From Bean to Plate: Chocolate as Craft with Mikkel Friis-Holm.
At Monaco Yacht Show 2026, Maison del Gusto hosts Danish chef and chocolate maker Mikkel Friis-Holm for a masterclass in single-variety cacao, blind tasting and chocolate as a working kitchen ingredient.
Chocolate usually arrives at the end of a meal, when attention is softening. Mikkel Friis-Holm asks for something different: to start again at the bean.
At Monaco Yacht Show 2026, Maison del Gusto will host Friis-Holm for From Bean to Plate: Chocolate as Craft, a masterclass at the MDG Terrace in the Captains & Crew Lounge. The session is planned for Thursday, 24 September 2026, from 14:00 to 17:00. Its subject is chocolate, but its real discipline is attention: how origin, variety, fermentation, roasting, refining and restraint can turn cacao into an ingredient with the complexity of wine, coffee or olive oil.
From Bean to Plate
A masterclass built around tasting, technique and chocolate as a serious ingredient for working kitchens.
- Date
- 6 July 2026
- Time
- 14:00 – 17:00
- Setting
- MDG Terrace, Captains & Crew Lounge
- Format
- Live masterclass & tasting
Ingredient Spotlight
FermentedCacao
Theobroma cacao
Cacao treated as a flavour-bearing agricultural ingredient, shaped by variety, origin, farmer practice, fermentation, drying, roasting, refining and tempering.
- Origin
- Multiple origins; Nicaragua is central to the Friis-Holm story
- Region
- Origin-dependent
- Season
- Origin-dependent
- Producer
- Friis-Holm Chocolate
Tasting notes
Depending on variety and post-harvest work, cacao may carry fruit, acidity, nuttiness, tannin, caramel depth or floral lift.
Culinary uses
Useful for tasting, pastry, plated desserts, petit four service, hot chocolate, ganache work and recipes where chocolate should remain legible.
Storage & provisioning
Store cool, dry and away from odours. For yacht provisioning, protect chocolate from heat swing, humidity and direct light.
Consistency is craft
The best chocolate does not erase difference. It makes difference reliable enough for chefs to use.
Friis-Holm international recognition gives the session authority, but the awards are not the most interesting part of the story. The deeper point is what repeated results reveal: consistency is not the enemy of craft. It is one of its hardest forms.
For chefs, this is where chocolate becomes more than indulgence. It becomes an ingredient that can be selected, questioned and paired with intent.
Maison del Gusto as curator
The encounter connects yacht hospitality with producers who understand their material deeply.
This is why the masterclass belongs at the Captains & Crew Lounge. Yacht hospitality depends on precision under pressure. Ingredients need to travel, behave, hold their identity and still feel alive in service.
MDG role is to bring those ingredient conversations closer to the chefs and teams who use them.
