For the love of artisan chocolate (and ice hockey)

BILL CORNWELL / FLORIDA WEEKLY Norman Love Norman Love's chocolate confections are so exquisitely wrought that each handmade piece is considered by its creator to be an "edible work of art." These carefully designed and crafted artisan chocolates have turned Mr. Love, who is co-owner and founder of Norman Love Confections in Fort Myers, into something of an international demigod in the chichi world of designer foods.

Yet away from his kitchen, the 49-year-old Mr. Love finds escape and enrichment in the in a much less genteel pursuit: ice hockey.

"I've played hockey since I was a child," says Mr. Love, who is a native of Philadelphia. "My dream was to be a professional hockey player. When my family moved to South Florida in 1973, I was devastated. I thought that was the end of hockey for me."

But Mr. Love found that hockey — in some form, at least — exists in the Sunshine State, and while he never became a professional player, he has continued to indulge his passion for the game. Weekly, he and an eclectic group of like-minded hockey enthusiasts don pads and skates and go at on the ice at the Skatium. They call themselves the "Boys of Winter." In addition to the Sunday game, Mr. Love also finds time for a couple of quick pickup games during an average week.

"I have never lost my love for the sport," he says.

No one keeps tabs on such things, but it seems safe to assume that few world-class confectioners find enrichment in slamming another human being into the boards.

As improbable as a hockey-playing master chocolatier may seem, it is equally improbable that a world-renowned operation like Norman Love Confections would be based in Fort Myers, of all places. As it turns out, the road to Fort Myers was a serendipitous one.

Mr. Love has had an abiding interest in foods — especially sweet foods — since his youth, and he still fondly recalls the tastes and smells that emerged from his grandmother's kitchen. But he also had an intuitive belief that food can be much more than as a means of satisfying taste and satiating hunger.

"I had at an early age the belief that you could integrate art and food," he says. "I knew that you could combine the creation of food and the creation of art. To some degree, we eat with our eyes. I also knew it isn't easy. Chocolate, practically from the beginning, was my medium of choice."

Mr. Love worked in restaurants, resorts and kitchens across South Florida and then refined his talents with a two-year stint at a private pastry shop in southern France.

Returning to the States, Mr. Love eventually served as executive pastry chef for several Ritz-Carlton properties. It was his work for Ritz-Carlton that brought him to Naples, where he has remained with his wife and business partner, Mary, (also a hockey player) and their two children. He was promoted to oversee The Ritz-Carlton's worldwide pastry operations at the age of 30 and spent 13 years in that position, traveling more than 40 weeks each year to various hotels around the world. It was during this time that Mr. Love forged his considerable reputation as a pastry chef and also began to seriously indulge his passion for chocolate.

In 2001, Mr. Love took a gamble, leaving the prestige of Ritz-Carlton to open the business that today is Norman Love Confections.

"In all honesty, I never thought I would get into the chocolate business," Mr. Love says. "The security of working for Ritz-Carlton was tough to leave. But the travel was difficult for me and for the family. That was a consideration."

Not content with the commonplace or mundane, Mr. Love correctly gauged that Americans crave gourmet food products that have what he calls a "wow factor."

Originally, Mr. and Mrs. Love worked out of a 700-square-foot facility in Fort Myers. Today, Norman Love Confections occupies 6,000 square feet at 11380 Lindbergh Blvd. and employs 23 "artisans," as Mr. Love is fond of calling them.

The fledgling business' defining moment came in 2002, when USA Today named it one of the top 10 artisan chocolate companies in America.

"After that article appeared," Mr. Love recalls, "we got thousands of phone calls. Things just exploded."

To Mr. Love's delight and amazement, the explosion knew no end.

Today, Norman Love Confections ships chocolate creations around the world. The operation consumes 150,000 pounds of chocolate each year and is capable of producing upwards of 40,000 pieces of chocolate a day. For peak periods — Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentines Day and Easter — production will exceed the 40,000-piece level. Each year, about 5 million pieces of handmade, carefully crafted chocolate go out the door.

The company has several high-profile ventures, including the creation of a specialty line of chocolates - called "G" - for Godiva.

Despite the recession, Mr. Love says business has remained robust, which mirrors a worldwide trend. According to one analyst who follows the chocolate industry, it is "one of the more recession-resilient food sectors."

"There is well-documented evidence going back to Freud, showing that in times of anxiety and uncertainty, when people need a boost, they turn to chocolate," an analyst told Time magazine. "That's why when the economy is bad, chocolate is still selling well."

Mr. Love says maintaining quality is the key to long-term success, and his products have received the highest rating from Consumer Reports and critical acclaim from food critics around the world.

Mary Love still handles "the business side" of the operation, and Mr. Love says that while he was at Ritz-Carlton they rarely saw each other because of his constant travel.

"Now, we're together all day, every day," he notes. "We wondered how that was going to work, but it has turned out to be great. Better than we could have expected."

For Norman and Mary Love that may be the greatest "wow factor" of all.