Wiliam Curley seeks to raise £80,000 for chocolate boutique in Soho

Award-winning chocolatier and patissier William Curley has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £80,000 to open a chocolate boutique in London's Soho.

Curley has already raised £16,650 for the venture in Smiths' Court which he has described will be "the ultimate luxury chocolate experience". He is currently running the site as a pop-up, with a view to launching it fully in the New Year.

Curley said: "We are rewarding all donations with gift of equal or greater value. The campaign is deliberately timed for the run up to Christmas so that all the rewards can be delivered in time!"

Rewards range from a box of Curley's signature chocolate truffles for a pledge of £15 to a chocolate event for up to 100 people hosted by Curley in or around London for a pledge of £5,000.

Curley previously ran chocolate boutiques in Belgravia, London, and Richmond, Surrey, with backing from the Rothschild family. However, he parted company with his co-directors of the business two years ago and Curley retained a concession in Harrods, Knightsbridge.

After starting his career as an apprentice chef at Gleneagles in Auchterarder, Perthshire, Curley went on to work under Pierre Koffmann, Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc. He was then appointed the youngest ever chef patissier at the Savoy hotel, London.

Curely has been named Britain's Best Chocolatier four times by the Academy of Chocolate.

For further information about Curley's fund-raising project, go to the Kickstarter page here. The campaign ends at 10am on Monday 17 December.

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