Lessons from the World's Best Chocolate

Chocolate has a way of turning a terrible day into quite a good day from my personal experience, whether it’s in the form of ice cream, cake, or a candy bar—or a combination of all of the above. However, recently it’s come to my attention that I haven’t had the “world’s best chocolate,” although I’ve had its derivative, Nutella.

Hailing from Turin, a city in Piedmont, Italy (which is home for most other “renowned Italian artisan chocolate,” gianduiotto chocolate is considered to be like no other. The origins of this type of chocolate has a story that’s intriguing and inspiring to chocolate lovers and yes, the haters a like. Believed to be named after a carnival peasant figure, Gianduja, this chocolate rose from being a cheap substitute to being revered as the “King of Italian chocolate.”

After Napoleon’s ban on imported goods from Britain to northern Italy during the French Revolution of the late 1700s, cocoa beans were scare in Turin. As a result, the pastry makers had to come up with a substitute for their dwindling supplies of cocoa. They decided to utilize the many hazelnuts that grew around them, an affordable substitute. They mixed the hazelnuts with sugar and the limited supply of cocoa they had on hand prior. The result-- a “creamy” and “rich” paste that was enjoyed by the locals.

This paste was turned into a small, delectable tiles of chocolate by the “gianduiere,” the special title of the women who meticulously crafted these pastries. First, they would batter the chocolate, then knead it as if they were making pizza crust, roll it, and then cut it into perfect small pieces. All of this had to be done in hasty precision before the paste hardened. In the words of the owner of the last standing artisan shop in Italy that still handcrafts this chocolate today, making gianduiotto “requires a lot of passion, patience and precision,” which comes as no surprise. However, despite the amount of work, one worker named Ambra said, “I’m filled with joy after a hard day’s work… In finally see how perfect and beautiful they look, and how I’m constantly improving.”

From this tale, I not only found a new chocolate I want to try, but I also learned a number of lessons.

1. Make the best out of what you have.

The pastry makers did not give up when they ran out of supplies. Instead, they found a way to still make chocolate by using what they had available. Likewise, we should look to find ways to come up with solutions when they might not seem apparent.

2. Nothing good comes easy.

The process involved in making this chocolate is by no means an easy one. Because of the intensity of labor, there are only a handful of gianduiere today who still make it by hand. In order to get where we want in life, we have to be willing to be patient and persevere, even when others around us might give up, and in the end, we will have a reward that will be worth all of the hard work.

3. Never underestimate your value.

Most of us think that cocoa is the main thing needed for good chocolate—not hazelnuts. However, the pastry makers saw the potential in the cheap, commonplace hazelnuts. In the same way, Jesus sees potential in us. While we may think of ourselves as less than, or not good enough—he thinks we are enough. Like the parable of the feast, when the esteemed and revered people were “unavailable’ just as the cocoa beans were, Jesus called on the commoners to join him. He sees our value when other’s might not recognize it. At one point, hazelnuts were cheap, but now they cost much more. Just the same, we are worth so much more than some would have us think.

However, the process of refinement into the destiny God has for us is not going to be comfortable. We might find ourselves battered by different challenges of life, but His loving hands carefully craft and shape us carefully into the masterpieces that he sees in us.