Wonky start for Willie's choc factory

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory. Saturdays, 7.30pm, TV3. Reviewed by Victoria Guild.

I love shows about people who put everything into pursuing their dreams, especially when it's a passion they want to make into a viable business.

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory follows Willie Harcourt-Cooze's passion for chocolate and his determination to bring it to the market in a 100 per cent cacao bar.

I'll admit, I tuned in initially by mistake (I thought it was the movie), but once I started watching I wanted to find out what happened to Willie's dream.

It's shot in a fly-on-the-wall way, and follows Willie from his plantation in Venezuela to his factory in Devon. We also meet his wife, Tania, and their three children and watch as time and money pressures start to pile on the stress.

Willie is determined to elevate chocolate to an essential cooking ingredient. But after 11 years spent working on the Venezuela farm and developing his chocolate cooking ideas, he is yet to make any money.

You knew the financial pressure was on when he told us the bailiffs had been called in.

His final piece of equipment had arrived from Spain and when I tuned in Willie was working day and night to get a large order ready for a launch at Selfridges, the London department store.

He seemed to be a one-man band and added more stress to the recipe by deciding to hold a factory opening party for all his friends and helpers.

This gave the viewer the opportunity to learn about mole – a chocolate-based sauce commonly used in Central and South America, often with chicken – which he fed to his guests.

Willie told us how important it was to get into a nationwide retail store and when he went to meet the buyer at Waitrose, we all had our fingers crossed for a good result. The buyer balked a little at Willie's retail price, but this is no ordinary chocolate as the taste test proved.

The thing about Willie is that he is so passionate and focused, which can come across as selfish and arrogant at times, but he's also likeable in a bumbling kind of way.

The vibe from the Waitrose guy made me think his product was going to be too expensive for their chain, and despite bigger orders coming in from Selfridges, where Willie's launch was a big success, he needed the chain store for the business to stay viable.

The call came through a few days later and the answer was so good that Willie took off whooping out of his house and ran down the lane whipping off his clothes as he went. His bemused children followed, picking up the clothes and laughing at their obviously relieved and delighted dad.

While a cynic would suggest the show was a good marketing ploy for Willie to get his brand out there (after the show aired in Britain he struggled to meet the demand), it also showed the sort of dedication and hard work that's involved to get your own business working. And with a product like chocolate, of course people are going to want to try it. I sure do.

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