BROKEN ARROW'S BELGIAN
CHOCOLATE LADY

Look at any restaurant dessert menu and you will find at least one dessert that is chocolate. Ask most women what kind of candy they like and you’ll hear chocolate.

For some people, any chocolate will do. For Christine Joseph, only her native Belgian chocolate will do. The only problem is that she lives in Oklahoma. Besides, Belgian chocolate is expensive.

What’s a girl to do?

This petite, dark-haired, dynamo decided to open an import shop on Tulsa's 15th Street. Unfortunately, importing chocolate has its own unique perils. Hot Oklahoma weather and damaged shipments and Joseph closed the shop.

Not one to give up easily, she decided to make her own chocolate.

“I had no clue,” Joseph said. She tried melting and molding her own chocolates from 22 lb. blocks and had problems with the chocolate crystallizing or melting in the summer heat. (Chocolate is ideally stored at 60 to 70 degrees.)

Perseverance must be her middle name because she tried again at Christmas after receiving specialized equipment for her birthday. She made gourmet chocolates in her home kitchen and gave it as gifts to friends. Soon other people were asking for her special chocolates.

“It came to the point I had chocolates and molds pouring out of the kitchen. I had no more room,” Joseph said. She went to school in Europe to further her knowledge and expertise.

She and her new husband decided to open a manufacturing and wholesale operation in July of 1999. They located their business at 16th and Memorial in Tulsa.

While the shop on Memorial did well, she decided that it really didn’t have the exposure it needed to expand to a retail operation.



An opportunity arose to buy a building on Main Street in Broken Arrow where her business, Nouveau – Atelier de Chocolat, is currently located.

I found her with her hair pulled back with a few wisps escaping, hard at work packing an order of chocolates. She was playing catch-up after being in Europe for a week.

Wiping her hands on her apron, she approached with a smile and a twinkle in brown eyes asking if she could help me. I proceeded to pick out a delectable-looking chocolate from the display case built by her husband and asked for an interview.

Each of the chocolates has a unique name and shape. Her bestsellers are named Tulsa. They consist of three pecan halves encasing a roll of caramel all dipped in delicious milk or dark chocolate.

You can find Joseph at her shop Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. where she will be happy to serve you coffee, ice cream, chocolate drinks and, of course, gourmet chocolates.

Nouveau–Atelier de Chocolat is located at 205 S. Main Street in Broken Arrow.

--Karen Groff