Sweet as sugar: Moreish marshmallows

23 April 2014 - 09:29 By Yolisa Mkele
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YUMMY: Ooh La La proprietor Karen Schneid-Lieberman, who left the law for confectionery, with daughters Saffron and Sapphire
YUMMY: Ooh La La proprietor Karen Schneid-Lieberman, who left the law for confectionery, with daughters Saffron and Sapphire
Image: Picture: Ooh La La

A little over five years ago, former advocate Karen Schneid-Lieberman ''came out of the confectionery closet".

Having practised law for 19 years, she decided to ditch the courtroom and traverse France learning all she could about the confectioners' art. Once she had mastered the vagaries of French confectionery, she returned to the motherland in 2009 and started Ooh La La Artisan Confectionery.

''The journey turned into a business by mistake. I originally started making things just for myself, and before I knew it my house had turned into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory," she says.

The transition from court to caramel was not instantaneous. Schneid-Lieberman continued to work and explore the alchemy of sugar at the same time. This arrangement came to a sticky end.

"I would sit in court and daydream about new flavours. Initially I couldn't tell my close friends, who were judges and lawyers, that I was making sweets because they would have thought I'd gone mad."

Half a decade later, her career change has paid off.

Ooh La La recently won the 2014 Best Small Producer Award for confectionery at the Eat Out Zonnebloem Produce Awards. Her operation has grown so large that she has had to move Willy Wonka's chocolate factory out of her house and employ 12 staff members.

"It is funny to think that my old law library [in the house] had to be converted into a packing room and now we're moving on. The amount of success we have had has been amazing," she says.

Her success can be attributed, in part, to her passion and ebullient perfectionism.

"We use only the best and most expensive ingredients and not a single batch leaves before I have tasted it and signed off on it," she said.

Each sweet is accompanied by a quaint back story about how it changed the lives of famous French historical figures such as the infamous Marie Antoinette.

Ooh La La legend has it that the queen would feast on marshmallows in full view of the public. The peasantry would press their noses against the gates of the Palace of Versailles and beg to taste them, but the queen refused to share, even when implored to do so by Louis XVI. In response to her husband's pleas, the greedy queen was recorded as saying: ''Marshmallows, my dear nation, are mine. As far as the people are concerned, let them eat cake."

Thus the French revolution was sparked.

Much of the produce coming from Ooh La La is good enough to spark a revolt. The marshmallows and calissons in particular are excellent.

With Ooh La La Schneid-Lieberman may have found her golden ticket. Her French flair and artisanal attention to detail make her sweets a must for anyone with taste buds.

For outlets see: www.oohlalaconfectionery.com

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