Chocolatier, chef and Academy of Chocolate committee member Bill McCarrick's love affair with all things sweet began aged six in his grandmother's Philadelphia kitchen. Making deliveries for his father's butchers shop lead to the teenage Bill's first apprenticeship in a neighbourhood restaurant, where his pastry and chocolate making talents were immediately apparent.

Bill completed his training in Switzerland and Austria, marking the beginning of a globe-trotting career. From Austria, Bill's pastry and chocolate making skills took him to Australia, then on to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines and Malaysia, where Bill was the first non-European executive pastry chef to lead five star hotels, followed by pre-opening executive pastry chef positions at the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Bali and Dubai. On moving to London in 2001, Bill was made responsible for Harrods' entire chocolate, pastry, bakery and petit fours production for the department stores' restaurants, cafes, food halls.

Fascinated by how differently chocolate is handled in various parts of the world, Bill combines influences picked up on his travels, from working with locally grown soy beans and lemon myrtle seed on Australia's Sunshine Coast and experimenting with Agar-Agar in Hong Kong to exploring the exceptional teas and spices of Saudi Arabian and Iranian-influenced Dubai.

From baking Donald Trump's 50th birthday cake to being the first UK chef to patent a cake concept - a multi-layered chocolate cake featuring indigenous flavours from various parts of the world - Bill's spirit of adventure imbues all he touches.

Bill produced the first Sir Hans Sloane chocolates in his private kitchen in July 2006, working at 2am so that the chocolate didn't melt. Lack of air conditioning did not affect his success, with a Gold award for his organic dark filled chocolate at the 2007 World Chocolate Awards. Today, Bill uses the UK's first small scale artisinal conching machine to create luxuriously limited edition self-conched couverture and milk chocolate.

Bill's chocolate making is a constantly evolving process, with the conching machine enabling him to experiment and re-write the chocolate making rule book. Next on the agenda is developing a relationship with cocoa farmers whereby Bill is able to adapt cocoa growing techniques in order to create the finest chocolates in the world. "Currently, the growers have no idea what the chocolatiers want or how their product is being used," explains Bill. "I would like my beans over fermented, for a purer intense flavour and under roasted, for a lighter, fresher sensation to bring out the true characteristics and rounded profile of pure cocoa at its very best."