Nestled in the rolling hills of West Yorkshire, an artisan chocolatier is bringing a taste of Michelin-trained magic to the north
In an 18th-century former dairy perched above Marsden, near Huddersfield, Jennie Parkin lovingly crafts her luxury, handmade chocolates.
After years of honing her skills as a pastry chef at Raymond Blanc’s two Michelin-starred Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, followed by time working for top chocolatiers in London, Jennie has returned to her Yorkshire roots ‒ bringing her world-class expertise home with her.
She has poured that experience into her new business, White Syke Chocolatier and Pattisier. It’s the realisation of a dream for Jennie, 29, whose passion for baking began as a youngster.
Jennie handcrafts chocolates from her base in Marsden. (Image: Daniel Johnson Gray)
‘It was when Great British Bake Off was massive, so when I was 14/15, I used to come home and I’d bake nearly every day after school,’ she tells Yorkshire Life.
‘That was my obsession when I was a teenager ‒ from there I knew I wanted to make it into a career if I could.
‘I used to sell cakes to family and friends. I did my A Levels, and one of the teachers at college found me a university course related to baking.’
At 18, she headed to the National Bakery School in London to embark on a Baking Technology Management course.
Le Manoir celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. Image: (Image: Newsquest)
Then came work experience at Le Manoir one summer, a pivotal moment in Jennie’s career, and her ‘first introduction to proper patisserie’.
At the end of her three-week placement, she was offered a job.
‘It was a big step at that age ‒ I was 20 then,’ says Jennie. ‘I just decided to go for it and ended up working there for five years.
I’m so grateful for it. The level of perfectionism, everything you’re taught, even from the way you have to be smartly presented and hold yourself.
‘It’s instilled in you. Some people compare it to being in the army because it’s so regimented. Everything I use now in my business is definitely from there.
White Syke Chocolatier (Image: Daniel Johnson Gray)
‘The people you work with ‒ not just the head chefs, but the team that surrounds you every day ‒ are really good people, and we all learned off each other.
‘It was nice looking back at the end of it. Where I’d come from ‒ this shy 20-year-old ‒ it gave me loads of confidence working there.’
And she learned valuable lessons along the way. Jennie recalls an experience of talking to Raymond Blanc as she was making some ice cream, and the famous chef asked about the provenance of the honey.
Jennie says: ‘I didn’t know, and he went on this long explanation of how it’s important that we know where everything that we’re working with comes from and to respect it.
White Syke Chocolatier (Image: Daniel Johnson Gray)
‘So, I had to go off and find where this honey was from and report back to him.’
Jennie values those experiences and the ethos she was surrounded by at Le Manoir.
‘It gives you a respect for food, for people who produce it, and the different types of food you can get from all over the world,’ she says.
She then moved to London to pursue her dream of working with chocolate, becoming head chocolatier at William Curley, who had also worked at Le Manoir, before moving to Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, founded by the multi-Michelin-starred chef.
Her time at Le Chocolat opened Jennie’s eyes to the art of bean-to-bar manufacturing.
She says: ‘They actually make the chocolate themselves. They bought the cocoa beans directly from suppliers and then made their own chocolate.
‘That’s what interested me, because it was a different side to chocolate-making that I hadn’t done before ‒ the actual manufacturing of chocolate.’
White Syke Chocolatier (Image: Daniel Johnson Gray)
It was last year when Jennie and her partner decided to move back to Yorkshire, and renovations on the old dairy for her new business began.
‘It’s going really well,’ she says. ‘Last year, I focused on doing lots of markets to try and get my name out there.
‘I did that all over Yorkshire. December was really busy for me, which was good, and it was nice because people were starting to recognise my brand by then.
‘Especially locals within a few miles, they would be coming to the market specifically for my stuff, which was really lovely.’
Jennie prides herself on putting her skills to good use by making fillings like caramel and praline ‒ including hazelnut and pistachio ‒ herself rather than buying them in.
Her personal favourite is praline ‒ both to make and eat ‒ and other delights include a dark chocolate and sea salt caramel bar, chocolate florentines, chocolate lollipops, chocolate-dipped honeycomb, milk chocolate and caramelised nuts bar, dark chocolate-dipped orange slices, and more.
‘The most popular is sea salt caramel, which is nice because I use some local butter from just over the hill (from Holmfirth-based Longley Farm),’ says Jennie.
At the heart of Jennie’s business is the desire to be as sustainable as possible.
She says: ‘It’s something that is important to me and I try to carry that through to the business too.’
White Syke Chocolatier (Image: Daniel Johnson Gray)
Almost all her packaging is plastic-free and recyclable, while she also uses a sustainable chocolate manufacturer.
‘I use Luker chocolate, which grows, processes and manufactures the chocolate all in Colombia, meaning it’s made by the farmers themselves and they are fairly paid,’ says Jennie.
‘Unfortunately, the chocolate industry still has a lot of bad working conditions and sometimes even child labour, so I wanted to find a brand that shows it cares about people too.’
Looking to the future, Jennie is excited to see what’s next for the business.
She says: ‘There’s potential for a nice extension on the side. Where I am, it looks down towards the canal, overlooking the hills.
‘I’d want to put an extension on there, and that means I could start running classes from here, which would be great.’.
whitesykechocolatier.co.uk