About Chamak Chocolate Academy & Instructor's Training/Background

Chamak Chocolate Academy was created in Jan 2017 due to the lack of chocolate courses in the U.S. Sarah, the creator of the academy did her own extensive research prior to figuring how to receive training. She first checked out Callebaut's school in Chicago and was frustrated with the schedule, disjointed nature of the training & the focus on training pastery chefs and on product sales. The cost was also quite high for 2 day courses.
 
Instead, she did self study and experimentation, then enrolled in the Ecole online chocolate class. It was extremely informative but had zero hands on experience. Not being satisfied after this, she called every single well known culinary school in Europe, U.S. and Canada to see if they any had intensive programs on just chocolatiering. Not one. Each school promoted her to enroll in their pastry programs. While that would be amazingly enriching, it was not her focus. She was a business owner & a mental health professional with a full plate already, and unable to able to invest the time nor wished to spend $20 - 25,000 for a 10 month pastry course. After much convincing Sarah was able to set up advanced private pastry making lessons at a prestigious Houston based culinary school, Institute La Notre.  Training at the world renowned school and being educated in classical french chocolatier techniques developed by France's legendary pastry chefs was amazing. Though, it was extremely expensive and the chef, as an academic person, did not have a background in the business of creating a brand, running a successful business or was able to think out of the box with recipe formulation.
 
Therefore she took all the knowledge she gained from formal training and combined it with her own business background and unique approach. She created her own fusion recipes focused on fresh ingredients and on health oriented flavors which were not previously done before. Years after, she attended  a bean to bar chocolate making course and interned with award winning chef Jean-Marie Auboine and plans on developing her own bean to bar chocolate for her shop in the future as well as adding a bean to bar class to the curriculum.
 
Overall, it was a challenge finding any intensive hands on courses out there or tailored towards building a chocolate business for small start up entrepreneurs. There was always an unrealistic assumption that a person would invest in $50-100k in expensive extended courses and equipment. Chamak Chocolate Academy was created to fill the niche needed. We offer a very unique perspective as coming from a lifestyle brand that was built only through word of mouth and social media, with no investors, PR or marketing company behind us and a limited amount of self funded capital.

Each batch of Chamak chocolates are made from scratch in very small quantities and our family owned business is known for our warmth and customer service. No machines or high tech equipment are used: the traditional century old methods of handcrafting chocolate are honored and enjoyed here.  At Chamak, we offer  a week long chocolate making class to go over the basics and advanced techniques of chocolatiering, as well as inspiration on being creative with your chocolate recipes. We cover how to build your chocolate line/business, offer advice on how to create a brand and wisdom, tips and suggestions from having built our own unique concept and brand from the ground up.  
 
                                   About Sarah 
Sarah is a life long lover of chocolate, licensed professional counselor and a multi-disciplined artist (couldn't just pick one). While doing her masters in counseling psychology she was also working as a makeup & henna artist as well as doing event photography. After her psychotherapy internship was completed, she attended makeup school in Hollywood to learn more about artistry. In 2009 she created The Transformation Studio: a wellness and beauty center. A year later, she started a beauty line called Chamak "sparkle," as an homage to the South Asian culture and art and was delighted to see it growing steadily. In 2010 she started teaching professional makeup artistry classes: Chamak Beauty Academy.  The Chamak concept evolved into a lifestyle brand including ready to wear cosmetics, organic skincare including a popular custom blending service where clients come to make custom made products tailored to their skincolor, skin type, personality and style.
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Though, before any of her other artistic passions began, her first love was cooking and baking sweets. Sarah's mom, Nayyar is an amazing cook and passed down her love for culinary art to her two daughters. Also, Nayyar comes from three generations of  jam/jelly making expertise. We are pleased to feature her delicious jams in some of our chocolate flavors. After creating Chamak Cosmetics, Sarah decided to expand the line to also showcase gourmet confections inspired by her culture. In August 2015, after the demand from customers for a stand alone store was hard to ignore,  Sarah opened  Chamak Cosmetics & Chocolates: shop, beauty lab. lounge. 
 
Culinary Training:
Advanced pastry training from Culinary Institue LeNotre
 
 
 
 
 
 

Graduated with honors from Ecole Chocolat







Trained & Interned with award winning Chocolatier