Cooking With Edible Metals Like Gold, Silver
Edible Precious Metals add Sparkle to Food and Drink
Oct 29, 2009
Sébastien Jeanneret founded DeLafée International, a privately held company, in Neuchâtel Switzerland in 2004 with the intention of selling gourmet products and cigars either covered in or sprinkled with precious metals.
‘’Both the EU and the United States authorize gold and silver to decorate food products. Both metals are totally safe, and known for their non-allergenic properties,‘’ he says. The metals also have no discernible taste.
Jeanneret, who hails from Geneva, is a marketing professional who spent six years in New York working for Philip Morris. It was in the Big Apple ‘’as I was eating some gold-leaf-covered sushi at SushiSamba’’ that he got the idea for his venture.
The DeLafée Name And Products
De la fée literally means ‘’from the fairy’’, and refers not only to actual place names such as the Fairy Coast (La Côte aux Fées) that are located in the vicinity of Jeanneret’s production facilities but also suggests magic like the sparkling twinkles from a fairy wand. DeLafée adds that golden touch to existing, artisan-crafted quality products; it does not create the products themselves. Its gold range includes chocolate, lollipops, tea, cigars and sparkling wine. The company also sells gold leaf to wrap food in or highlight it, along with gold flakes and even a special sprinkler.
While some items like the heart-shaped strawberry lollipops are more suitable as presents for romantic partners, all the others are appropriate as well for friends and family, and equally as corporate gifts, or when entertaining and celebrating.
According to the company’s website, corporate clients include Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), the FourSeasons hotel chain, the up-market beauty products firm La Prairie, and MGM Entertainment.
DeLafée Prices And Gift Service
Prices are cleverly geared to suit all wallets – a booklet of 250 gold leaves may cost up to $376.60, but there are also booklets of 25 leaves for no more than $43.20. The same holds true for gold flakes – a gram (.03 oz) is $82.60, but 300 mg (.01 oz) jars are available at $40.60. (The special sprinkler is $16.80).
Unavailable in the new ‘’Silver Magic’’ range is sparkling rosé wine and gold-sprinkled chocolate pralines, the latter having been replaced by silver-leaf covered truffles. But available in both gold and silver are the single cigar (gold $94.50, silver $70), the lollipop (gold-sprinkled $38.50, silver $31.50) and tea ‘’composed of fresh, young green tea leaves and buds, hand-tied with three stunning flowers – yellow lily, white jasmine or pink amaranth’’ meant to be prepared in a see-through glass teapot (tea with gold sprinkles $45.50, with silver $33.60).
All gifts come in design packaging, and - for corporate gifts as well as for those who wish DeLafée to ship items directly to giftees - the company offers American-style personalized service including cards that is highly unusual for Switzerland. (For those wishing to write out those precious words ‘’I love you’’ in their very own hand, it even throws in, on the website, the way this is said in 100 languages ranging from Bambara to Bulgarian, Greek to Gujarati.)
The Tradition Of Adding Gold And Silver To Food
Where does the tradition of adding precious metals to food and drink come from? ‘’It’s an ancient custom, you find references to eating gold in China, and in Europe during the Renaissance. Today, India is the country where the greatest amount of edible gold is consumed. In Japan, gold leaf is mixed with sake on New Year's Eve. This brings good luck and prosperity for the coming year. In Europe the same tradition exists with champagne,’’ says Jeanneret.
DeLafée mostly sells directly from its website, not least to the US where ‘’we get a lot of requests from people celebrating their golden wedding anniversary’’. But Jeanneret, who is both founder and CEO of the company, has also developed a distribution network in the Middle East and Japan.
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