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Chocolate Tango
by Kelly Rehan
On 11/1/2006
In typical Argentinean tango style, Baruch Schaked and his son, Edgar, have "abrazando" or embraced chocolate, passing along their passion to 35 franchisees as part of the Schakolad Chocolate Factory concept.
A man walks into a chocolate shop. He’s stressed, frantic and in desperate need of urgent assistance. The owner at the counter immediately sees his distress and asks about his problem. The man confesses that he forgot his wife’s birthday and does not have a gift.
The owner quickly gets to work, creating a beautiful chocolate heart box filled with a truffle assortment and wraps it in a beautiful bag. The man, in amazement, takes the bag. However, another problem arises; he does not have any money to pay. The owner tells the man not to worry and come in another day to pay.
Luckily for the man, he walked into Bernie Schaked’s chocolate shop.
“Everyone has a story,” says Baruch “Bernie” Schaked, co-founder of Schakolad Chocolate Factory. And with over 36 years in the chocolate industry, he has many stories.
Bernie discovered his passion for chocolate in 1970 when he joined his father-in-law’s chocolate business, Chocolates Bariloche S.A., in Argentina. The company was going bankrupt and workers were on strike when he began, but he was determined to change things.
“I didn’t know anything about chocolate, but I knew how to manage people and that’s what I did,” he says.
After 15 years with the company, Bernie managed to increase production from 300 workers producing about 1,100 lbs. of chocolate per day to 90 workers producing over 11,000 lbs. a day.
The experience with the company opened Bernie’s eyes to his talent for managing others. But for all his business sense, he still lacked knowledge about chocolate. So he traveled to Brazil to learn about the cocoa bean. He also spent two months at a school in Germany perfecting the art of chocolate-making.
“I really became more technical,” he recalls. “I became very knowledgeable, I learned from the best.”
Bernie returned to his wife and two children, Edgar and Dafne, with a new passion for chocolate.
“Going back to Argentina, I knew so much about chocolate that every question came to me,” he says. “It gave me a good feeling about chocolate and what I could do.”
But his son Edgar’s desire to study in the U.S. prompted the family to relocate to Miami because of its affordable living costs and the city’s reputation as an “entrance door for immigrants.”
Once in Florida, Bernie’s passion for chocolate inspired him to open a small chocolate shop in North Miami Beach. He ran the shop for nearly 9 years before selling it, the intent being to retire.
But Edgar would have other plans in mind.
Growing up in a family of chocolatiers, Edgar placed chocolate onto wrapping machines in his father’s shop. He graduated from college with a mechanical engineering degree, but his true calling was chocolate.
Edgar convinced his father to push off retirement and get back into the chocolate business. In 1995, they formed Schakolad Chocolate Factory, which melds the family name “Schaked” with “chocolate.”
It took Bernie five years to teach Edgar everything he knew about chocolate. In 1999, the father-son team took on the option of franchising. But it was not without its challenges.
First, Bernie struggled with keeping his prized truffle recipes a secret.
Downsizing production also became problematic. During his days in Argentina, Bernie had worked in a large factory, involving large batches and significant volume. Now the business called for mini machines to create small batches that fit right inside the store. On-site production, however, did have its benefits.
Bernie points out that a real ganache keeps no more than 2 to 3 weeks, so making the product on the premises ensures freshness.
“People come in and they know the chocolate’s fresh made today or yesterday or the day before,” Bernie says.
But by far the biggest challenge became taking people from all parts of life, many with little or no understanding of chocolate, and turning them into chocolatiers with a business sense.
“It was a challenge [training the franchisees], but I could do it,” Bernie says. “It was easy for them to understand. They became people who could mix raw materials, even though a few had never even been in a kitchen. But today they call themselves chocolatiers and they’re proud.”
In addition to teaching franchisees how to work with chocolate, Bernie spent equally as much time teaching them how to be business people. He understood the importance of salesmanship, managing employees and landing corporate accounts. But customer service was always the primary benchmark.
Bernie stresses that demographics represent only one aspect of the entrepreneurial equation. Regardless if one starts a business in a town of 5,000 or a city of 500,000, success depends on customer service.
“I don’t look at the area because it’s the person that makes the location,” he says. “I can put you in the best place with the most beautiful decorations and the best product, but if you don’t know customer service, the clients will never come back. And in our business, we want them to come again and again and again.”
To Bernie, customer service means far more than simply assisting the customer with which truffle to buy; it means relating to the customer as a person, not a sale.
“People come to the store to buy chocolate, but they also want a conversation,” he says. “And it’s a lot cheaper to go to Schakolad and to have a nice conversation and to go out with a $30 pound of chocolate than to pay $300 for a psychiatrist. We take care of the clients.”
While many franchisees rarely, if ever, deal with the franchisor, Bernie makes it a point to deal with all potential franchisees personally. He meets with them for an in-person interview and then decides whether to accept them into what he calls the “Schakolad family.”
“This is my family, this is my life,” he says. “I could have more than 100 franchisees, but it’s very selective.”
If the franchise candidate is accepted, Bernie travels to the franchisee to choose a location, a decision that he makes using a “gut feeling that is right 99% of the time.” He personally makes the measurements, the architectural and engineering plans and then hands them off to a local architect to obtain local building permits and approvals.
Franchisees invest between $95,000 and $120,000 into a store, which typically occupies 1,200 to 1,400 sq. ft. Currently, Bernie estimates that approximately 150 employees work in the 35 Schakolad Chocolate Factory franchises, including two in Israel and one in the Bahamas. In 2003, Bernie and Edgar sold their flagship store to franchisees.
Once construction is completed, it takes only two weeks to open the franchise. The first week Bernie furnishes the store and completes the layout. The second week focuses on training the franchisees to make 70 different types of chocolate, fudge, sugar- free truffles and special seasonal varieties, such as the Pumpkin Clove and Ginger Yam truffle for fall.
Bernie teaches the franchisees to produce each chocolate by hand. The popular Italian Amaretto truffle, for instance, involves a long list of steps, but he notes that if the recipe is not followed exactly, the batch must be thrown out.
Bernie makes each batch (280 pieces) of Amaretto truffles by first pouring heavy whipping cream into an unheated pot. After ensuring that all necessary tools and ingredients are at hand, he sets the pot to high heat.
While the heavy cream boils, he weighs 2 lbs. of 72% pure chocolate wafers. Bernie uses this specific chocolate for its pure chocolate flavor because “not everything brown and sweet is chocolate.”
Bernie says he cooks by time, not temperature, ensuring that just the right amount of moisture evaporates so it can be mixed in with the chocolate. After about 15 minutes, he adds heated whipping cream to the chocolate.
“You cannot do this in mass production,” he says. “You need the feel, you need the mixing.”
He then adds pure amaretto, the final ingredient for the ganache, to the chocolate and heavy whipping cream mixture.
Then Bernie spreads the mixture onto a backing tray. To level out the mixture, the tray is lightly tapped on the floor. The ganache then sits for a day to settle in room temperature, as not to shock it.
The next day, the mixture refrigerates for 30 minutes before being cut length and width-wise with a caramel cutter. Using the Hilliard enrober at the front of the store, he uses a fork to hand-dip the amaretto ganache in dark chocolate.
“We make the truffle with such a soft center that you cannot enrobe it on a belt,” Bernie says.
After dipping, the Amaretto truffle finally rests in one of Schakolad’s signature crinkle paper cups and put out for display.
Arguably the most memorable aspect of any Schakolad franchise is the intense chocolate aroma that hits every customer upon arriving. Each store holds a kitchen in the back with enrobers displayed behind the counter in the front of the store, in plain view of visitors.
Behind the enrobers stand two walls of plastic moulds in every shape and size imaginable, from traditional hearts and flowers to motorcycles and mock Oscar Award statues.
In 10 of Schakolad’s newest franchises, coffee and gelato chocolate bars are also offered.
“As you grow, the market demands new things,” Bernie says. “It’s more social, it’s not just chocolate. There’s a variety for everyone.”
One such franchise operates in the close-knit community of Coral Gables, Fla. Bernie franchised the store to a mother-daughter team, Cary Duarte and Jenny Pardo. Pardo, a former elementary school teacher, opened the store in September 2005 with her mother.
In keeping with transitioning social aspects of the store, the franchise holds Gallery Night on the first Friday of the month. A different local artist each month displays his or her work, but Pardo says the popularity has drawn bigger names from other communities. The night also hearkens back to the store’s former days as a gallery, which gives the Coral Gables store its unique marble flooring.
The majority of Coral Gables’ sales come from specialty orders, including weddings, bridal showers and corporation gifts. Duarte displays a chocolate tool set that a hotel orders for guests with maintenance requests. She also mentions a large order of white chocolate sea shells filled with chocolate bowling balls and pins for Norwegian Cruise Line, which will announce the addition of bowling alleys on their ships.
As far as typical sales figures for all of the Schakolad franchises, Bernie estimates that 50% are corporate orders and the other half come from retail and mail order. If an order is received from a city without a Schakolad, the nearest store to the city prepares and sends the order to ensure the highest amount of freshness.
Having worked as a chocolatier in America for more than two decades, Bernie says that he has noticed America’s transitioning tastes. He attributes the European influence in affecting America’s desire to want the best in food and chocolate and emphasizes the ongoing “internationalization” of the American palette.
But one American trend Bernie has not bought into is organic. After traveling to Ecuador to study organic foods, he left with a skeptical view of the concept, believing its use serves only as a marketing tool.
“It’s a beautiful word,” he says. “All I can say is if you believe it, keep the dream alive,”
But whether it is organic, sugar-free, white or dark, Bernie just loves chocolate. He recently shared his expansive knowledge on the subject with the publishing of his book, Viva Chocolate, in 2004. It simply goes without saying that chocolate has made Bernie a very happy person.
“How much money is it worth to do what I do?,” he asks. “The revenue is not the point. My passion is that if I see you eating my chocolate and you enjoy it, then you made my day.”
And that kind of passion makes customers remember Schakolad for something far beyond the chocolate.
Their experience makes them want to return, including the man who forgot his wife’s birthday.
“The next day, he came back and said ‘I cannot describe in words, so I’ll make it short: thank you, thank you, thank you,’” Bernie recalls. “He hugged me, paid and left. He’ll be a client forever.”
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