SAN FRANCISCO — Some careers stem from a lifelong dream. But one began as 550 pounds of raw chocolate stashed in a garage.
To keep his girlfriend from discovering that a simple errand to get some chocolate for her fledgling pastry business had somehow turned into a truckload, Joseph Schmidt decided to melt the evidence and turn it into candy when she wasn't looking — even though he didn't know anything about chocolate candies.
As his luck would have it, the chocolates became a culinary success. His girlfriend forgave him, gave up her petits fours, and joined him in starting a new American confection company soon made famous by its signature egg-shaped, hard-shell chocolates with creamy-flavored centers.
The candy is known in the industry as "The American Truffle," and it's Schmidt's creation.
And that, in a truffle shell, is how a botched errand became a $20 million business.
This year, the private company in San Francisco will sell about 20 million truffles at major department stores and gourmet food shops across the country, as well as in England and Japan. Schmidt runs the chocolate factory with 150 employees, and Audrey Ryan runs the sole retail store.
The candy business is especially busy this time of year. Chocolatiers sell more during the Christmas season than every other holiday combined. It's become almost a tradition for folks in the days before Christmas to line up outside the Joseph Schmidt store to buy chocolates.
This year, the Christmas season is especially important. It was 20 years ago this month when Schmidt and Ryan moved their part-time business out of their home kitchen and opened the shop in the Castro, officially launching Joseph Schmidt Confections.
"What tastes good to you, to your tongue, that's the best," says Schmidt. "But nobody makes chocolate as pretty as we do. We have beautiful chocolates, if I may say so. Our chocolate is sexy."
Schmidt is known not only for his truffles but also for his designs. Tulips. Santas. Skyscrapers. Even full-sized human bodies. To Schmidt, it is art. Edible art.
Schmidt's chocolate creations have been displayed at the American Crafts Museum. His chocolate flowers have been showcased at the Macy's Flower Show. One of his earliest claims to fame was the 3-by-2-foot chocolate cable car he made for the St. Francis Hotel during the 1980s visit of Queen Elizabeth II. His chocolates have also been given as state gifts to Mikhail Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela.
"He's an artist," says John Scharffenberger, president of the chocolate company that bears his name. "Joe is one of the people who embodies how good chocolate makes you feel."
He may be white-haired and 64, but Schmidt still charges around his gleaming factory in the Mission district like it's his first day. When he's not grinning, he's about to grin. He says repeatedly that he's the luckiest man in the world and that he loves his job, and you believe him.
As he strides around to make sure everything is as it should be, he nibbles on truffles he nabs from trays. "Quality control," he says with a grin.
As for the questions asked most often of Schmidt, here are the answers: Grand Marnier is his favorite truffle. His truffles are molded out of eggs, thanks to the only mold he could find at the time: the plastic Easter eggs at Walgreens.
As for when he plans to retire, the answer is perhaps in five years — if then. He's in no rush.
"I have the best life possible," said Schmidt in a rare serious moment. "When I come back, I want to be me."