A guest asked me the other day what got me interested in chocolates in the first place. It was something that I hadn't given much thought....I've always liked chocolate...well, almost always.
When I was little I wasn't allowed to have chocolate because of my myriad of food allergies and asthma. My parents were told it would make my breathing worse, so...no chocolates for me. Halloween wasn't exactly my favorite day of the year... I had to swamp with my siblings for their candy that wasn't chocolate based. And, I can tell you our society is decided chocolate obsessed when it comes to candy.
As I grew older, I started to eat chocolate with no apparent effects to my health. So the forbidden fruit was forbidden no more. And, as with most banned or forbidden objects I craved chocolate all the more. And my love grew.
In college I acquired a job, and with it more taste for chocolate, and better chocolates. I'd make special trips out the Godiva shop, trying new and different items. I liked it all. And I figured I could do it too. So I tried to make a few things.... simple hand-rolled truffles that I'd then dip in melted chocolate. At the time I didn't know too much about what I was doing. I was able to get the filling right, but the chocolate shells eluded me. I didn't know that you could use hollow shells or precoating, or tempered chocolate. That was years away. But they tasted really good, and a colleague once offered to get financial backing for me if I were to open a chocolate shop. The seed was then planted.
