Past Newsletters
Vol. 6 No. 2

Joseph Schmidt’s Signature Truffles

Listen to Joseph Schmidt talk about his chocolate, and you’ll hear that he can’t help but say with pride, “It’s what I was born to do”. About 20 years ago, he started experimenting with chocolate in his kitchen, and today? Well, today his factory in San Francisco’s Mission District produces over 200,000 chocolate Easter bunnies and 10 million chocolate truffles a year! Let’s now take a closer look at the history of these acclaimed creations, shall we?

The “American” Truffle

Audrey Ryan and Joseph Schmidt had comfortable positions as pastry chefs, earning their keep with jobs they enjoyed. However, they both felt a need to do more, namely, to go in to business for themselves and deliver their own specialty products to the world. They wanted to bake European-style pastries like petit fours that were hard to find in the U.S. and sell them to local gourmet shops. In 1983 they left their pastry chef jobs to start a “cottage” business in their home kitchen. To round out their selection of international, custom made, delicacy-styled pastries, they added a delicious line of Belgian chocolate truffles.

Uniquely striking, their chocolate creations took off within two months and they were busier than they had ever imagined. While it was pastries that originally fueled their creative passions to create gustatory delights, their baked goods were soon dropped from production entirely and their chocolate products, which were originally added as an afterthought to supplement their pastry lines, took center stage. Interestingly, it was Audrey was who had received formal training in chocolatiering, but it was actually Schmidt who fell in love with the medium. Although Joseph was trained as a baker and not as a maitre chocolate, he soon realized that his special talent was in chocolate sculpting and the development of innovative new techniques for which he is now world renowned. We at In Pursuit of Chocolate are thrilled to bring you one of his most famous creations—his much sought after signature truffles.

Rising to fame as meteorically as he has, Joseph Schmidt is clearly a maverick within an industry known for adhering to centuries old chocolate traditions. Being unfamiliar with traditional chocolate making procedures and conventions, he honed his talent by experimenting freely. As Schmidt puts it, “In Europe, everyone learns from a master and follows it like a bible, but by not having any formal training, I didn’t see any restrictions over what I could do.” This freedom, matched by his creative spirit and sculpting talents, has indeed made him one of the most beloved artisan chocolate makers—not only in the United States, but the world over.

The Appeal Is as Much in the Presentation as It Is in the Pleasing of the Palate!

Essential to the Joseph Schmidt line has been his partner Audrey Ryan. Let us not underestimate her influence in this mix of innovation and reputation. Chocolates are, let’s face it, a designer delight. The finest chocolate treats of the ages are typically presented in packaging that is just as aesthetically pleasing as the treats inside are palatably pleasant. Your lovely box of truffles is from Joseph’s acclaimed designer collection, and comes in a box designed by Audrey Ryan. Her attractive box designs are works of art in themselves, so attractive that upmarket department stores such as Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus routinely display them on their shelves. The chic box of designer truffles you now have at your disposal includes the following sinfully delicious flavors in milk chocolate:

• Bailey’s Irish Cream
• Cappuccino
• Champagne
• All Milk Chocolate
• Black and White (dark and white chocolate, the best of both worlds!)
• Double Latte
• Espresso Supreme
• Grand Marnier
• Amaretto
• Peanut Butter Praline
• Raspberry Brandy
• Venetian Cream

Now the final touch in our carefully selected Valentine’s Day shipment… As if this remarkable pound (that’s right, we said a full pound) of mouthwatering chocolate wasn’t enough, we’re going the extra distance in true romantic spirit by bringing you an added treat—two 2.5 oz. Belgian Chocolate Bars—one made of legendary Belgian dark chocolate ensconcing a lemony truffle interior, and the other created from sweet and sultry Belgian white chocolate surrounding a pistachio truffle center. Never before have we shipped this much chocolate in one month! What can we say? Valentine’s Day just puts us in the mood. It’s like our Christmas!

Schmidt’s Achievements

In Addition to earning the reputation as the “Rodin of Chocolate” and achieving local celebrity status, Joseph has received many awards and numerous acknowledgments within the industry.

• 1992 Awarded the Antonin Careme Medal from the Western Chefs Association
• 1993 Distinguished Visiting Chef at Johnson & Wales University
• 1993 Honored with membership in the Honorable Order of the Golden Torque
• 1993 Honored with membership of the Chaine Des Rotisseurs
• 1994 Honored by the California State Senate with a Certificate of Recognition
• June 5, 1994 Designated as Joseph Schmidt Day in California
• 1996 Honorary Degree from Johnson & Wales University on May 05, 1996, Doctor of Culinary Arts, Honoris Causa

Special commissions have included...

• Eiffel Tower for the French Ambassador
• A 25 pound cable car for the Queen of England
• White dove for Nelson Mandela
• Giant panda for Prince Philip and the World Wildlife Organization
• Chocolate California state bear for a banquet hosted by then-Governor Pete Wilson
• An anniversary present for President Reagan commissioned by Nancy Reagan
• Gift for Mikhail Gorbachev
• Chocolate pandas for Mayor Feinstein’s trip to China

Lavishly decadent, his largest creation to date was crafted in 1992 when he designed a Christmas exhibit entitled the “Chocolate Celebration,” filling 14,000 feet in the lobby of One Market Plaza, San Francisco. The project consisted of 14 different themes using 10,000 lbs. of chocolate! Included in the exhibit was a full-sized chocolate table with a Christmas feast, a skillfully decorated 3-1/2 foot chocolate tree, a Victorian side table complete with top hat, gloves and cane (all in chocolate), a Dresden toy chest overflowing with toy sculptures, an alpine village, and a 12 foot high pear tree. Joseph completed the massive display in less than three months!

Of course, despite the scale of such a masterpiece, it was not, in fact, his most expensive endeavor. His costliest work was a $12,000 Easter extravaganza of 2,000 eggs, dozens of tulips and crocuses all sculpted for an extravagant landscape garden show held in his home city of San Francisco.

Venerated as he is, it’s no surprise that photographs of Schmidt’s work have adorned the cover of Manufacturing Confectioner eight times. His work has also been covered in numerous newspapers and magazines including the Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, San Diego Sun Times, San Francisco Examiner, Toronto Star, Japanese magazines Pronto and Axis, German travel magazines, and the Italian Confectioner to name but a few.

Even CNN has covered him five times internationally, and every month there is a local comment or profile on network programming that reaches large audiences. There’s certainly no denying the name he’s made for himself! Upon sampling the truffles we’ve sent you this month, we’re certain you’ll understand how his creations have enabled him to become so successful.
“ It’s what I was born to do”

Youthful creativity drove his early experiments with chocolate bowls, giving him the opportunity to discover the malleable qualities of chocolate. “Chocolate is the most fun material in the food industries,” he says. “It gets soft quickly, you play with it, and in a few minutes, it’s hard as a rock.” As you may know yourself if you’ve ever cooked with chocolate, it can be a wonderful or maddening experience. Heating it a bit too long or allowing it to cool just a degree too much and you’re left with anything from a soupy mess to a rock hard mass that seems to have a tensile strength approaching that of concrete! Practice makes perfect, and with all the hours he’s logged working with chocolate, Joseph Schmidt is about as perfect a chocolatier as they come.

Overly imaginative some may say, Joseph dreams up methods of taming and sculpting chocolate that many in the field had originally scoffed at. Like a kid turned loose in a chocolate factory, Schmidt lets his imagination soar while working with his favorite medium. He demonstrates his true artistry through the amazing detail in all his creations, be it a batch of his truffles or an acutely sculpted masterwork. His inspiration has catapulted his name into many a household and his work into previously unseen horizons of the chocolate world.

Undoubtedly, and we’ll be the first to admit this, these truffles are a bit unconventional given their large size. Joseph says when people first see his rather large truffles, they frequently comment that they’re too large, but after one bite they find them so delicious that they usually ask for a few more. And on occasions where someone comments that the chocolates are too beautiful to eat, Joseph responds: “Don’t be afraid, enjoy!” To that we will say only that there’s plenty more where that came from, as Joseph expects to continue showcasing his talents for some time to come.

Just In Time

We thought that all chocolate aficionados would want to be aware of just how Valentine’s Day came about. Of course there are multiple versions of this story—here’s ours…

In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno, known to Romans as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. Ancient Roman culture dictated that young boys and girls should grow up strictly separated. Nevertheless on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man later drew a name from the jar, with the young lady he chose being his partner for the duration of the festival. No doubt that mysterious power, fate, dictated the match. Sometimes the pairing lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Why does there always have to be a bad guy in every story? Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, Rome was involved in many bloody and detested campaigns. Claudius the Cruel, as he was known, was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military campaigns which he imagined would solidify his historical legacy. He believed the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families (he was probably right). As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome—what a Grinch!

As the story goes, during the reign of Claudius the Cruel, two priests named Valentine and Marius were aiding the Christian martyrs and secretly marring couples. And for these kind deeds, which were so wrongfully outlawed, Father Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who then condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs, and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, in the year 270 AD.

Now remember, that at that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate the Feast of Lupercalia in honor of a Heathen God. The priests of the early Christian Church in Rome were making every effort to do away with all pagan elements in this feast, and any other pagan feasts as well. One of their strategies was to substitute the names of Saints for those of goddesses. According to Legend, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it, “From Your Valentine.”

Christian priests lobbied to rename the Feast of Lupercalia “Saint Valentine’s Day”, since Lupercalia began the day after Father Valentine’s martyrdom. The Christian priests chose his name to celebrate the love that Saint Valentine demonstrated for many others by his noble actions. And in 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius formally set aside February 14th to honor St. Valentine.

What’s Chocolate Got To Do With It?

Valentine’s Day is a winter celebration of love, named for Father Valentine who died a martyr’s death years and years ago. So where’s the connection with Valentine’s Day and chocolate? Father Valentine died long before chocolate was even known about in all but Aztec cultures. FYI: The Aztec King Montezuma drank liquid chocolate all day to enhance his libido.

The beginnings of our modern Valentine’s Day, most likely, were in the Middle Ages in England and France, when it was believed that in the second week of the second month, birds began their mating calls.

In the early days The French thought chocolate was a “barbarous and noxious drug,” until the French Court embraced it after the Paris faculty of medicine approved it as a beneficial potion. Pope Pius V considered cocoa liquid so vile tasting that he decreed the drinking of it would not break the communion fast--back then, most chocolate was consumed, and appreciated, in liquid form.

Even if the historical connection between Valentines Day and chocolate cannot be unearthed, it is as sure as the sun sets that the aphrodisiac qualities of this dark, light, bitter, sweet treat will always drum up the heady, high sensations of being in love. What better confection to give on the day that pays homage to Love? Happy Valentine’s Day!