Throughout my childhood, 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' left me with an indelible memory of a large fantasy-like room with crazy color schemes where flowers and mushrooms are edible delectable sweets. So, my first experience of a candy factory had a lot to live up to! Last fall, I took a tour of a Genoa institution: Romanengo Fu Stefano. While it was not as surreal as Wonka's factory, it was much more authentic - every activity steeped in tradition.

The machines and the utensils were all reminscent of the store's eighteenth-century origins. Since 1780, Romanengo Fu Stefano has been serving some of the world's most exquisite handmade candied fruits and chocolates to those with discerning palates. One of the highlights of the tour was the chocolate room where I saw their antique chocolate mill (mélangeur) that dates back to the 1800s mixing cocoa paste with granite stones. Delfina Romanengo, descendant of Antonio Maria Romanengo, the original owner, told me that granite brings out chocolate's delicious aroma.

I saw succulent fresh apricots, pears, and figs transform into candy and syrups. The most striking and honorable aspect of Romanengo is it's dedication to preserving its traditional age-old recipes even if they're more time consuming and labor intensive. The chocolate is "beaten" non-stop for three days and three nights in the mill. Industrial chocolate can take just a few hours. After the tour I stopped by their historic gorgeous antique mirror-covered store on Genoa's Via Soziglia. You can order Romanengo sweets online. Or, if you live in the Boston area, you can purchase them from Formaggio Kitchen. Check out the gallery below to see some of Romanego's sweets and antique machinery.

Apparently the pressures and rivalry that come with being one of Britain's leading chocolatiers sometimes cause men to do strange things. Witness the case of Barry Colenso, the erstwhile master chocolatier of the prestigious Thorntons who was forced to resign after a "truffle-squishing" incident at a rival store.

That's right folks. We said, gasp, "truffle squishing." Actually it's no laughing matter. The man who has been likened to Willy Wonka and who you see standing before a chocolate billboard he created last Easter went on a truffle vandalism spree at rival store Hotel Chocolat where he mangled some $130 of confections. Store staff knew something was up when they noticed him pawing at the various truffles. Hotel Chocolat issued a statement saying, "This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it."

I know said something about this not being a laughing matter, after all it was highly unprofessional behavior, but I can't help thinking of the scene in Tampopo where the elderly female shopper roams through a store squeezing and destroying a wide array of items. It also begs the question, did they sell the damaged goods at a lower price or remake them or what? Personally, I'm not above eating a squished truffle or two.

[via Boing Boing]