Robert Steinberg once came to Flour and gave a lecture/demo on tempering chocolate. It was very informative, but don't ask me to explain it to you. Still can't do it.
From the SF Chronicle:
Scharffen Berger, Schmidt plants to be closed
(01-27) 18:28 PST -- The Hershey Co. said Tuesday it plans to close Scharffen Berger's West Berkeley manufacturing plant as well as the San Francisco factory that makes Joseph Schmidt chocolates and consolidate production at other facilities.
Hershey, which in 2005 bought both Scharffen Berger, which specializes in premium dark chocolates, and trufflemaker Joseph Schmidt, will continue to produce those brands, but the chocolates will no longer be locally made.
Scharffen Berger was founded in 1996 by Robert Steinberg, a family-practice physician in San Francisco and Ukiah, along with a former patient, winemaker John Scharffenberger.
The pair experimented in Steinberg's kitchen, using everything from a mortar and pestle to a hair dryer to create their chocolate. Production started in a South San Francisco plant but was moved to the larger, 27,000-square-foot Berkeley factory in 2001.
"It was home grown. They really changed the way people regarded chocolate in this country," said Deborah Kwan, a public relations consultant for the company from the time it opened until 2003.
Steinberg died in September after a long battle with lymphoma. "I'm glad Robert is not alive to see this," Kwan said. "If the lymphoma hadn't taken him, this would have."
1 comment:
ah the corporatization.....
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