KC dips Switzerland's World Cup moment in chocolate
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Look at this tiny Matterhorn chocolate. Photo: Abbey Higginbotham/Axios
Switzerland plays its first World Cup quarterfinal in 72 years Saturday at Kansas City Stadium, and André's Confiserie Suisse is welcoming the Swiss with a chocolate bar made just for the occasion.
Why it matters: The Swiss last got this far in 1954, one year before the Bollier family opened its Swiss chocolate shop on Main Street, and the long wait ends in the family's adopted hometown.
Flashback: That all-Swiss identity goes back to 1955, when master pastry chef André Bollier funded his family's move from Switzerland with a recipe book.
- His grandson René apprenticed under his grandfather and father, trained in Switzerland himself and now runs the shop with his wife Nancy, turning out 13 tons of chocolate a year.
Zoom in: The shop's Celebrate Soccer collection gives each country playing or staying in KC a bar built on that nation's flavors. Netherlands, Argentina, England and Algeria all have one, and the lineup kept growing all tournament.
- Switzerland didn't originally make the cut because everything André's makes is already Swiss.
- Then the Swiss beat Colombia on Tuesday, booking a Saturday date with Argentina in KC, and the kitchen scrambled.
- By Wednesday, the first batch of a hazelnut praline bar with almonds and nougat in milk chocolate was ready to be cut and wrapped for the weekend.
💭 My thought bubble: I talked my way into an early bite. The milk chocolate opens creamy with a caramel note; the hazelnut praline deepens it and the candied almonds finish with a snap.
What's next: The Swiss bar doesn't hit shelves until this weekend, but keep an eye out for an announcement on their social media.