A Hollywood ending: a remote Scottish business that offers exquisite vegan chocolates is going to the 2024 Oscars

A vegan chocolatier in a tiny Scottish port town has created the confections that will be presented to movie stars at next month’s Oscars, in a plot that is just too unbelievable for Hollywood.

Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, and other VIPs will receive Fiona McArthur’s exquisite chocolates at the film industry’s largest annual event, where each major category nominee will get a box.

Although McArthur, 37, had only just started her little chocolate business in Campbeltown, Western Scotland, it quickly attracted the attention of the firm that puts together the Academy Awards goody bags.

She first believed it to be a fake.

However, she discovered the invitation to assist in filling the gift packets valued at tens of thousands of dollars for the event on March 10 was true after checking the company’s website.

It’s astounding! From her own store, “Fetcha,” she told AFP, “I still find it hard to believe.”

“One of my boxes goes to the best director, best actor, actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress.

“I’m really excited… it’s amazing!” She continued.

Film enthusiast McArthur saw most of the nominated films at her neighborhood art-deco theater, which first debuted in 1913, and took notes in her notebook for future custom boxes.

In the end, she created six distinct vegan chocolates that were modeled by the top movies of this award season.

This image, taken on February 14, 2024, in Fiona McArthur’s workshop in Campbeltown, southwest Scotland, shows the text presentations for the vegan chocolates made in honor of the films “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Holdovers” for the 2024 Academy Award gift bags given to the Oscar nominees. AFP

Chocolates without animal ingredients for “Maestro” (upper left and lower right), “Barbie” (upper left and lower right), “The Holdovers” (upper left and lower left), “Poor Thing” (upper right and lower left), “Killers of the Flower Moon” (upper left and upper right R), and “Oppenheimer” (upper left and bottom right)AFP L-R: Fiona McArthur, proprietor of Fetcha Chocolates, uses white chocolate for “Poor Thing.” She also makes the vegan chocolates for the Oscar candidates’ gift bags for 2024.
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The “Oppenheimer” chocolate is shaped like a ball of fire and was inspired by the drama about the father of the atomic bomb that received 13 Oscar nominations.

The orange and yellow truffle features a hard shell with bursting candy within, which she described as “heating up your tongue when you bite through it.” Her explanation also included a chilli afterburn.

The dark comedy chocolate Based on Portuguese “pastel de nata” egg tarts, which protagonist heroine Bella Baxter feasts on, “Poor Things” is a female “Frankenstein” narrative nominated for eleven prizes.

The chocolate has a custard flavor within and a baked appearance from the cinnamon on top.

A heart-shaped piece of pink chocolate flavored with strawberry and rose is used to symbolize “Barbie”.

However, the hearts are “kind of rough… like her journey through Barbieland into the real world is not a smooth journey, it’s full of angles,” according to McArthur.

She used cocoa butter to make images of musical note bars for the film “Maestro,” which is about the renowned American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.

The chocolates had a salt and pepper inside, and she carefully inscribed them on them to symbolize the “separate… but together” lifestyles of Bernstein and his wife Felicia.

This dessert pays homage to Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” with touches of violet, yellow, and green caramel ganache with dark chocolate.

Last but not least, “The Holdovers” is remade as an ice cream and cherry filling within a dark chocolate shell.

At work, Fiona McArthur AFP
This image was taken on February 14, 2024, in Campbeltown, southwest Scotland, of the vegan chocolates made by chocolatier and Fetcha Chocolates owner Fiona McArthur in honor of the film “Maestro” for the 2024 Academy Award gift bags given to the Oscar nominees.
This image was taken on February 14, 2024, in Campbeltown, southwest Scotland, of the vegan chocolates made by chocolatier and Fetcha Chocolates owner Fiona McArthur in honor of the film “Maestro” for the 2024 Academy Award gift bags given to the Oscar nominees.AFP
“On My Way to Hollywood”

McArthur included a brochure inside each of her boxes detailing the ideas for her confections before sealing them and sending them to Los Angeles via postal service.

Her mother trained her culinary abilities in the modest Campbeltown kitchen; it’s a long way to Tinseltown.

McArthur’s ability to operate a “luxury micro-business” with a focus on sustainability and health awareness may contribute to her attractiveness in Hollywood.

The chocolatier is vegan, as are a number of the contenders, including Emma Stone and Paul Giamatti, it should be emphasized.

She promises to plant trees with each purchase and doesn’t use plastic.

In the meanwhile, she uses organic and fair-trade products “as far as possible” to make her vegan, gluten-free, and alcohol-free Oscar dishes.

“Rice milk powder is used to make the chocolate,” McArthur said.

“And then a lot of the chocolates that I make have ganache on the inside and so I use a water ganache.”

People in Campbeltown are recognizing her from her Oscars performance and stopping her on the street to give her congrats.

So much so that the local demand for the Oscars assortment is no longer being met by her business, where her mother helps her.

A sign in the window says, “We are sorry, the Awards collection is out of stock.”

A little red carpet and a placard that said “Fetcha is going to Hollywood” are also visible in the window.