As a young pastry chef, Nel Vincencio put chocolate in the ‘‘too hard’’ basket. A few decades on he is winning awards for his dairy-free chocolate bon bons.
The turnaround came during the Covid lockdowns, when Vincencio began looking for a new challenge and saw beautiful pictures of colourful bon bons online.
‘‘I told my partner, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if I make this?’.’’
As a baker and pastry chef, Vincencio knew he wanted to be his own boss, but the outlay for a bakery was beyond him, so he thought with making chocolate he would only need a microwave.
So he bought a food truck and began experimenting.
‘‘It was more like a hobby at that time.’’
He admits it was not the obvious choice, given he did not have much luck with chocolate work during his time training to be a pastry chef in Seattle, in the United States.
‘‘I was young at that time and it needs a different discipline. We didn't use a thermometer, so I wasn't really feeling it. So it never worked when I was making it, so I was always disappointed. And I was scared of chocolate, so I didn't want to do chocolate as a career.
‘‘So it's quite ironic, to be honest, to live full circle that I am doing chocolate, something I'm not good at.’’
But ever since he first set foot in his uncle’s Filipino bakery in Seattle and found he was really curious about baking, he has been hungry for knowledge to make himself better and to make food taste ‘‘yummier’’.
He was 20 years old when he visited his uncle’s bakery, on holiday from his home in the Philippines with his grandma, after graduating with a degree in computer science and a realisation he did not want an office job.
Helping out in the bakery, he soon decided that was the job for him. So he stayed in the US to study pastry and baking, but when his visa ran out he returned to the Philippines.
After three years, the itch to travel and learn new things that he had experienced in the US became harder to ignore, so he looked overseas for a job. He got three job offers, one in Japan — too close to home — one in Western Australia — too hot — and one in New Zealand.
‘‘I thought New Zealand was in Europe, so I was telling my family I’m going to Europe until I looked up Google.’’
Despite finding out New Zealand was not in Europe, Vincencio decided it looked like a nice place that aligned with his values around sustainability and had the raw ingredients to make good breads and pastries — dairy and wheat — so he moved in 2012.
‘‘So I’m like maybe if I go to New Zealand, I can use their wheat, and then maybe it tastes different. So those things I sort of like.’’
After about five years he was ready for a change and found it in Dunedin as a sous chef working under Julien Dalavoie at the former Artisan French Pastry for several years.
‘‘My first time in Dunedin I was so impressed and blown away with everything I saw. And I told my partner I want to live there. When I got the job, it was life-changing.’’
Vincencio returned to Christchurch to work in a bakery, allowing him to use all the skills he had learned in Dunedin.
But the need for a new challenge had him contemplating chocolate making, and a suggestion he try making dairy-free chocolate to fill that gap in the market ignited his determination to try something new.
‘‘I sort of like decided that everyone should be able to have access to good chocolate. And so it was a no-brainer for me and we decided let's just all do dairy-free.’’
He began Mind Your Temper in 2020 at a time when there was little information available online or in books about how to create dairy-free chocolate products.
There are multiple substitutes for dairy, including cashew, soy, coconut or oats, but Vincencio decided to use coconut, as it meant the chocolate was accessible to more people than using nuts or oats.
Being from the Philippines, Vincencio was used to not using much dairy, as his culture uses mostly coconut and rice in their cooking, so he applied that thinking to making chocolates.
He had brushed up on his chocolate-making skills when he worked with a Swiss chef in the Philippines who was keen on making chocolate. Together with learning the advancements in chocolate-making technology and products he realised how much easier chocolate is to do.
‘‘That was really helpful in me getting confident with choosing chocolate as a business.’’
He decided rather than making his own base chocolate, he would support local bean-to-bar craft chocolate makers who buy cocoa beans directly from farmers and make the chocolate in New Zealand.
Mind Your Temper then uses that raw product to create its specialty chocolates, bon bons and dipped pralines. It makes its own coconut white chocolate and milk chocolate for the fillings.
‘‘I did so many variations. Anyone loves a good caramel. So for me, if I nail that caramel recipe, I think that’s the start.’’
He also uses a lot of hazelnuts, sourcing them raw from a Canterbury farm and roasting them to use in the fillings.
‘‘So we try to be as sustainable as we can, using local ingredients, using local suppliers. And also for the ganache, for the chocolate filling, we use a lot of single origins from a few chocolate makers.’’
As a pastry chef who had always worked on the basis that people eat with their eyes, the idea that chocolates should only be dark, milk and white coloured did not wash.
‘‘It was never colourful. For the bon bon, different shapes would mean different fillings. Whereas now, it’s the same shape and then different colours.’’
He really enjoys decorating the bon bons, spraying colours on to moulds to create different designs. Then the tempered chocolate is poured on top and it sets adhering to the colours.
Matching the colour to the filling is another challenge he likes to play around with.
‘‘I try to have a play on my colours. For my salted caramel, it's coloured blue just because it's sea for the salt. If it's an Earl Grey, then it should have a little bit of green.’’
What he really enjoys about his work is creating flavours.
‘‘Often creating a combination you wouldn’t think would work, like a miso caramel with candied lemon and hazelnut praline or a gochujang, a Korean spice chilli paste caramel with a black sesame praline and raspberry gel.’’
His work has been recognised with the Outstanding Food Awards Supreme Champion award in 2024 for his black forest bon bon, described as ‘‘faultless’’ by the judges, and its 2025 Best Bon Bon award for his hot X bons. In 2022 he won the best bon bon in the Vegan Chocolate Awards.
He has noticed New Zealanders love alcohol paired with chocolate, so coming down to Dunedin to work with Delavoie, who is now master distiller at No8 Distillery, was the perfect opportunity to try a few different flavours using the products made by his former mentor.
In the past, many of his alcohol-flavoured bon bons have won medals, such as his maple, bourbon and pecan and Cointreau and hazelnut bon bons.
‘‘New Zealanders love liquor and chocolate together. But of course, not in a boozy way.’’
Vincencio also enjoys sharing his knowledge with others. What began as one class has now become many to meet demand. Initially thinking he would only have 10 to 20 people interested, he had more than 200.
‘‘Its become a big part of the business. It’s one I enjoy but didn’t expect.’’
He describes his classes as more like art classes, as it gives people the opportunity to decorate bon bons rather than make the chocolate themselves.
‘‘I like to promote local chocolate companies. It’s fun for me and it puts people in my shoes. Chocolate makes people feel good.’’
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Square truffle recipe
Ingredients
250g 70% Dark chocolate
100ml liquid (water, cream, coconut milk or almond milk)
1 Tbsp Coconut oil
Method
Place the chocolate and coconut oil in a bowl and melt in the microwave.
In a sauce pot, heat your choice of liquid until just before it boils.
Add half of the warm liquid to the chocolate while stirring. Note: The amount of liquid needed can vary depending on the fat content of the chocolate used.
Gradually add the remaining liquid in increments. You can add more liquid or less in this stage while checking the emulsion until you reach the desired consistency,
Spread the ganache on a tray, aiming for a thickness of at least 10mm.
Refrigerate the tray for about 30 minutes or until the ganache is firm to the touch.
Using a knife, cut the ganache into squares. These do not need to be rolled into rounds.
To finish, roll the squares in cacao powder or desiccated coconut.
Serve and enjoy.
