The Closed sign on iconic shop front on the King’s Road has sadly gone up for the last time. Rococo Chocolates has finally melted away and gone dark.

Rococo has been a much-loved feature of the Chelsea scene for the past 43 years, attracting royalty and A-listers thought its doors, as well as legions of loyal locals.

The end for a business that changed the shape of luxury chocolate has been far from sweet. In recent years, Rococo had been tarnished by the unsavoury ousting of its visionary founder Chantal Coady and then by unsuccessful re-launches. She returned briefly three years ago as Creative Director, but now the company is administration for the third time. This time, there may be no way back.

Today, Chantal has brushed off the Rococo days by re-inventing herself as The Chocolate Detective, a burgeoning business through which she curates the finest chocolate from the best producers in the world, as well as connecting directly to cocoa growers and makers at origin. 

In a timely Easter exclusive interview with The Citizen, Chantal, now 66, looks back on the care-free, glory days of the King’s Road shop and how she pioneered a whole new industry from one small shop and a bank loan underwritten by her mum…

Chantal – 43 years and now Rococo is no more. How do you feel about it closing?

I am actually really sad to see it go. That little shop meant so much to me. It was part of my heart and soul. It was the first family I created, so it was incredibly important to me. It was also a lovely feature of the King’s Road, so it’s a great loss.

Ultimately, things did not work out so well for you with the company, so I’m surprised you feel sad about it…

Rococo was my dream and it brought so much good into my life. It is impossible not to feel something. Also, Chelsea played such a pivotal role in our success. I don’t think Rococo could have worked like it did anywhere else. Chelsea totally chimed with what I was trying to do. I tapped into the spirit of the area and all the stylish people who had been role models over the previous decades. I will always love the Chelsea vibe and what it brought to Rococo.

Rococo survived administration once before, but is this really the end now, has it gone forever?

Yes, I think it’s over now. The brand name could possibly be bought and re-branded, but the soul of what I created has gone. For me, it all changed in 2018 when an investor ripped out the bespoke interior. That was so upsetting. But I have moved on with my life now and I have been focused on a  new chocolate business for some time.

Yes – the Chocolate Detective! We will talk about that a bit later, but first can you take me back to the beginning of Rococo. How did it get going and what was Chelsea’s role in it all…

The beginning of my chocolate “journey” started with a Saturday job at Harrods when I was 19. I worked there for three years selling the best chocolate to rich people all day. Michael Caine was my first customer – he was buying a giant box of Milk Tray for his mum! 

I had a lightbulb moment one day in 1981 when I realised that customers wanted emotional engagement with chocolate. I then started creating my own ideas – designs that had stories and character, and a shop that was a theatrical backdrop. As time went by, I did a business course and set out my plans. Then my widowed mother backed me by putting the family home up for security with Barclays bank. She was really amazing and helped it all happen. Thankfully, Mum got the deeds back a few years later.

What are your earliest memories of setting up the business… 

I was 23 by then and had not long been out of art school. When I first visited the shop, it was trading as Crane Kalman, an art gallery that specialised in naive art. I was really taken by the space and the location, and particularly the high ceilings and original windows. I told the estate agent that I had a very serious business idea and that I was exploring multiple properties. In fact, it was the very first shop I seriously looked at. 

I remember sketching what the interior would look like with my art school friends, Frank Taylor and Kitty Arden. I had discovered someone in North London who made things out of sugar, so I commissioned her to make a chandelier as a centrepiece for the shop. Murals and trompe l’oeil were all the rage at that time, so Frank painted cherubs on the ceiling with blue sky and clouds inspired by the Birth of Venus, while Kitty helped create the scumble glazed candyfloss pink walls. 

Give us a flavour of life in Chelsea back in those early days, what was the atmosphere like, what did it mean to you

I loved Chelsea, it had the perfect mixture of bohemian chic and outright rebellion. It was still the backdrop to much of the punk fashion scene and people flocked to Sex – the fashion shop near World’s End owned by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren. That’s where you went if you wanted inspiration for clothes and accessories. So many people came to that end of the King’s Road, just to hang out and watch the parade of spectacular, interesting people. It had a real vibe. Other independent fashion designers like Anthony Price and Timney Fowler had shops there, too.

When did you know that Rococo had hit on something and was taking off? 

There was a buzz about Rococo from the start. Locals loved us and the press wrote stories. The shop was a critical success from almost the minute it opened. There was an article in the Evening Standard, then The Sunday Times wrote some features. The commercial success was much slower and involved a lot of boot strapping for years. The celebrities that come to Chelsea soon found the shop and that certainly gave us an edge.

How giving us a taster of the glamorous clients with a sweet tooth…

Famous people came in all the time. I’m quite old-fashioned and I’d hate to name-drop – but…Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman, Ralph Fiennes, Cate Blanchett,  Tilda Swinton, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet. Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones were regulars. Young Royals told me that when they gave the Queen Rococo chocolates and that she loved them. She would instantly lock them away in a special cupboard!

The biggest business breakthrough came when we started supplying British Airways with special mini bars. Then Virgin Atlantic wanted us, as did The Conran Shop and Harvey Nicols. These were exciting times and within 10 years, we had five shops. But it was also a complicated and exhausting business.

Back in the day, what were the Chelsea places that were special to you and which local people mattered?

I quickly developed close relationships with many customers and neighbours. The owners of Chelsea Rare Books Leo and Philippa Bernard and their beautiful spaniel Tess were my first customers. Stephen King had his fantastic boutique at the end of the row, Robot shoes were next door and Gregor Schumi the hairdresser was on the other side. Local writer and food historian Alan Davidson became a great friend. I have such happy memories of Chelsea and always love going back.  

Home now is…

We [husband James and their two children in their 20s] were in Vauxhall for 40 years, but moved to Camberwell two years ago and we really love it. It feels like coming full circle. I did my A-levels at a local school and my degree at Camberwell School of Arts. The area has changed a lot, but it is still full of small independent shops, restaurants and bakeries and lots of young families. It has a lovely community atmosphere.

I appreciate that you won’t want to dwell on the bad times, but what went wrong for you with Rococo?

It is an incredibly complicated and painful story. I had taken on an investor – I don’t ever like to say his name. I foolishly believed that he would take the business forward, leaving me to concentrate on the creative side. Instead, he quickly edged me out of important decisions. All my faithful, long-term team were gradually replaced and, within two years, I was effectively out of the business. Rococo had had been valued at £10m in 2016, but by June 2019 it went into administration in debt. Oddly, that same investor was then able to buy it back at a fraction of its value – and I got absolutely nothing for a lifetime’s work.

Oh my, that sounds a total nightmare…

It was harrowing and it took me to the brink, both emotionally and financially. Losing Rococo was like watching everything I loved being thrown off a cliff. We had to sell our home of over 40 years in order to pay off all the personal guarantees to the bank and other loans.

How did you manage to bounce back?

I am a positive person and I was determined not to be beaten. I had to dig very deep to find my inner strength, my family and friends were amazing with their support. During lockdown in 2020, I suddenly started making chocolate again at home and then a friend offered me a small commercial kitchen at the London Sketch Club in Chelsea. The stress of losing Rococo ebbed away and then I had the idea for the Chocolate Detective.

Returning to my core love was completely healing and quite magical. I feel that I am a better and stronger person as a result of all that happened. In a funny way, I don’t regret any of it. These days I find joy in the simple things in life.  

Applause! Who and what is the Chocolate Detective?

I am the Detective! I have drawn on decades of experience to seek out the world’s finest chocolate makers and connect them to chocolate lovers. I part own an organic cocoa farm on the island of Grenada, so I really can trace right back to the source, as well as supporting a radical new chocolate business model. I have developed several recipes of my own and I curate a range of birds eggs, working with the hugely talented illustrator Madeline Floyd, as well ass old favourites, such as Provencal almonds and orange sticks. All the designs are fun, as well as delicious. It all very much chimes back to the creativity of Rococo. We also have a super new line for Easter that was featured in the Daily Telegraph recently, which is based on a character called the Country Bunny who delivers the eggs.

How has the Detective been doing?

It has been amazing. The artist Quentin Blake, who loved Rococo, created my logo as a favour and many of my old customers throughout the Rococo days have been coming back to me, which is deeply touching. I almost wept one day when we got a huge order from a loyal buyer from the Rococo years.

What are your plans for the business?

I want the Chocolate Detective to lead the way for best practice in the chocolate industry, so that the farmers who grow the cocoa benefit directly from their hard work. Plus, I want to help people to enjoy the world’s best chocolate. After-all, it’s one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Since we – that’s basically just James and me! – started, our revenue has effectively doubled every year and our products are now being sold in over 300 retailers across the UK and America. We aim to continue scaling the business through distribution partners, as well as direct to customers and B2B. We are most definitely not looking for investors! We are growing it organically, rather than taking loans, which was the undoing of Rococo. I’ve yet to hear a good story about venture capitalists, often men in suits with lots of spreadsheets, who just don’t understand what is at the heart of a business.

Would you like to wind back the clock fully and have a shop for the Chocolate Detective on the King’s Road?  Now, that would be, um, a sweet irony…  

Ha! Can you imagine it! Yes, that would be nice. Who knows – anything is possible. We do have stockists in Chelsea – like Designers Guild and Love My Human Townhouse. Retail can be nightmare, but it would be fun to go back to where it all started. Maybe we can begin with a pop up shop. If one of the big local landlords has an empty space that they need to brighten up…

 

Chantal Coady’s Chelsea Go-Tos 

My go-to for eating out – Mona Lisa or Anna Hough’s Myrtle if I am feeling flush  

My go-to for for drinks – The Surprise or Beaufort House 

My go-to for shopping – I still love to wander around Peter Jones 

My go-to for staying over – Are you serious, have you seen the prices of hotel? I will get the bus home, but I can dream about 31 Cadogan Gardens 

My go-to for a cultural fix – The Royal Court Theatre or the V&A

My secret tip for Chelsea – the Moravian  Burial Ground – a historic bit of land that was once a part of Thomas Moore’s property, and reputedly is where Christian the lion used to take his daily exercise in the 1960s – its not open very often – get there if you can!

My go-to event – Chelsea Physic Garden Christmas Fair 

Your dream home in Chelsea? There’s a particularly beautiful house in Swan Walk owned by a very well known man who made his fortune in private equity, not chocolate!

 

Visit the Chocolate Detective at www.chocolatedetective.co.uk

An exclusive Easter offer to Citizen readers – for anyone who fondly remembers the old Rococo shop, and for those discovering the Chocolate Detective for the first time – Chantal Coady is pleased to offer complimentary shipping on all orders over £40, until midnight on 31st March. Use Code: chelseacitizen