Celebrating black-owned businesses: Chocofruit

Chocofruit is a street food and events business specialising in delicious sweet treats, owned by David Kah. We caught up with David to find out more about Chocofruit, how the business has adapted over the past few months, and the importance of learning about black history.

What inspired you to open a food business?

I have always loved retail and selling things, from a young age. I have always dreamed of owning my own business and creating an environment that I would like to work in and be part of. An environment of positive, empowerment and creating great products and raving fans.

Tell us a bit about the food you sell.

At Chocofruit we sell a totally unique Belgian chocolate-covered fruit dessert and sweet treats. We source the best fruit and ingredients London has to offer, to create a magical dessert experience.

What’s your favourite item on the menu?

We have just launched a range of Gourmet Cotton candy tubs, which we sell in Selfridges London. I love these the most currently as we create exclusive flavours, such as our new mince pie flavour and have a lot of fun experimenting. I will always love our Chocolate covered bananas in white Belgian chocolate sprinkled with caramelized hazelnuts.

The past six months have been a very challenging time for the hospitality sector. How did you adapt as a business?

They have! As many did, we moved to delivering direct to customers and sold mainly through requests we received on Instagram and through our website. We also had lots of requests for fruits and vegetables so we adapted and Eat in Colour was born. We have a large demand from corporate customers gifting staff fresh fruit, and chocolate-covered strawberries.

As a black business owner, what have your experiences of being in the food industry been like?

Personally, I do not feel that this has even a factor to date. I think our food and business do the talking, and we focus on delivering an unrivalled customer experience, which has driven our growth. No doubt there are many ignorant people in our colourful world, but I feel London is a very open and accepting multicultural city, and do not feel that race is as much of an issue in my personal experiences, as the mainstream media portray and would like you to believe at times. This may not be the case for all, however this is just based on my experiences to date.

Black History Month is a time of celebration and reflection. How will you be celebrating this year?

I think we all should use this time to look into Black history, which is all our history, not just the mainstream version of events, which is often just depicted from slavery etc but before this, and look at all the great black inventors, scientists, doctors, business owners, that you do not find being talked about in the mainstream media. I feel it is now time to stop looking at people as colours, but as people regardless of your skin tone, ethnicity, gender etc.

Want to order some sweet treats from Chocofruit for you and the team? Check out the menu:

How about veg boxes for home delivery? We've got those too!