00:01I'm here at the Military Chef in Sutton Coldfield with Liam Hall. Thank you for
00:06joining me today. Well thank you for coming. Liam, tell me about your amazing
00:11journey. You're an ex-Army veteran and you run your own chocolate brand. How did
00:17you progress from that to where you are now? So it's a bit of a weird one that
00:21isn't it? From being in the army to then suddenly having a confectionery
00:26chocolate shop. So yes I am an ex-Army chef. So I served in the British Army for seven
00:31years. I had a great career. Unfortunately I got medically discharged with Crohn's
00:35disease. So that's what got medically discharged for that which obviously
00:40means I had to come out. And then came into what we call Civvy Street. I had a
00:43great career then as a Civvy chef. Worked up the ranks within the kitchens but then
00:49of course as everyone knows we had something called curry. We'd come along
00:52and squashed. Obviously not just my tray but a lot of trays around. I thought it
00:58was it was time to set up a brand. Now I'm a chocolate lover myself and but I
01:03recently tried my favorite bar made from a very famous Birmingham brand. It tasted
01:10different. Of course I'm not gonna talk about a certain brand or other brands but
01:16we pride ourselves in quality and having just a few ingredients as we can. So for
01:23instance our milk chocolate has only got six ingredients in it where if you look
01:27at other certain brands or other chocolate it's got a hell of a lot more
01:31chocolate in it. So yes we might be a bit we look a bit different in terms of our
01:36brand and we're a bit military with brand but we we pride ourselves on good
01:41quality ingredients. Now I understand the military connection. Yes. But you've
01:46recently made some poppy inspired chocolates. Tell me about that. Yeah so we do
01:51chocolate poppy buttons. Exactly that. So we put a little picture of poppies
01:57onto our buttons and why do we do it? Of course we're military and as a military
02:02veteran you always want to do something at this time of year for remembrance and I
02:06thought well how can we do it? Well let's do a bit of chocolate. You know you can
02:09support the coffee appeal by buying the buttons because we donate 50p to every
02:16button every packet that we sell and of course you can still enjoy the chocolate
02:20at the same time. Why was it important for you to donate some of the proceeds to
02:25charity? I think it's important as a self as a veteran owned business you know
02:31people give their lives. I've been there and done that in terms of I've been in that
02:35situation of being in the military and the people that went before us that have been
02:40in the military they sacrificed their lives for us so it's important for me as a
02:45person as an army veteran to try and do something for today's soldiers. Liam thank
02:51you very much for joining me today it's been really amazing and I wish you all the
02:56best with your future chocolate making endeavours. Thank you very much.
