Meet the Saskatoon chocolatier crafting $100 chocolate bars

By day, Venessa Liang is an oncology pharmacist in Saskatoon. But as night falls, she sheds her lab coat and ties on an apron.

“I come home from my day job and I make luxury chocolate until I go to bed every day,” she said, sitting at a table in her garage and dusting gold powder over the surface of her handcrafted creations.

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“This isn’t your Kit Kat or your Aero bar or your Caramilk bar… Which I love. Don’t get me wrong! But this,” she said, gesturing toward trays filled with bonbons, “Is something that you can’t usually get in Saskatchewan.”

Venessa Liang with one of her luxury chocolate creations. (Venessa Liang/submitted)

Liang has been experimenting with luxury baking ingredients for more than a decade but only became interested in chocolate in recent years.

“I learned how to make chocolate on a food network show called The Great Chocolate Showdown,” Liang said, recalling her time on the cooking competition television series in 2020.

“It was an experience that kind of started this whole thing. It made me want to learn more. It made me want to get better at this,” she said.

Liang dove headfirst into the world of chocolate, learning through trial and error.

“You have to understand the science, understand how things work in terms of humidity, temperature, you know, all of these factors,” she said, explaining the complexities that make chocolate such a difficult medium to master.

“I finally feel like I’m kind of good at this,” she said, a smile spreading across her face as she looked down and admired her perfectly tempered bars of chocolate.

World-class chocolate from a Saskatchewan garage

Liang said her chocolate journey started in the kitchen, but has now been relegated to the garage.

“My husband turned our garage into my chocolate bar studio because he was sick of wiping cocoa butter off our perfectly white kitchen in our home,” she said with a laugh. “I feel like it looks like Breaking Bad when you walk in here!”

Venessa Liang’s chocolate journey started in the kitchen but has now been relegated to the garage. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Her studio may appear makeshift at first glance, but the tools she has acquired over the years are anything but. The garage is home to a cocoa butter spray booth, tempering machines, a vibrating table that gets rid of air bubbles in the poured moulds, dehydrators and sheet pan racks where she stores her finished chocolates.

Aside from the advanced techniques Liang uses while crafting her chocolate bars, the ingredients she uses also set them apart from chocolates you can find on the shelf at your local grocery store.

“The chocolate that I’m bringing in is exclusively Valrhona chocolate,” Liang said. She has the chocolate imported from France, at a hefty cost of nearly $300 for a three-kilogram bag.

The chocolate Liang uses as the base of her bars is imported from France, at a hefty cost of nearly $300 for a three-kilogram bag. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

Liang said it isn’t only the quality of the chocolate that makes this particular brand of chocolate special, but also the flavours available. While the average person thinks of milk, dark and white when asked about varieties of chocolate, Liang said the medium has so much more to offer.

“There’s gold chocolate. There’s ruby chocolate. There’s raspberry, almond, yuzu, passion fruit… all these things that science has allowed us to create into chocolate,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “And I don’t mean like it’s raspberry-flavoured chocolate. This is real cocoa butter, real blended freeze-dried raspberries made into couverture chocolate, which is a very big deal.”

Venessa Liang’s $100 chocolate bar. (Venessa Liang/submitted)

The $100 chocolate bar

Liang’s chocolate bars start out at a price point of $50 each, but this year she is offering one delectable bar that customers will have to shell out a pretty penny for.

“This year I have a $100 chocolate bar,” she said. “That is a very special bar that is inspired by one that is created in Dubai. It was this huge internet sensation where everyone was flying to Dubai to buy this incredible chocolate bar.”

This viral treat was created by Fix Dessert Chocolatier in Dubai. It includes crispy shredded phyllo pastry, pistachio and tahini paste, all wrapped up in a delectable casing of milk chocolate.

“I decided to make my own version,” Liang said, noting that her take on the viral bar includes many of the same ingredients, but she has put her own secret spin on the confection. Liang plans to charge $100 for a small bar, and $125 for a full-size bar.

The other flavours Liang has whipped up are equally intriguing.

While her miso scorched caramel and raspberry cayenne bars have received rave reviews, one of her top sellers is an oolong-infused cookie and cream bar.

“That’s with one of our favourite Chinese teas — we infuse the chocolate over four days. And then I hand-make Oreos… because why would I go buy a whole pack of Oreos? That’s just too easy,” she chuckled.

The battle for the bars

You may wonder whether people are really willing to spend that much on a sweet treat. Liang answers that question with an emphatic “Yes!”

“The chocolate community is absolutely insane. Insanely awesome, but like… insane,” she said with a laugh.

Liang sells her bars online and has never had a piece of chocolate go unsold. On the contrary, her customers are usually left wanting more.

“I can’t make enough chocolate to save my life,” she lamented. “Even though I do try to make more every year, it’s only a very little bit more, I make what I make. I don’t have any pre-sales, you don’t get to order them.”

Venessa Liang’s chocolate designs are often fun and whimsical. (Venessa Liang/submitted)

Due to the limited amount of bars, Liang can make, she said there is usually quite a competition online as chocolate enthusiasts attempt to get their hands on one of her creations.

“The longest time I’ve taken to sell out is eight minutes,” she said, noting that the competition isn’t only between Saskatchewan residents. “I sell these bars all over the world. They ship across Canada, the United States, all over Europe!”

While the Canada Post strike has been weighing on her mind, she said she is still confident she’ll be able to get her chocolate bars into the hands of her customers.

“I think the only thing it’s going to affect is my stress levels,” she laughed. “I’m just going to have to pick other shipping vendors.”

Liang will sell this year’s edible works of art through her website foodiepharmbabe.com on Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. CT.

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