Domingo Ghirardelli
| Domingo Ghirardelli | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Domenico Ghirardelli February 21, 1817 Rapallo, Italy |
| Died | January 17, 1894 (aged 76) Rapallo, Italy |
| Residence | San Francisco, California |
| Nationality | Italian American |
| Occupation | Chocolatier |
| Known for | founder, Ghirardelli & Sons chocolate company |
| Spouse(s) | Elisabetta Ghirardelli Carmen Ghirardelli |
| Children | Carmen (foster) Virginia Domenico, Jr. Joseph Nicholas Elvira Louis Angela Eugene |
| Parent(s) | Giuseppe and Maddalena Ghirardelli |
Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli, Sr. (February 21, 1817 – January 17, 1894) was the founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California.
Domenico Ghirardelli, Sr. was born on February 21, 1817, in Rapallo, Italy, to Giuseppe and Maddalena (née Ferretto) Ghirardelli. His father was a spice merchant in Genoa. In his teens, he apprenticed at Romanengo, a noted chocolatier in Genoa.
At about the age of twenty, in 1837, he moved to Uruguay, then in 1838 to Lima, Peru, where he established a confectionery, and began using the Spanish equivalent of his Italian name, Domingo. In 1849 he moved to California on the recommendation of his former neighbor, James Lick, who had brought 600 pounds of chocolate with him to San Francisco in 1848. Caught up in the California Gold Rush, Ghirardelli spent a few months in the gold fields near Sonora and Jamestown, before deciding to become a merchant in Hornitos, California.
In 1852, he moved to San Francisco and established the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company at what would come to be known as Ghirardelli Square. According to the San Francisco Chronicle he is San Francisco's most successful chocolatier.
Around the year 1865, a worker at the Ghirardelli factory discovered that by hanging a bag of ground cacao beans in a warm room, the cocoa butter would drip off, leaving behind a residue that could then be converted into ground chocolate. This technique, known as the Broma process is now the most common method used for the production of chocolate.
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