Sweet Seven
By Tooba Masood | Newsliners | Published 10 years ago
As Lal’s Chocolates turned seven last month, the luxury chocolate brand celebrated by handing out free cupcakes and chocolates on the last two Sundays of November, along with a special 15% discount on all items.
Lal Majid’s love affair with chocolate became intense once her daughter Mariam left for college. “After my daughter left I got interested in floral designs, and then gift packaging,” she said while talking to Newsline. “People would usually ask me to include some chocolates with the gifts so one day I thought, why not make my own.”
In 2006, with her family’s constant encouragement, Majid started her career as Pakistan’s first chocolatier. Famed as edible masterpieces, Lal’s chocolates are handmade from Belgian chocolate, making the brand synonymous with excellence and elegance.
While she prefers dark chocolate with nuts for herself, Majid likes making truffles, macaroons and chocolate with butter crunch. She goes out of her way to give the client what their taste-buds desire. Once a client asked her to make chocolate incorporating cinnamon and clove — and she did. “It had a very different taste but was bursting with flavor,” she said. “Another client once asked me to make a dessert using pretzels which had to be flown in from Dubai. However, by the time they got here, the pretzels were crushed. I told her what had happened and promised to make something delicious. So I used a cookie-dough base and pretzels. The client loved the dessert so much that she ordered it again for another event.”
From just being a chocolate store, Lal’s has grown into a patisserie serving mouth-watering appetisers, fresh salads and hearty entrees.