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Introducing SOC Chef
Meet SOC Chef: Where Natural Fruit Meets Culinary Innovation
If you’re looking for all-natural ingredients that will add colour, flavour and texture to your creations, then you’re in the right place. SOC Chef is all about natural products that help chocolatiers and bakers craft creations that look beautiful, taste incredible and spark joy. Whether you’re decorating, flavouring or experimenting, there’s a world of fruity inspiration just waiting for you!
by Lyndsey Hall
26 January 2026
Who are SOC Chef?
Quality and innovation are at the heart of SOC Chef, a family-run company driven by passion, creativity and dedication to the world of fine food. Since 1999, they’ve been transforming carefully sourced fruits into culinary treasures that elevate everything from handmade bonbons and jewel-studded bark, to golden, fruit-packed panettone.
With the collaboration of their culinary consultant, 12-Michelin-starred chef Martín Berasagatui, SOC Chef creates ingredients that bring colour, texture and sensational flavour to your craft.
Fruit-Forward Creations for Chocolatiers & Patissiers
Keylink’s SOC Chef range features everything a chocolate or patisserie maker could need to create beautifully fruity desserts and confections. For artisan chocolatiers, zesty orange, fragrant lemon and fiery ginger enrobed in dark chocolate are a classic that never goes out of style. Simply half-dip or fully enrobe your candied or dextrose-dusted strips and slices in a high cocoa percentage dark chocolate, et voilá! Moreish, indulgent sweet treats with a nod to the healthy-living trend that’s still growing in popularity.
For bakers, orange peel cubes, orange and lemon peel strips and shavings bring brightness to brioche and panettone and cut through the buttery richness of viennoiserie. Decorate cakes and traybakes with crystallised ginger chips for a crunchy, warming finish. Take a look at our blog Embracing Ginger & Spices in Baking and Chocolate for more sweet heat inspiration.
And beetroot powder is perfect for adding natural health benefits and a warm pink hue to chocolate cakes, especially Ruby chocolate!
SOC Chef’s fruit inclusions and decorations are all about versatility, delivering standout looks and unforgettable flavour.
Spark New Ideas with New Ingredients
The latest additions to SOC Chef’s product range include a vibrant, earthy matcha green tea powder, crystallised ginger chips and blueberries in dextrose. With a huge number of potential uses, from chocolate to bakery to beverages and more, these ingredients allow chefs and confectioners to experiment and explore new flavours and applications, always with the finest of quality products.
If you’re new to using matcha, our blog A Beginners’ Guide to Matcha is a great place to start. Find out how to use this trending umami ingredient in drinks, chocolate, fillings, pastries, ice cream and more.
Trending Tastes & Textures
SOC Chef’s candied fruits allow you to create trend-led bakery and confectionery items that your customers will crave.
Multisensorial – the bold, jewel colours of candied fruits, coupled with the sweet, tangy taste and chewy (or in the case of crystallised ginger chips, crunchy) texture make these fruit inclusions the ideal way to add layers of multisensory appeal to your products.
Ethically Sourced – SOC Chef’s products are made from high-quality, natural fruit that has been expertly and ethically sourced, following strict quality and food security procedures. They also work closely with growers and their communities to improve access to education and minimise their impact on the environment. So, your customers can trust that their Tuesday afternoon sweet treat is doing a little good.
Healthful – clean label products have been growing in popularity for a few years now, reducing additives and preservatives and keeping ingredient lists short and understandable. With SOC Chef’s products, you can rest assured your creations won’t be packed full of ingredients with long, complicated names. And your customers will feel confident choosing a treat that tastes great and gives them a feel-good boost.
Mini Moments of Joy – in response to the challenges we’re all facing day to day, from negative news cycles to the rising cost of living, we’re all looking for smaller moments of celebration and connection, and bakery and confectionery are perfect for hitting this trend. Eye-catching, fruit studded treats that pair perfectly with a steaming mug of tea, iced coffee or even a vibrant green matcha drink, will tempt your customers inside for a few minutes of indulgence before they continue on their way.
How to Use Candied Peel in Your Creations
Candied orange and lemon peel is more than just a festive staple, it’s a flavour powerhouse that adds zingy flavour, chewiness and a hint of tradition and indulgence to all your creations. Wondering how to get the best out of this classic ingredient? Here are our top tips:
- Enrobe – dip in dark chocolate for elegant, flavourful sweet treats that are perfect for gifting
- Flavour fillings – finely chop and fold into ganache or praline centres for little bursts of zesty texture
- Decorate – use thin shavings to top truffles and bars and as chocolate bark toppings for an eye-catching finish
- Elevate doughs – add peel to panettone, stollen, fruit loaves or brioche for aromatic pops of citrus
- Boost batters – try lemon or orange peel in cakes, madeleines or muffins for a fruity twist
- Infuse – simmer peel in cream, milk or sugar syrup for citrussy notes in patisserie
And for a bonus tip, balance the sweet and sharp notes in citrus peel with warming spices like cardamom, cinnamon and ginger.
Recipes to Try
Whether you’re adding citrus peel to your chocolate bars and bonbons, or looking for creative ways to use matcha and beetroot powder in baked goods, we’ve got a few recipes you can test and tweak to tempt your customers:
- Ginger & Caramel Panettone – Finish this panettone with 23 carat gold leaf for a touch of festive sparkle!
- Blueberry & Candied Orange Chelsea Buns
- Chocolate Orange Mousse
- Chocolate Tiffin
- Ginger & Dark Chocolate Flapjack – Blitz ginger strips in a food processor for this chewy, sticky and delicious flapjack!
- Gingerbread & Spiced Milk Chocolate Ganache
- Vanilla & Matcha Marble Cake
- Gingerbread & Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
- Mincemeat – Make your own mincemeat with our recipe and add it into all your festive bakes next winter!
- Mincemeat Blondies
- Ruby Chocolate Tiffin
- White Chocolate, Blueberry & Pistachio Rocky Road
- Ruby Chocolate Cake – Beetroot powder gives your Ruby chocolate cake a dark pink hue and added health benefits!
- Ruby Ganache for Moulded Bonbons
Added Extras & Finishing Touches
SOC Chef don’t just create exquisite candied fruits and powders, they also offer a variety of products and accessories to help bakers and chocolatiers achieve their goals and produce their best work.
Leaf gelatine is ideal for creating marshmallows, jellies, terrines, mousses, pate de fruits, pana cottas, glazes and so much more. It’s a colourless, flavourless and odourless setting agent that can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes, perfect for chefs, chocolatiers, patissiers and bakers.
With guitar sheets to pair with guitar cutters and disposable, professional piping bags, your kitchen will be ready for you to create culinary magic!
Ready to explore the full SOC Chef range?
Lyndsey is a marketing executive, writer and lover of books and chocolate from Sheffield.
Her favourite chocolate is Cacao Barry Lactee Superieure.
