Local hero: Lakker wins gold in medal clean sweep
There’s a love story behind the creation of Tassie’s gold medal winning chocolates – read on to find out more
With the Olympics only a few short weeks away we are celebrating our local food heroes here in Tasmania by profiling medal winners in the 29th annual Royal Tasmanian Fine Food Awards.
Each year the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania hosts these awards, which bring together judges from all over Australia to find the country’s best produce.
Judging is across many different categories over several judging sessions throughout the year, with winners celebrated at a gala dinner in November.
In April the Chocolate and Confectionery category was judged, with Lakker Chocolatiers making a clean sweep, winning Champion - Chocolate and Confectionery for their Smoked Sea Salt & Almond Dark Chocolate Bar, and Reserve Champion - Chocolate and Confectionery for their Tasmanian Assorted Chocolates, as well as Gold Medals for both their Tasmanian Leatherwood Honeycomb Milk Chocolate Bar and their Macadamia Salted Wakame Toffee Caramel Chocolate Bar.
Owners Dimitri and Jae Smet have worked hard to create these and many more delectable chocolates which form their range at Lakker Chocolatiers, which are made by the couple in Rokeby, Tasmania.
Dimitri trained as a pastry chef in his home country of Belgium, before he was recruited to run a chocolaterie in the Yarra Valley in Victoria. He met his future wife, Jae, when he was invited to judge a chocolate competition. Jae, also a trained pastry chef, had entered her chocolates in the competition, which she won. (Dimitri swears he was impartial in his judging and acted in a professional manner, only reaching out after the competition was over!) Love blossomed and the couple eventually married and moved to Tasmania with the plan of opening their own chocolate enterprise here.
Jae and Dimitri developed and perfected their recipes for over two years – Dimitri says, “that’s a lot of R&D but when you taste our chocolates you can really taste the love and quality that’s gone into them.”
Their dreams finally became a reality by pooling their savings and setting up a commercial kitchen in their garage and in 2022, Lakker Chocolatiers was born.
Today Dimitri and Jae employ a team of three, and in busy times, four, with plans to recruit a brand and sales manager to help grow the business.
Dimitri says that future plans include expanding into a larger space, and focussing on new product development and releases of new speciality products for both locals and visitors:
“I can’t say much about them yet but there’s no doubt they will be packed with local flavours and will be uniquely Tasmanian. We also have some cool collaborations with some amazing local producers.”
Dimitri says their dream is to “really put Tasmania on the map for some of the best chocolate in the Southern hemisphere… we have the perfect climate and best local produce for it.”
Lakker’s focus on quality, sustainability and the innovative development of flavours using Tasmanian and Australian ingredients, has made them one of the most loved chocolate makers in the state – and now one of the most awarded.
Congratulations Dimitri and Jae!
Hill Street is proud to stock Lakker chocolates. Check with your local Hill Street for availability.
