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BANNER February 4, 2016
Serving Taylor, old Forge, MooSic & Surrounding areaS
The Sweet Life
ON THE INSIDE
Riverside grad is an award-winning chocolatier
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thetriborobanner.com
by Cathleen Lathrop
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBORO BANNER
Students at Riverside School District were in for a sweet lesson when award-winning chocolatier Adam Turoni stopped by last week. The 2007 Riverside graduate returned to his alma mater to talk about his culinary experiences and his nontraditional post-secondary education. He also gave a live demonstration on preparing the truffles that he is famous for. “When you walk into kindergarten at the Riverside School District, or any school district for that matter, we ask you to follow your dreams and dream big. This is for sure somebody who took that advice,” said Paul Brennan, superintendent at the Riverside School District, as he introduced Turoni. Turoni always enjoyed baking with his grandmother when he was younger, but by attending Career Technology classes he was introduced to the variety of jobs offered in the culinary world and found his love of chocolate making. “A four-year degree is incredible, but it wasn’t necessarily for me. There are other avenues you could go,” Turoni said. He began working in a kitchen at the age of 14 and was the head pastry chef at Isabella’s restaurant at 17. He then graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in New York in 2009. Turoni founded his company, Chocolat by Adam Turoni, in 2010 when he was just 20. Now, he has two chocolate shops in Savannah, each designed to feel like a different room in a house. The first shop that was opened, The Dining Room, allows customers to personally select their chocolates and place them on a silver platter. The second shop, The Library, gives customers a card catalog wooden box that serves as their truffle tray while they select chocolates from bookcases. When Turoni first opened his company, he was the only chocolatier in Savannah. To create a welcoming experience for customers, especially if they had never been to a chocolatier before, he decided the kitchen would be visually open. This way, customers could watch Turoni and his staff make chocolates and treats from scratch.
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Adam Turoni now has two shops and is famous for his truffles.
“I thought that was a way that someone could understand the process that goes into all of it. I thought of having an open kitchen so customers could see that all the time it was being made,” Turoni said. The open kitchen also gives him the opportunity to talk to any of his customers who have a question or comment about the flavors or chocolates, which he said he enjoys. It takes Turoni about two months to develop a new chocolate creation, but the hard work pays off with recognition. One of Turoni’s signature creations, The Honeycomb Chocolate Bar, won a food award by Southern Living Magazine. In January 2016, he was named one of the Top 10 Chocolatiers in North America by Dessert Professional magazine. Typically Turoni and his staff make about 1,000 truffles at a time, but he said with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, their production is increased to rolling by hand at least 2,000 truffles. Despite the high numbers, each truffle is expected to look as precise as the first. “I like to think of it as a favorite dessert scaled
down to an inch, and it’s our job to make it look like that,” Turoni said. Students were invited to try Turoni’s crème brulee and chocolate meltaway truffles. During the presentation, Turoni asked Jessica Kane, Riverside senior, to assist him by finishing plating the chocolate truffles. Kane is also interested in pursuing a culinary career in the future and enjoyed learning about Turoni’s experience. “I thought it was amazing. He got me involved, which I didn’t expect. He also showed us that if you come from a small town, you can still go on to be something bigger than you ever imagined,” Kane said. Turoni told students not to focus on fame or money when it came to doing what they want to do with their lives, but instead on what they enjoy. “How you become successful is by doing what you love. The rest will come, eventually,” said Turoni. He was right. For more information about Chocolate by Adam, visit chocolatat.com.