CHOCOLATE MAKER & CHOCOLATIER

JOB DESCRIPTION

Calling all chocolate lovers!!! Imagine your life’s work as a chocolate maker, does it get any sweeter than that?

A chocolate maker is a person who transforms raw cocoa beans into palatable chocolate nibs, bars or bricks. A chocolatier is a person who turns pre-made chocolate bits into delightful creations, like chocolate bars, truffles, and candies. Chocolate is made in industrial manufacturing facilities and is an ingredient in many different products, like cereal, ice cream, beverages, all types of desserts, etc.

A chocolatier is responsible for creating and testing recipes, fashioning the shape and size of products, and selecting the perfect ingredients. With your culinary background, you’ll work to craft new and exciting flavour combinations and recreate unique spins on classic recipes. A chocolatier most commonly works in small to medium-sized businesses, serving local customer bases with specialty chocolates, however, larger organizations also have master chocolatiers and product development chefs to design their product lines and scale into mass production.

One thing is for certain, chocolate is savored internationally, so you can take your passion and skillset across the globe and still be successful! This is a career path with endless possibilities.

THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Chocolate manufacturers come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on the size of your company, you may be making several different products per day, or you may be focusing on one product or production line per shift. As you would expect, the temperature of the facility can range from warm to very hot in some areas.

As a chocolate maker or chocolatier you’ll be moving around a lot, walking the floor, standing for long periods of time with shifts usually 8-10 hours in length. You’ll need to be able to lift upwards of 60lbs and be capable of bending, climbing, bending, kneeling, reaching, squatting, reaching, pulling and pushing. Employers often state the importance of having full use of your hands, arms and legs and being able to perform repetitive motions.

As with any manufacturing or culinary setting, there are machines and equipment that make loud sounds when operating and beeping. You’ll wear PPE as prescribed by your employer for the work setting you are in, this could include hair/ beard nets, gloves, lab coats, steel toe shoes, sometimes protective goggles, heat-resistant gloves and other forms of protection.

In smaller operations, you may have more opportunities to work on a greater number of recipes, adding your own creative flair. You may also get to participate in more of the day-to-day business operations.

In mid to large-sized operations, there’s an increase of machinery and automation that help companies respond to larger orders. Here, you’ll be producing in the thousands or even millions. There are teams of people who strategically work together to keep the plant flowing and producing. However, this doesn’t mean that the environment and job is totally different than a smaller organization, you’ll still be following recipes, getting ingredients, fulfilling orders, stocking, cooking, etc.

FACT: Switzerland and Austria are said to consume the most chocolate in the world each year!

CHOCOLATE MAKERS & CHOCOLATIERS SALARY

Low Range

$31K+ annually
$16 per hour

Average

$39K annually
$20 per hour

High Range

$48K+ annually
$25+ per hour

*Annual salary calculated by 37.5 hr work week, and by a 52 weeks per year

Skills matter and that’s certainly the case here– like any trade, your experience level is matched with the number of hours you’ve put into mastering the skill. The more time you put into learning and perfecting each product (and there are lots of them) the further you’ll move up the chain.

Most Chocolate Makers and Chocolatiers earn hourly wages rather than a salary. However, head chocolatiers for larger organizations that work in new product development are likely to earn a salary upwards of $80k annually depending on their experience and qualifications.

There are many high-demand seasons in the chocolate industry that require overtime work to keep up with the demand (think valentine’s day, easter and Christmas)! Therefore, there’s a lot of opportunity to earn overtime pay, pick up extra shifts and employers will likely need you to work on evenings and weekends.

Some of the cool perks you can expect are employee discounts on products, flexible schedules and a casual dress code. Many employers also offer benefit packages with health & wellness coverage, dental, vision, retirement savings plans and sometimes bonuses or tips.

CHOCOLATE MAKER & CHOCOLATIER JOB DUTIES

Here are some of the job duties you will be responsible for in this career:

Researching recipes and developing new flavors of chocolate
Have an excellent understanding and technical knowledge of the preparation of chocolate from start to finish
Follow recipes and measure ingredients
Creating chocolate using machinery and traditional methods as required.
Participate in the regular production of different product lines which could include chocolate bars, candies, fillings, truffles, molds, etc.
Processing cocoa beans, tempering chocolate, molding chocolate, and storing chocolate properly.
Decoration and packaging of chocolates and products for sale.
Manufacture chocolates according to the company’s production quality standards
Respect the rules of hygiene, food safety and food defense, by ensuring all hygiene and food safety requirements are met.
Participate the in cleaning and sanitation of equipment and machinery used for production.
Documenting production processes and participating in required record keeping.
Participate in food safety and traceability efforts.
Work within pre-established deadlines, production schedules and production targets.

BECOMING A CHOCOLATE MAKER & CHOCOLATIER

Competitiveness & Availability

As you can imagine, there’s no shortage of people who love chocolate and products that use chocolate as a key ingredient. In fact, there are many up-and-coming innovations with chocolate being incorporated into a number of products across many other subsectors such as beverages, protein powders, snack foods, teas, coffees, cereals, sugar-free options and much much more! This means that there’s always a high demand for chocolate makers and other types of specialized production worker roles.

Unlike other subsectors, chocolate manufacturers are found throughout Canada and are not isolated to certain regions. Finding available employment opportunities close to home should be possible.

Advancement Opportunities

Working with chocolate is an art and therefore the more hands-on experience you have working with the product, monitoring quality, and final outputs, the more opportunities you’ll have for career advancement. Most learning and advancement happen on-the-job assisting more advanced chocolatiers in their formulations and product testing, eventually gaining opportunities to guide the creation of new products, This is a reliable career and a place to call home with endless opportunities for advancement as you gain more experience.

Any previous experience or education in food and beverage manufacturing will also be advantageous for gaining more advancement opportunities.

Education

Many employers require a Food Safe Level 1 certification and completion of your high school diploma or equivalency. Any prior experience in a chocolate-making or food-processing environment is always valuable. If you’ve practiced chocolate making at home for quite some time, this is also considered experience for most employers.

Throughout Canada, many Colleges offer a 1-2 year certificate, diploma and/or apprenticeship programs in the culinary field or as a chocolatier, introducing you to the skills, safety and business side of things. While you can (and do) learn on the job, programs like these can bring you up to speed faster and expose you to the full gamut of possibilities – fast-tracking your career.

Any education in food safety, food science, processing/ manufacturing or production are also highly attractive to employers. You may want to consider some short courses in food safety and other industry-related topics, such as:

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs)
Quality Assurance/ Quality Control
Sanitation & equipment operation
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
Workplace Health & Safety
Mathematics

If you’re just starting out, you may want to consider an educational program to kickstart your career or to help guide you to the specific area(s) you are most interested in.