Chocolate. This could have been my first word.

My mother was a remarkably good cook and baker. I grew up baking with her, mostly delicacies containing chocolate. As an adult, I continued in this noble vocation and baked brownies for Balducci’s, a specialty store in New York City, using my mother’s recipe, of course. In 2004, on my honeymoon in the south of France, I discovered a chocolatier named Joel Durand who created wonderful things with chocolate. My first thought was “why don’t we have chocolate like this in the USA?” My second thought was “I can do this.” Upon my return to the states I began working with chocolate in a whole new way. Thus, here, in the Chelsea district of New York City, Chocolate in Chelsea was born.