Meet the Chocolatiers Breaking the Mould of the Chocolate Industry

Create unique custom desserts and artisanal chocolates with vacuum technology

Mayku shares how chocolatiers can use a FormBox to design custom artisanal chocolate on a budget

Paul A Young is an award-winning Chocolatier who champions craft and cutting edge creativity to create unique chocolate products. Young started his career working for Marco Pierre White at Quo Vadis and Criterion before opening his first shop in Islington. Working in a truly artisanal way, Young and his team make all of their creations by hand in small batches with fresh ingredients at every stage.

With the Mayku FormBox, Young was able to take charge of the whole production process without having to use an external factory or designer, dramatically cutting costs and granting him far more creative licence, as he was able to make adaptations to designs on the fly. Paul designed a series of geometric, 3D printed forms that were then made into molds using the MaykuFormBox. Being able to replicate the molds in seconds meant that Young could react creatively with his ideas and push his designs to the next level.

“Designing chocolates with the FormBox meant I didn’t have to go to a mold maker and I could use trial and error while at work, molding with chocolate as I developed resulting in a very artistic and style led product.”

Damien Wager is the Head of Pastry at the luxury Beechfield House Hotel, a cookery teacher and a consultant and brand ambassador for chocolate makers Valrhona and HEiH. He also teaches pastry making to both amateurs and professionals all over the UK. With every new dessert, Damien’s desire is to create something completely unique.

He uses Mayku’s FormBox to make innovative molds for chocolates, often based on fruit and other distinctively shaped objects, that he would not be able to otherwise make. His latest creations include a life-like banana-shaped inverse banoffee pie and lime-shaped key lime pie, which have been made using FormBoxed molds which can be easily wiped clean and reused.

“You can make whatever you want: if you press a Yale key down into the mold, it will come out exactly the same! I can think of 40 different molds I’d love to make if I could only find the objects.”

CEO of Mayku, Alex Smilanksy, discusses how artisan chocolatiers can bring new, exciting creations to a wider group of customers:

“The more that chocolatiers can set themselves apart from their competition with unique, exciting products and great service, the more successful they will be and the more market share they will be able to win back from larger retailers. 

Mayku are committed to helping artisan chocolatiers and small food retailers by providing industrial-grade manufacturing and design equipment at a fraction of the size and cost, and developing a community of small businesses to provide support, advice and resources to any entrepreneur or artist looking to thrive.”

About Mayku

Founded in 2015, Mayku is a London-based company made up of creators, engineers, designers and logistics professionals, united under the shared concept of democratised manufacturing. The company is striving to help the world move from a centralised model of production to a distributed one, by producing industrial-grade machines at a fraction of the size and cost.

Mayku is also committed to building a true community of creators, with access to a wealth of services and digital tools, to help make the design process more accessible by lowering the barrier of entry and spurning creativity amongst its users.

The Mayku FormBox is an industrial-grade vacuum forming press that fits on your desk or kitchen table, which enables the user to make molds or replicate intricate shapes in a matter of seconds. The FormBox enables rapid and precision replication, exponentially speeding up the product development cycle and allowing worktop businesses to quickly prototype, develop and produce their products. A Mayku FormBox user can simply create or download a design, 3D-print a mold, and immediately begin to produce up to a thousand units in a matter of days.. The FormBox is the perfect accompaniment to a 3D printer, picking up detail as fine as a grain of sand and enabling the user to pivot, make adaptations and be extremely nimble in their design process.