La Chocolatería opened its doors to the city of Berkeley on Feb. 23, revealing a project that has been seven years in the making. Walking into the small shop located on Ashby, just a few blocks from the nearest BART stop, is a shock to the palate, with chocolates mixed with chili, raw cacao beans and sweets appearing wherever you turn, and with the awareness that these ingredients are all native to Latin America.
In the past years Arcelia Gallardo has been dutifully crafting the kind of chocolate that will not only entice the senses, but also teach about the Latin American roots of the cacao bean and other native ingredients.
“The education aspect is very important,” she said. “We want to teach people about the roots of chocolate through food. Seven years ago when I first had exposure to the food industry I saw that the story of chocolate was being told wrong and I thought, ‘that’s the story I want to tell.’”
Gallardo has been selling chocolates online during the day and working catering jobs at night. Now, after coming together with her business partner Amelia Gonzalez, she has been able to condense all of her pastry chef and culinary educator experience into one place.
Gallardo, who is also the manager of the multi-ethnic house, Casa Joaquín Murieta in Berkeley, which helps first generation and low-income minority students with networking and resources, is looking to empower Latinos and celebrate culture through her project.
With catering, she said, there is no direct experience with the customer and opening a store was an opportunity to engage with people in a more direct way.
Chocolate figures from Mesoamerica and pre-Colombian society—la Virgen de Guadalupe made in white chocolate, ancient Mesoamerican sculptures in dark chocolate and others—adorn the surfaces and walls in the shop.
In order to perfect her craft, Gallardo studied at the Le Cordon Bleu Pasadena, Notter School for Pastry Arts and traveled throughout the European countries best known for their chocolate making to learn about techniques.
“In order to be able to compete in the chocolate business I had to learn the techniques that were European like bonbon making,” she said as volunteers from Casa Joaquín passed a tray of bonbons—chocolates filled with caramel and made with Brazilian sea salt.
She only works with dark chocolate because she says it’s healthier. Chile Mango chocolate bars, Aztec cheesecake and Mestizo cheesecake, were other additions to the menu of delicate sweets.
“I also went to Belize in May and there I saw how they pick the cacao, roast it and do the whole process and we did it ourselves here,” she said, adding that the dairy they use is local and organic and eventually, the shop aims to use more ingredients that benefit small-scale producers in Latin America.