Shanour has been with WOW since the bare beginnings. In his workshop on the ground floor, the patissier creates the best chocolates, petit fours and his triumph: the Glow Bar. It is, like all products from this kitchen, raw – made with unheated ingredients and thus healthier, but, most importantly, tastier. ‘’Chocolate from the supermarket is like a placebo, it doesn’t offer any happiness, that idea is a farce’’, says Shanour. The cacao comes from plants in South America, the hazelnuts from Bulgaria, the honey from the Netherlands. The bars are unprocessed and mostly made with organic ingredients. ‘’Antioxidants are preserved when you don’t roast.’’

Pushing boundaries

Working together with artists within WOW is the chief reason to prepare, develop and experiment with new tastes: ‘’What I do is art, too. It is a way of working in which you have to be able to push boundaries and are not afraid to make mistakes. Here I can do those things.’’ Indeed, Shanour cooperates with WOW’s very own Plantage, an urban farming initiative. ‘’The possibilities in terms of farming your own ingredients are very interesting.’’

No more hot air

The Glow Bar will be sold on the MAF market. ‘’I love talking to people about making my food and about the raw food movement in general.’’ In this movement cooked and processed foods are taboo – raw ingredients retain taste and nutrients. Shanour originally worked in mainstream establishments and has some prestigious kitchens to his name, but he left it all behind. ‘’Hot air was too often on the menu.’’ Shanour’s ethics as a producer takes into equal account quality and health; he wants to show people things can be done differently. ‘’At the MAF market, I’d like to make people taste the difference. Those intense flavours speak for themselves. The alternative is at least as good as the existing recipe.’’

Shanour Moens runs Glow Superfoods (www.glowsuperfoods.com) and sells his products across town. On 30 May he occupies a stall on the MAF market (Facebook)