Society set gets all gooey over chocolate

It’s only the ones who’ve seen the finest, who can bring you the best. How else does one explain the fact that prominent socialites are getting into the chocolate business big-time.
Whether it’s elusive socialite couple Ruhi and Chetan Jaikishan or Zeba Kohli or even designer Raghuvendra Rathore who launched his own brand of chocolates recently, they all have celeb status in common.
But Ruhi thinks it’s a simple, plain love for chocolates that made them set up Napoleon, which, she proudly says, “is India’s only chocolate boutique; it’s not just a ‘sweet’ looking store.’’ But Ruhi disagrees that celeb status boosts business. “It’s chocolate lovers who shop with us because they like the chocolates that are so fresh with couvertures from Belgium. They aren’t going to buy just because there’s a famous name involved. We have a most discerning client list. They appreciate the good things in life.�
Their client roster reads like the A List. From Avanti Birla and Karan Johar to Gautam Singhania, Kavita Khanna, Sangeeta Jindal and Lhea Dubhash, just about all of them are regulars at the boutique located within Pallavi Jaikishan’s designer store Paraphernalia at Peddar Road.
Kohli, who inherited the 62-year old Fantasie chocolate business at Churchgate from her granddad, recalls her days as an eight-year-old when she was “the errand girl, helping out my mom with the shredding and packing.’’ But among the many family enterprises, it’s chocolates that she could understand and enjoy the most. Kohli wasn’t about to settle with just promoting her home brand. So in 1996, she introduced Lindt in India. “I did it because I didn’t want to become complacent.�
For style guru Rathore, the thought of marketing his chocolates under his label came when “at a museum, I noticed a menu from the British Raj that had chocolates.� This led to the birth of his brand Chocolates de Jodhpur. Already kicked off in Delhi, Rathore will now market them elsewhere in the country, including Mumbai.
Got a sweet tooth, now you know where you can satisfy it!