The Sultan of Sweet

An artist gifted in the sweet and savory nuances of crafting edible masterpieces, Brian Pelletier has found his true calling: chocolate. And although many couldn’t imagine trading a 20-year career in business marketing for a start-up chocolate company, Brian wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I haven’t once thought that I made the wrong decision,” he admits, adding, “I have the best job in the world.”

But he didn’t always dream of chocolate; it had to find him first.

“The chocolate business fell into my lap,” he says, reminiscing on a night three years ago when, at a dinner party, a friend asked if he was interested in purchasing her chocolate-making equipment. And that’s where the story of Kakao begins.

“I knew that I wanted to make something with my hands, and I love to cook,” says Brian of his then-pending career change. “In my mind, it has to do with being open enough to try something completely different.”

And different it is. The chocolate Brian and his dedicated team create is all-natural and made by hand, using only the highest quality ingredients, many of them organic and local. According to Brian, that’s what sets his creations apart. “It’s really good chocolate, so you don’t need a lot of it,” he explains. “Using local ingredients makes it that much better.”

After studying his process for only an hour, it’s plain to see that there’s more to his chocolate than meets the eye. In addition to the fascinating and, at times, offbeat palette of ingredients — including lavender, white and black pepper and even bacon — that find their way into Kakao’s creations, there is also deep dedication and an artistic appreciation for the end result.

“So much of this is an art,” says Brian. “So much of it is experimenting and trying new things, like putting basil or beer in chocolate.”

With the Fox Park and Maplewood locations as his studios and a pure, rich blend of Swiss, Belgian and American chocolate as his canvas, Brian and his talented team are free to concoct any chocolaty creation or sweet confection imaginable.

Like most mixed media artists who paint or sculpt their artistic creations, Brian combines intriguingly simple, natural ingredients to create a larger, more complex experience. It’s this fresh philosophy that keeps customers coming back to Kakao’s two locations week after week, and it’s his customers’ wide-eyed smiles and exclamations of amazement that keep Brian in the kitchen day after day.

“When you love what you do, it isn’t working. And when you really love what you do, you’re always working,” he says. “It’s great because I get to make people happy all day long.”

RESOURCES:
Brian Pelletier, owner/chief chocolatier, www.kakaochocolate.com