In an unlikely Hollywood storyline, a vegan chocolatier from a remote Scottish port town has created confections to be presented to silver screen icons at next month’s Oscars.
Fiona MacArthur’s luxury chocolates will be distributed bradley cooper, emma stone and more VIPs will attend the film industry’s biggest annual night, and each nominee in the major categories will be provided with a box.
MacArthur, 37, had just opened a small chocolate shop in Campbeltown in western Scotland in 2019, but soon caught the eye of the company responsible for assembling the Academy Awards goody bags.
At first she thought it was a hoax.
But after checking out the company online, she realized the offer to help fill tens of thousands of dollars worth of gift packs for the March 10 ceremony was real.
“I was shocked! I still can’t believe it,” she told AFP at her Fetcha shop.
“The best directors, the best actors, actresses, supporting actors and supporting actresses, they all get my box.
“I’m really excited…it’s amazing!” she added.
MacArthur, a movie buff, watched most of the nominated films at a local Art Deco movie theater that opened in 1913, then grabbed a notebook and wrote down ideas for future custom boxes.
She ended up designing six vegan chocolates inspired by the awards’ biggest films.
– variety –
Oppenheimer chocolates, inspired by the 13-Oscar-nominated drama about the father of the atomic bomb, resemble a ball of fire.
The yellow and orange truffles have a hard shell with a popping candy inside, and “when you bite into it, it feels like it’s going to explode in your mouth,” and the lingering chili pepper “heats up your tongue,” he said.
Chocolate in the dark comedy “Poor Things,” an 11-award-winning “Frankenstein” story for women, depicts the Portuguese “pastel de nata” egg tarts that main character Vera Baxter munches on. It’s based on.
The inside of the chocolate has a custard flavor, and the top is sprinkled with cinnamon to give it a baked-like flavor.
“Barbie” is expressed in heart-shaped pink chocolate with strawberry and rose flavors.
However, MacArthur pointed out that her heart is “in a sense turbulent… just like her journey through Barbieland and into the real world is not a smooth journey, but full of different angles.”
For “Maestro,” about legendary American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, she created a depiction of a bar of musical notes from cocoa butter.
She delicately engraved them into the chocolate, which also includes a salt and pepper filling to represent Bernstein and his wife Felicia’s “separate but together” lives.
A nod to Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, it’s made with dark chocolate and caramel ganache flecked with lilac, yellow and green.
Finally, “The Holdovers” have been reimagined as dark chocolate shells with a cherry and ice cream interior.
– “Going to Hollywood” –
Before sealing each box and mailing them to Los Angeles, MacArthur included a booklet explaining the inspiration behind the sweet creations.
It’s a long journey from her mother’s humble Campbelltown kitchen to Tinseltown, where she honed her skills.
Part of MacArthur’s Hollywood appeal may be that she runs a “high-end micro-enterprise” that puts environmentalism and health consciousness at the forefront.
The chocolatier is a vegan herself, and noted that several other candidates, including Emma Stone and Paul Giamatti, are also vegan.
She promises to use no plastic and plant a tree with every order.
Meanwhile, her vegan and gluten-free chocolates are made with organic and fair trade ingredients “wherever possible,” and her Oscar-winning creations contain no alcohol.
“The chocolate is made with rice milk powder,” MacArthur explained.
“And a lot of the chocolates I make have ganache inside, so I use water ganache.”
Her role at the Oscars led to celebrity status in Campbelltown, with people stopping her in the street to congratulate her.
As a result, her store, which her mother helps out with, is no longer able to meet local demand for the Oscar selection.
“Sorry, the prize collection is out of stock,” says a placard in the window.
A small red carpet and a sign that reads “Fetcha Goes to Hollywood” is also displayed in the window.
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