- Max Brenner
-
Max Brenner store in Parramatta, New South Wales
Max Brenner is an Israeli chocolate shop chain. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Strauss Group, Israel’s second-largest food and beverage company.[1] Max Brenner chocolates are marketed as "Chocolate by the Bald Man."[2]
Contents
History
Max Brenner was founded in 1996 in Ra'anana, Israel, by Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner who combined their names.[3] The business began as a small shop selling handmade chocolates.[4] Oded Brenner had spent six years learning the art of chocolate-making in Paris. By 1999, Fichtman and Brenner had opened ten chocolate shops.[5] In 2001, the company became a part of Strauss Group.[6]
Max Brenner operates chocolate boutiques in Israel, Australia, Philippines, Singapore and the United States.[7] In 2010, a new Max Brenner restaurant and chocolate store opened at Ceasar's Palace, Las Vegas.[8] In 2011, another branch opened in Boston.[9]
According to the founders of Max Brenner, "chocolate is not just about taste. It’s a symbol of different aspects in our lives - of romance, of sensuality, of decadence. These aspects actually create the new chocolate culture of Max Brenner."[10] In 2009, Max Fichtman explained the philosophy behind his chocolate enterprise: "Chocolate to me is European so the restaurant is part Parisian cafe. Then I added some 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. I added spices from all over the world that we use to create our chocolates. And then part of it is like a lab - like a drugstore."[11]
Max Brenner chocolates are certified kosher by the Nazareth Rabbinate.[12]
Menu
Max Brenner restaurants offer a vast array of chocolate-based dishes, but no chocolate based entreés. The chocolate menu includes chocolate waffles and crepes, fondues, ice creams, hot chocolate drinks, smoothies and chocolate martinis.[13] Max Brenner's chocolate pizza was featured in a February 2011 segment of Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate/Pizza.[14]
Support for IDF
The Strauss Group's support for the Golani reconnaissance platoon[15] (part of the Israel Defense Forces) has made Max Brenner stores a target of the international Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Activist group, Students for Palestine have organized a series of protests in 2011 outside Max Brenner outlets in Australia, including one in Melbourne where there were 19 arrests.[16][17][18]
The protests have drawn condemnation from Australian Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who remarked “I don't think in 21st-century Australia there is a place for the attempted boycott of a Jewish business.”[19] In September 2011, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that "the protesters had not broken federal competition law because the protests did not cause substantial loss or damage to the Max Brenner chocolate stores."[20] Some pro-Palestinian organizations including Australians for Palestine have distanced themselves from the protests but have publicly defended the choice of Max Brenner as a boycott target.[21][22][23] In October 2011, Izzat Abdulhadi, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia said that he is against the "full-scale" BDS campaign, and in particular expressed his anger over the occasionally violent protests at the Max Brenner stores, saying, "BDS is a non-violent process and I don't think it's the right of anybody to use BDS as a violent action or to prevent people from buying from any place."[24]
References
- ^ "Strauss Group". Dun & Bradstreet Israel Ltd.. 2010. http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ts.cgi?tsscript=comp_eng&duns=600008874. Retrieved 2011-08-11.
- ^ You Can Almost Eat the Dishes
- ^ Milking It
- ^ Chocolate pinnacle: Max Brenner's new place takes the treat to a new tier
- ^ Trinity Completes Construction of Chocolate-Themed Restaurant
- ^ "Max Brenner: About Us". http://www.maxbrenner.com/about.html. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
- ^ "Max Brenner: Branches". http://www.maxbrenner.com/branches.html. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
- ^ "Max Brenner to open large new Las Vegas store". Yedioth Ahronoth. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851606,00.html. Retrieved 201-10-26.
- ^ Max Brenner International Inc., Bloomberg Business Week
- ^ Life is Sweet at Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man
- ^ Chocolate pinnacle: Max Brenner's new place takes the treat to a new tier
- ^ Questions about kosher chocolate
- ^ Max Brenner International Inc., Bloomberg Business Week
- ^ Food Network
- ^ Friedman, Ron (14 December 2010). "Strauss reposts IDF-support commitment on website". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=199315. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
- ^ "New information fact sheet about the Max Brenner campaign". Fact Sheets. Students for Palestine. http://www.studentsforpalestine.org/?p=320. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ McGregor, Ken (22 August 2011). "Boycott boiling point". Adelaide Advertiser. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/boycott-boiling-point/story-e6frea6u-1226119966357. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
- ^ Brull, Michael. "The campaign against the Max Brenner protesters". The Drum. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2847334.html. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
- ^ "Australian lawmakers support Israeli business". JTA. http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/07/14/3088546/australian-lawmakers-support-israeli-business. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
- ^ Max Brenner demonstrators did not break law, Aussie panel finds
- ^ Flitton, Daniel (11 July 2011). "Citizen Rudd's sweet support for cafe". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/national/citizen-rudds-sweet-support-for-cafe-20110714-1hg3l.html. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Sabawi, Samah (16 August 2011). "Murdoch Press and the Fictional Jewish Chocolatier". The Palestine Chronicle. http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17063. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ "Press Council adjudication No 1513". The Australian. 14 November 2011. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/press-council-adjudication-no-1513/story-e6frg996-1226194036536. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ Palestinian consul rejects BDS violence
External links
Categories:- Food companies of Israel
- Israeli brands
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
