staithes where a few wrapped-up visitors watch the waves and enjoy the peace.

A warm drink is the order of the day. Lucky me. The drink is arguably the best hot chocolate in the world.

Paul A Young answers the door to his apartment looking brilliantly dapper in his trademark tailoring. I bet he doesn’t own an item of loungewear. A deep green velvet jacket, silk cravat and bee brooch. Cool specs and the excellent grooming that viewers of shows like Saturday Kitchen will recognise from his appearances on there.

We settle down by the log burner with a jug of steaming hot chocolate and a couple of mystery truffles. Oh, the anticipation. Thick, luscious, liquid – rich and earthy – is poured into my cup, but there’s no milk nor cream. A taste sensation is this.

"It is made with water", says Paul.

"If you add milk or cream to chocolate it becomes milk chocolate – for me a real hot chocolate should be water, cocoa powder, unrefined cane sugar, and chocolate.

"The reason this is thick – people think cream makes it thick – but it is the cocoa powder and chocolate – there is a lot of it.

Paul gets to grips with some taste-testing. Michelle Maddison Photography

"It tastes of the chocolate and cocoa bean" (it really does). "There is no milk to distort the flavour. It is a recipe I have had in all the books I’ve published because I really think people need to try the flavour of real hot chocolate.

"If you’ve got a bar of dark chocolate at home you can make it."

As for the mystery truffle, it’s mince pie. Made with three-year-old mincemeat Paul has been keeping for just this recipe, added to 72 per cent Peruvian chocolate.

There’s a crack of the chocolate as we bite in – Paul's first time of trying the truffles too – do they pass muster?

"Yep, mince pie, happy with that ... they taste festive," he says.

We savour the truffles looking at a wall that is filled with awards, certificates and accolades which chart Paul’s amazing success in his world of chocolate and patisserie.

He could be said to be the man who brought the sea salted caramel truffle to the palate of the nation – in 2005 his first award was for his sea-salted caramel chocolates – in 2014 he was named Outstanding British Chocolatier in the International Chocolate Awards and his shop was named, "best in the world" by The Academy of Chocolate in 2007. Just a few of the awards he’s racked up in a career which started out in the North East and took him from Yorkshire to London – then pulled him right back to the coast.

Brought up in County Durham, Paul went to university in York but left his course and found himself working in a bistro in Whitby and living in Hinderwell near Staithes. Freelance cheffing took him to Leeds where he worked on an event and caught the eye of none other than Marco Pierre White.

He swiftly found himself working at Marco’s celebrated Quo Vadis as head pastry chef in 1990s before becoming a freelance food consultant for the likes of M&S and Sainsbury’s.

Paul earned TV airtime on a show called Great Food Live and at the same time was developing his ideas for chocolates.

"I realised I couldn’t buy the chocolates I wanted," he says.

"I didn’t want to make Belgian chocolate – and I thought ‘what is our style’. And I thought of Marco Pierre White’s mantra - ‘fresh is best’."

Paul then taught himself how to create fresh chocolates – something no-one else was really doing other than Rococco at that time.

He found a niche and the awards started rolling in.

Locals have welcome Paul and Billy to the coastal village. Michelle Maddison Photography

If you’ve read the book Chocolat or seen the film that’s all about the passion and wonder of chocolate-making – that’s a taster of Paul’s life. He opened his first shop in Camden, making fresh chocolates daily – and it was a huge success. A journalist called him ‘the Heston Blumenthal of chocolate’.

Experimenting with flavours, he created peanut butter and raspberry jelly filled chocolate, even a Marmite truffle, ‘beef dripping’ caramel, and a back-to-roots, Yorkshire rhubarb and stem ginger filled chocolate.

Awards rolled in, books were published, and three more shops opened. At their busiest, the shops were making 3kg of salted caramels a day by hand from a 120-strong range.

But, as he hit 50, Paul decided to close his business and turn his back on this London life. The lure of the Yorkshire coast was real – and a serendipitous turn made it a reality.

"Closing the business was a shock for a lot of people", he says.

Five years earlier Paul had met Sophie and Luke when he visited Staithes – they have Betsy & Bo deli and sweetshop in the village.

"They showed us around the property and we kept in touch a little bit. I was in the process of closing the business and I was at the point where I knew I needed a bit of time – I thought, I might go to Staithes for a few weeks or months.

"I messaged Sophie and Luke to see if they knew anyone renting a house out. They said they had decided to rent their house out above the shop. They sent a video of the property and on the last part it said 'and this was our old chocolate kitchen – we're going to turn it into a shower room'.

"This is a sign from heaven," laughs Paul, remembering the video.

"I messaged and said, if you leave the chocolate kitchen as it is, I will rent it off you." He drove himself and Billy the Dachshund to Staithes for the day to see the apartment and said yes.

He takes me through to the chocolate kitchen with its marble work slabs and raft of chocolate moulds. The view from the kitchen is of rooftops, the harbour and cliffs. It seems like it was created with Paul in mind. Since his arrival, the truffles we’ve just eaten are the first he’s made in this kitchen – and he’s enjoying bringing it back to life. Like it was meant to be.

"I had no idea what I was going to do – I had no plan. Deep inside I had thought ‘I am done’ with London and working how I was. Physically and mentally, it was the right time to end the business.

"I spent 28 years away from my mum and dad who are outside Durham in Crook. It’s the right time to be closer to them. When I came on that one day and hadn’t been for a while [to Staithes], I just walked around with a smile on my face – and thought, yes, this is home.

"It feels like home because of the time I worked in Hinderwell and I found a job in Whitby as a head chef in a bistro called Alice Blossoms right on the seafront. I had been in the area back then."

For Paul 2024 looks exciting. He’s working with Betsy & Bo on a new chocolate adventure – watch this space.

"What's in my head could be really great and would help the village and area – I like going out, doing demos, doing events – like chocolate dinners.

"One thing I have found here is that the locals have been incredible. I am not bringing London to Staithes. I would love to find people that I knew in Whitby all those years ago.

"For me I love the pace of life here – everything stops at 5pm and you feel like you are being ‘gifted’ time – a few precious hours in the evening."

This article first appeared in Yorkshire Life magazine. The latest edition of Yorkshire Life is out now, available from newsagents and supermarkets across Yorkshire and magsdirect.co.uk. Subscribe at greatbritishlife.co.uk/subscribe/yorkshire/