Today’s protagonist is Cecilia Tessieri—an entrepreneur and chocolate creator. The presenter began by asking her some questions regarding the origin of her passion for the world of cocoa and chocolate, with her response being that it all began after university, by studying historic books on the processing of cocoa beans and their transformation into real chocolate bars. Moreover, thanks to travels to various parts of the world, she has learned the various techniques for processing the bean. Ms Tessieri also says that, throughout the course of her career, she has been subject to discrimination on various occasions from her business rivals, merely because she is a woman and not considered as an equal in this profession.
Chocolate is like a son to me.
Cecilia Tessieri, chocolate creator
Her company was founded in 1990, with the brand deriving from the surname of her maternal grandmother. Setting out with simple family projects, each and every cocoa bean was inspected in expanding the business.
The audience took part in tastings of delicious handmade products, starting with the “Toscano Brown”, a concentrate of milk chocolate, characterised by a strong milk taste with a slight sweet note. The tasting continued with the “Toscano Black”, defined by Cecilia as “my first child”, a pure 70% dark chocolate that has won several awards and is often used in the patisseries of the most starred chefs, and concluding a fusion of 9 different types of cocoa, recipient of the “London Chocolate Academy” award for 2 consecutive years. The chocolate creator Cecilia accompanied the tasting with a story that explained the creation of her recipes, which she rigorously invented on her own.
The protagonist then dedicated time to answering questions from the audience, saying in particular that chocolate treated naturally is good for one’s health but in moderate quantities and that it does not have a set expiry but is preferably consumed within 18 months, otherwise it tends to dry out. Finally, she specified that the quality of a bar of chocolate is assessed by the crunch it has when bitten into.
How to best taste the chocolate according to Cecilia: let it melt in your mouth and think only of positive things, letting yourself be carried away by the unique and inimitable taste.