The Southern Fork / Peter Dale / April 23, 2023
Keywords
chocolate, ecuador, Athens, love, Georgia, bean, chocolate bar, white chocolate, bar, food, eat, sugar, Ecuador, flavors, guava, Condor Chocolates, fermented
Summary
Ecuadorian chocolate and its significance in a chef's creative journey. 0:00
Chocolate-making process and sourcing from farmers. 4:24
Chocolate making process and attributes of good chocolate. 8:27
Ecuadorian chocolate and its unique flavors. 14:00
Chocolate-making techniques and ingredients in Athens, Georgia. 19:23
Chocolate-making and cultural heritage. 26:17
Chocolate-making and personal food memories. 33:48
SPEAKERS
Stephanie Burt, Peter Dale
Stephanie Burt 02:40
You know how some childhood foods become taste touchstones that live in a memory? Well for brothers Nick and Peter Dale of Athens, Georgia, that taste was Ecuadorian chocolate. When they went to visit their mom's family there on vacations and holidays, there was just something special about that chocolate, something they could never quite taste outside of the country. And for a chef like Peter Dale, that was the fuel for creative journey. See in 2012, Peter was named the people's Best New Chef of the southeast by Food and Wine Magazine as well as a rising star chef. He helped Hugh Acheson, who he worked with at Five and Ten, open Empire State South in Atlanta and since then, Peter has become an Athens chef powerhouse with The National, Seabear Oyster Bar, and Maypole. In the middle of all that restaurant work in 2014, he and his brother Nick created Condor Chocolates, which imports Ecuadorian chocolate, then produces and sells bean-to-bar chocolate bars, truffles, sipping chocolate, gelato and a variety of confections. It's their homage to the birthplace of their mother, a testament to the sense of adventure that brought their dad to her and his celebration of that taste of Ecuador home of some of the finest cacao in the world. Welcome to The Southern Fork Peter Dale,
Peter Dale 04:14
Thanks for having me. Or thanks for coming to see us
Stephanie Burt 04:17
Yes! Driving to Athens to see Peter. I for some reason I really always feel like I want to say your first and last name.
Peter Dale 04:25
Yeah, I have two first names, right. Basically people are like and what comes after Dale?
Stephanie Burt 04:31
Yeah, cuz it is the south and we're used to Mary Kate and Ashley Marie and everything. So Peter Dale, it just adds right on in.
Peter Dale 04:38
What's next? Yeah, and also yeah, having a one syllable last name. It just rolls off the tongue.
Stephanie Burt 04:45
Yeah, yeah. So Athens is all it's been your home for a long, long time. And that's really because of your dad, right?
Peter Dale 04:55
Yeah. So my parents moved here in 1973. They were on their honeymoon. My dad was starting grad school at UGA. And they didn't have a connection to Georgia, except that my dad's undergrad roommate in Florida was from Athens. And my dad went to the Peace Corps and got interested in agriculture and feeding people this very, like, altruistic, you have feelings about agriculture. And his friend who had been his roommate was like, oh, Georgia has a good AG school, you should move to Athens. And it happened.
Stephanie Burt 05:29
But part of that Peace Corps was in Ecuador.
Peter Dale 05:33
So it's actually in Chile. Sorry, sorry. But on his way home, he was kind of backpacking through South America,
Stephanie Burt 05:41
like you do. As you do,
Peter Dale 05:45
And he was in Ecuador, and was going from one city to another by bus. And at that time, the bus was like at lunchtime at mealtimes. It would stop in a town and there'd be like a little plaza and the passengers would get off and have like a sit down like proper meal. And so I think they'd stopped for lunch. And he had noticed it was a cute girl traveling by herself on the bus. And so he asked if he could sit with her at lunch. And kind of the rest is history. Yeah. So yeah.
Stephanie Burt 06:16
So your family's from the South, but also from Ecuador. And so that's really where the chocolate comes from. And those of you have listened to the intro, you know, Peter's a chef, and, you know, has restaurants and stuff. But now we have this chocolate company that you and your brother
Peter Dale 06:37
Nick.
Stephanie Burt 06:37
Your brother Nick. Yeah, right. It really began because you couldn't find the chocolate. Ecuador, as a kid, you went there all the time. You were just telling me off mic. It meant good chocolate. By the way, that's really a child's dream to go to a foreign country. Eat all the good food and somehow amazing chocolate is involved in that as well.
Peter Dale 07:00
Yeah, I, we didn't know how lucky we had it. My aunt was a caterer and pastry chef. And so we ate really good food. And definitely fueld my interest in food. A lot of it comes from those experiences, going to Ecuador in the summer, on our summer vacations, and just eating good food and good chocolate. And we knew that the chocolate was different than what we would eat in America. And I don't think we knew how to describe it or knew what, you know, why it was different. But we knew it was different. And
Stephanie Burt 07:30
is that difference? Really? I mean, does all chocolate have to be fermented? Yeah,
Peter Dale 07:34
yeah. So you know, and that's something that we didn't learn until later. And I think a lot of people don't know is that chocolate is fermented. The cacao bean is fermented. And that's a super important part of the flavor. You know, if it's not fermented, well, you're not going to have chocolate that tastes good. So yeah, yeah, all cacao made into good chocolate is fermented. And
Stephanie Burt 07:56
so then, the fermentation happens on the farm before it gets to this country. Yeah. So in building Condor, you and Nick decided to source directly from farmers. Right. There's the story, right. That's the Southern Fork story directly from farmers. You knew there was that was coming, right? But so you work with farmers? How do you know what good fermenting is? Obviously, it comes down to taste and you're a chef and you have that background. But you have to see it. Right? Are there are there's physical signs?
Peter Dale 08:28
Physical signs would be Yeah, that would be very, that would be tough to see. Yeah, fortunately, or it takes making a lot of chocolate, lots of different batches of chocolate, to notice those differences. So a lot of chocolate gets made that, you know, doesn't get sold. You know, we make lots of little batches of lots of different chocolates. And you know, some of them become chocolate bars, and some of them don't, and I eat chocolate every day. And I think as a kid, I would have thought that that was just the greatest thing in the world. And
Stephanie Burt 09:08
As an adult, you probably do too.
Peter Dale 09:11
I don't know what it's not like to eat chocolate every day. But I think it's probably pretty good.
Stephanie Burt 09:16
Yeah, it's probably pretty good. When you're talking about making lots of little batches. You were saying Nick really is the -- he's kind of the mechanical brains behind this. So you're small batch, very small batch. And so your machinery can't be Nestle size. Correct. But it has to be bigger than kitchen size. Yeah, right. Yeah. So
Peter Dale 09:39
so there's just not a lot of you know, the way there's like, you know, home bread makers, there's not home chocolate makers, so there's just not a lot of equipment that is sort of smaller in scale. So, you know, some of them the equipment we have is made for chocolate it's made in Italy or or Belgium or Germany, but then some things we've had to rig, you know, maybe some some parts that are legit chocolate making products that you know, rigged with some things we got at Home Depot or Lowe's. Fortunately, Nick is very mechanical, I'm not, but he's very mechanical and can rig some of these things together and make it work. And the other thing is our, you know, our tempering machines are probably our most complicated machinery. And they come from Italy and Germany with no instructions. And they only break in August when Europe is on vacation. And there's no repair person around here.
Stephanie Burt 10:33
Ding. That Looney Tunes moment right where it gets boing, oing oing.
Peter Dale 10:35
Exactly. It's like August 1, everyone's at the beach in Europe, and we're going to shut down.
Stephanie Burt 10:41
Right? This kind of factory thing is just up my alley. So distilleries, breweries I went to Carolina Malt House last year, you know, and sometimes asking about that physical thing. Sometimes fermentation does have physical properties. You know, wine bubbles and yeast. Yeast makes bread rise and all kinds of you know, or sourdough starter rise. Not when then the bread. Yeah, but beyond that. You're having to age chocolate. I never really even thought about that. So you, you have to temper things. You It's so fussy. That's why there's no home chocolate makers. Yeah, I mean, if we can, if we can't make macaroni and cheese from scratch, we can't make chocolate from scratch at home in America.
Peter Dale 11:30
Yeah, I honestly hadn't really thought about that. But yeah, it's not something that people really attempt very much to make at home. I think I saw Tiktok video once of someone making chocolate. And I don't know if it turned out very well. It looked like chocolate. But yeah, it's not something that people take on. Because chocolate, I think fussy is a really good word. It's very temperamental. It likes a very certain certain temperature, certain humidity level, that is generally not what we have in Georgia. So that adds an extra layer of complexity to things. They're just there's just a lot of moments where things can, you know, go right or go wrong in chocolate making.
Stephanie Burt 12:10
So how did you I mean, you knew what it needed to taste like. But how did you teach yourself?
Peter Dale 12:18
There was a lot of a lot of trial and error. And really, you know, Nick had basically a little chocolate factory on his kitchen counter so he rigged up the home version of with like little mini motorized mortar and pestles on his kitchen counter and you know, did a lot. You can temper by hand, we now temper with machines in order to do the volume that we need to do but yeah, he did it very DIY. I will say that the the bean-to-bar, we're in the bean to bar category, meaning we're involved in every step of the process from a bean to a finish chocolate bar.
Stephanie Burt 12:54
That's the cool kids chocolate, ladies and gentleman. Bean-to-bar.
Peter Dale 12:57
Bean-to-bar. Other people say craft chocolate. Yeah, that community is very small. And there's not a lot of chocolate makers in the South. And I will say that we are really collaborative. There's Chocolot on Atlanta. They're wonderful. We've worked together a lot; we shared a container of beans years ago French Broad and Asheville which they're kind of the big kids on the block. They've were super helpful in the beginning with helping us understand how to keep chocolate in temper in the summer in the South when it's hot and humid and chocolate doesn't like to be hot and humid. Yeah, I think that we just want people to eat good chocolate, and if you eat our chocolate or eat French Broad or eat Chocolat or any of the other great craft bean to bar chocolate makers, that's awesome. I'd rather you eat you know somebody else's then then eat not-good chocolate.
Stephanie Burt 13:53
Yeah. Well, that brings me to that question. Give me some attributes of a really good chocolate.
Peter Dale 13:59
What I what I love about particularly Ecuadorian chocolate, the chocolate you know we only sourced beans in Ecuador because of our family connection there. But also we believe Ecuador produces the best chocolate the best cacao. We're biased but we do firmly believe that Ecuador produces the best and it is. A lot of people believe it is where the tree originated in in the jungles in Ecuador. I particularly love the fruity aspect of Ecuadorian chocolate. I love that you have the toasted notes from Roasting the beans, but also sort of like a bright citrus acidity. And then I like the sort of a lot of times you'll have sort of a long finish that will you could even be sort of like like an almond butter kind of finish. And so it just like takes your palate and a lot of different directions. And there are more commodity chocolate that is sort of like one note and made Maybe there's other flavors that are added. You know, sometimes vanilla has added a lot of sugar and it masks the nuances. I think chocolate is can you can think about it like wine, or coffee or coffee, of course, they really represent a sense of place. And, and, you know, we are trying to tell the story of Ecuadorian chocolate, more commodity chocolate, that they're masking and losing that identity of place, either by mixing or adding too many other flavors, too much sugar, and you lose the terroir.
Stephanie Burt 15:39
Yeah. So walking into Condor today, it smelled like you were making, and, and not like a candy factory, which I mentioned. I love to go to food factories. So I've been to actually the first story ever wrote about a food factory was a candy factory and went to a gummy worm factory.
Peter Dale 15:59
That's cool. Yeah, it was.
Stephanie Burt 16:00
It was pretty wild. And they also make cough drops, which was really interesting. So you know, sugar, sugar, candy, just in different forms and active injury. Yeah, but that's an aside, as happens with ADHD sometimes. But it didn't smell like you were making candy. It didn't smell like you were making like, you know, Brussels Stover. It smelled, fermented. I mean, it smelled of a plant. Yeah. It's not like a plant. Yeah. Yeah. And that is fascinating. It was a roasted plant. But it was it was there was a vegetable quality to it.
Peter Dale 16:39
Yeah, yeah. And yeah, so we are buying what we call it green beans, which if you were to see it, they they're brown that cacao beans. But in on the farm in Ecuador, they were harvested, they're removed from the pod, they were dried in the sun to remove this sort of like gooey outer layer, they were fermented. And then they were put in a bag, or in a box, but the same type of burlap bag that coffee comes in. And so then that gets put on a ship and brought to us and then when we open that bag, you get this really intense like funky, fermented smell like you're you would smell at a brewery. At a winery is that, it's that same smell. And then then we get in the process of roasting those beans and then and then you start getting other aromas, which are more reminiscent of chocolate. But yeah, when from the beginning phase, where we start it is it is a plant, kind of funky smell, which I think a lot of people don't realize that that that is part of the process.
Stephanie Burt 17:47
The one of the parts that Condor really shines in is is beyond just the beautiful bars. And beyond the beautiful chocolate. You have editions, you have different flavors. And that's where you really get to play like we were watching. What was that?
Peter Dale 18:05
The guava Yeah, well, you've
Stephanie Burt 18:07
explained that. Yeah, just that chocolate. I think people would love to hear
Peter Dale 18:12
Yeah, that is actually chocolate that I have been. That's a truffle that we just rolled out that I have been campaigning for for a long time. So I take a lot of pride that that has happened, but guava paste or guava jam. And Latin America is often called a membrillo which is not to be confused with a mebrillo in Spain, which is quince that you often get on a cheese plate, but the this guava paste that you can buy at any sort of Latin market, even here in Athens is commonly eaten with like a salty cheese. And I love that sweet, salty combination. And we do that with some of our products. But the guava I felt like would be really nice with dark chocolate, because you do have a bit of contrast with like the sweet guava and the tannins and the dark chocolate and then where it's adding to heen Mexican chili powder adds a little layer of spice so kinda with all all foods that I'm into like I just love there to be lots of contrast, whether it's texture or flavors. I just want there to be a lot going on. So we've got like that
Stephanie Burt 19:23
I need one of those right now. Yeah, and I wish I had popped one in my mouth. I
Peter Dale 19:27
wish
Stephanie Burt 19:28
we should have grabbed taking so many pictures though. You know who wouldn't love watching chocolate getting enrobed, and I love that term. It is a technical term right? And you also have a table. That shimmies remove the bubbles.
Peter Dale 19:46
shake table or I like shimmy. They're the shimmy table Yeah. So when we make chocolate bars particularly they go and they the chocolate which is liquid at that point gets put in them in a hard mold and the chocolate, it doesn't want to get in all the little corners. And we want there to be right angles on your chocolate bar. And we also don't want there to be any air bubbles and air pockets. So we, we put the the mold with the liquid chocolate on the shimmy table and make sure that the chocolates in every corner and there's no air bubbles, you know, it's really just an aesthetic thing. But we want you know, we want it to be.
Stephanie Burt 20:20
And it's a tech a piece of technical equipment that Nick did not make. It's from the chocolate makers. And I love the idea of someone around in the world saying sitting around at a cocktail party and somebody going, what do you sell? Shake tables for chocolate, what
Peter Dale 20:37
somebody's got to do it,
Stephanie Burt 20:39
So there's this global feel to Condor. But it's also really rooted specifically in your family. And we've talked a lot about the Ecuadorian side of things because that's the natural place to talk about. It's also very much in Athens company, like your printing is done a couple blocks down the street for the for the bar packaging, for the packaging, and a fabric designer made your label, like some of your art on the stuff and chocolate is a gift. It's supposed to be beautiful. Are there other ways that you feel that Athens and Georgia is specifically expressed through this chocolate?
Peter Dale 21:24
Yeah, for sure. Well, the inclusions that we use, you know, cacao doesn't grow in Georgia. So we try to incorporate as many local inclusions as we can. So our best selling bar naturally is chocolate bar with Georgia Pecans. And, you know, we love we love our pecans. And we just feel like that's a company that we've had on the Schermer Schermer pecans. They're they've been a fabulous partner to us. And we use you know, seesaw, that's actually from Charles from bowls Bay, South Carolina. So not a Georgia product, but But our next door neighbor. So kind of with everything that I'm I'm interested in food wise, I want it to be the inspiration or even the some of the main ingredients may have come from afar. But we really want the finished product to be specific to like this moment in Athens, so yeah, so whether it's inclusions, we're getting ready to do a blueberry bar and Georiga grows a lot of blueberries. Actually, we actually grow more blueberries than peaches, which is maybe something I shouldn't say publicly, but that is too late. But you know, we're gonna do some some blueberry products. And then, and actually, we were talking about this earlier, you know, the peach day peach and chocolate isn't really a natural combination. So we haven't had too many opportunities to combine the two. But we are playing around a little bit with white chocolate, which is new to us. And we're doing a white chocolate and strawberry chocolate bar or chocolate bar right now.
Stephanie Burt 23:04
So it's like a strawberries and cream. Exactly. Yeah.
Peter Dale 23:07
So my thought is that I think the next iteration will have to be peaches and cream.
Stephanie Burt 23:12
Yeah. Now you just threw down a gauntlet of controversy in the chocolate world by saying the words white chocolate. And yeah, I think some chocolate tears would not even want the term chocolate. Yeah, associated with that. Because it is mainly cocoa butter. Am I correct in that? Yeah,
Peter Dale 23:31
that's correct. And, you know, there's been-to-bar chocolate makers that only make dark chocolate. One of the biggest bean-to-bar makers, they only do two ingredient chocolates, which is cocoa beans and sugar. We do milk chocolate, which is we think's delicious. We do a really, it's a really dark milk chocolate, but I think it's delicious. Yeah, there's people that say that white chocolate isn't chocolate. And it's controversial. And and I don't know, I think I don't understand that because I think that people just had white chocolate that that I don't want to say it's bad, but it's you know, it was too much sugar too many other flavorings in white chocolate is certainly I think chocolate because it comes from the cacao pod. And what Cocoa butter is the byproduct of making cocoa powder. So you take a cocoa bean and press it and you when you press it like in a really kind of Industrial Press like making olive oil. sort of similar idea. You wind up with two things you wind up with the flesh of the bean which gets ground up and that becomes cocoa powder which is used in lots of baking and, and then the other part that's remains is the cocoa butter which is the fat of the bean. So it's you know, came from like a cow pod. And it's a good fat it's like a it's like avocado oil and coconut oil. It's not.
Stephanie Burt 24:53
I love that. I love that. It's
Peter Dale 24:54
nothing to be afraid of
Stephanie Burt 24:55
well and when you're making whole bean chocolate like you're talking about that tempering is melding that fat with the fruit, right? I mean, or the other elements?
Peter Dale 25:08
Well, I think the fat is such an important part of chocolate because that is what coats your palate, when you eat chocolate, when you get chocolate, we want you to feel like you need a glass of milk, like we want it to coat your palate, you know, the way you know, peanut butter kind of sticks to your roof of your of your mouth like we want, we think that's a good thing. And that is actually the fat of the cocoa bean that's doing that. That's not the sugar. That's the fat that that's producing that effect. And so white chocolate is just that fat, with sugar. And I just think some manufacturers just use way too much sugar and maybe a lot of other sort of artificial flavoring to make you know, coffee drinks at big chain coffee places that are just over the top. So we think white chocolate can be really delicious. And it can be a great canvas for lots of other delicious flavors. So we're doing a white chocolate bar, that's cocoa butter, a little bit of sugar, and dried strawberries. And we grind that all together and make this sort of like dusty rose colored bar that I think is pretty tasty. And it's not too sweet.
Peter Dale 26:17
well, we open and like you said, I thought we I thought we were just we're gonna be a retail space. And we would be making our chocolate bars in the back and we'd have some shelves and we'd sell our chocolate bars. And then it just evolved. And I think we just sort of listen to customers and they help us decide what we're going to be and what we're going to do. And there wasn't a you know, this was not on the whiteboard where we're at right now. But I love where we've gone. And I wouldn't change anything. But this this was not -- I don't think there was a destination. We were just hoping that people wanted to buy chocolate bars that you know, cost more than they do at Kroger. Yeah, so we're grateful that they have.
Stephanie Burt 26:17
Well, I have one in my bag, so I'll be checking it later. Well, this has been such a creative ... Maybe it started as an eddy, like an eddy in the creek. But now it's become more of the main flow of your creative culinary career at this time. And you know, you were talking to me that you thought it was just going to be retail and then, you know, people wanted to have coffee, and now you have multiple locations. I've been to all three today in short order. But is this what you thought it would be? Or did you have an idea? Or were you just following a creativity trail? You and your brother, you and your brother? Yeah,
Stephanie Burt 27:43
They have in in big ways. I love to see the expression of I don't know you that well. But from what I can tell aesthetically, it is you, you know in I don't know your brother, Nick. But there's, there's this whole expression of beautiful packaging and beautiful bars and the flavor combinations. And it just feels put all together. But I know there's always something happening in the background. So what is making you hungry right now? What are you thinking about next, since you're just following that hope and people buy chocolate?
Peter Dale 28:24
You know, we're in springtime, I'm thinking about summer specific, like flavors that I'm thinking about, I want to dig a little deeper into resources we have around us. So I'm doing some r&d on like horchata flavors, because we in the South have a lot of rice production or historically have rice production. I think there's like an interesting story there to tell. And I think that there's a lot more to do with fruit in the chocolate where and this is actually an idea that someone at UGA and their food science department is been working on and we're talking about it. Were in the chocolate making process. Generally fruit is introduced like as a flavor or maybe, you know things are covered in chocolate. But this is actually like fruit that's ground up with the beans and becomes part of the chocolate itself. And so the white chocolate strawberry is kind of just the first step of that but we're thinking about doing like dark chocolates that maybe the sweetener is fruit, dried fruit that is in the chocolate itself and helps provide the sweetness and then also maybe even like a touch of color. So maybe it's not like entirely dark brown. Maybe there's like a tint of another color. And then also the sugar is not just cane sugar, there sweetness coming from other ingredients. So that's kind of where my head's at as far as chocolate
Stephanie Burt 29:59
Yeah. Oh, that's, that's a, that's a good space to be in and really think about transform the actual idea of a bar. Yeah, yeah. And taking those elements and separating them out and saying like, how can we reconfigure these in the same with the same beautiful quality and consistency? Yeah.
Peter Dale 30:18
And I think it allows us to introduce more things that are grown around us. So if you look at a chocolate bar, you know, we have an 80% chocolate bar. And that's basically two ingredients. It's 80%, cacao bean, and 20% sugar. And depending on where the sugar is, from that, that could mean that that bar really doesn't have anything. It was made in Georgia, but doesn't include anything from Georgia. But if we could introduce some other elements like fruit, or nuts, we can maybe decrease that 80% number. And have something that's, you know, a bit more of Ecuador and a bit more Georgia,
Stephanie Burt 30:58
which is, you, you know,
Peter Dale 30:59
yeah, for sure.
Stephanie Burt 31:02
Okay, so what's one aspect of this job that you created for yourself, which is Willy Wonka, I took a million pictures, so you're gonna want to check that on Instagram. And that really meshes like a puzzle piece, with an aspect of your natural personality?
Peter Dale 31:19
Well, I think that I love my favorite subject. When I was a kid in school with social studies, I loved learning about other cultures and history and why. And then when I got into food, I liked sort of understanding why things are eaten in certain places. And, and like a certain, like, a traditional dish. And, you know, in Georgia, you know, there's often a really interesting backstory about why that's prepared and why the ingredients are included. And, and that's, you know, everywhere. So I just love that food anthropology. So that's
Stephanie Burt 31:54
why I'm in it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's just fascinating. Yeah.
Peter Dale 31:57
So I can go down in some wormholes. And so as far as chocolate, I like being able to combine this family heritage in Ecuador, and sort of tell the story about Ecuador. But then there's also like a lot of parallels between Ecuador and Georgia that I think people don't realize there's a colonial past, there's, there's some dark history as well. But then there's a lot of really wonderful, wonderful things as well. And there's a lot of vibrancy. And so whether it's in the chocolate or in our packaging, like we like being able to talk about both places, both places are home. And we like melding them. And you know, we've been talking about a lot about Ecuador, but you don't generally talk about Ecuador a lot in your life. It's a little country, it's a little place, we we love that people have embraced it. And you know, part of wanting to Condor in the first place was to be able to share a little bit about Ecuador, with with you know, Athens is home we've born and raised here. And so it's it's cool to be able to talk about this part of us that we haven't really talked a lot about before. And then I think long term, you know, our parents getting older, and I was worried that we might lose this connection to where our mom's from. And now, because of Condor, it means that we go to Ecuador more frequently, we feel like we're contributing to the economy down there to communities that, you know, could really benefit from, from what we're doing. And I think we'll have a long term connection, even even if our parents aren't here. Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll we'll still be going to Ecuador and telling their story. Legacy.
Stephanie Burt 33:47
Yeah, I'm building new at the same time. Yeah, it's great connecting and building new quickfire. One thing keeping you up at night
Peter Dale 33:57
is well, it
Stephanie Burt 33:59
doesn't have to be in chocolate
Peter Dale 34:01
doesn't have to be in chocolate. Well, I think the biggest thing is like, are all the ovens off is like something burning down. Yeah. Like that. Just the physical spaces like are they okay? Well, no one's there. The chocolate runs for three or four days in the in the grinding in the melanger. And the grinding phase that runs for three or four days if the power goes out, that's back is like liquid chocolate can seize up in a short amount of time. So if the the power went out in the middle of the night, by the time you got there in the morning, you could have this solid mass of chocolate that would be really hard to melt.
Stephanie Burt 34:36
And you can't bring it back from that. Yeah, yeah. This has been a conversation on the mic that has really honestly been years in the making. And it was, to me worth the weight to come and spend time with you here in Athens and I am so excited that I get to reserve this question for you, as you become part of the Southern fork family. And this is my magic. picnic basket question. So with this question, it's a virtual idea I can time travel, I can go back in time and conscript anybody to make just one more bite of something that you want. I can source and I can cook a little bit because I'd like to bring you some of your favorite things in this basket. They don't have to go together doesn't have to be a picnic. But I want to bring you some things that bring you life. And I know that sometimes, if you're like me, that changes depending on your whim and what you're interested in eating right now. So today, what can I put in that basket for you, Peter?
Peter Dale 35:44
So my aunt who was very inspiring to me and who lived in Ecuador. She passed away a few years ago, and she was an amazing cook. So she made so many wonderful things. But I think about it's a little warm today, starting to get a little warm. So I think about her shrimps ceviche that I love or her fried shrimp. She was just like really talented. Ecuador, in addition to chocolate has really good shrimp. So, you know, one of her shrimp dishes would be excellent.
Stephanie Burt 36:14
Okay, what else in there?
Peter Dale 36:17
When I was in college, my first trip to Spain, some folks that we know took me out in Madrid and we went to a bar that had food from Galicia, which is like the northwest of Spain. And that was the first time I had Pimienta podran that had become like a really like, common bar snack here now, but that was the first time I'd ever seen that. I mean, this was in the late 90s. And then I had basically sorta like a grilled cheese. And it was this cheese called to to cheese and to TIA is like in the shape of a teat. It's like sort of this rounded pyramid shape and, and it was like this grilled cheese sandwich with that to to cheese. And that P mantissa. padrone that's just like I had, I haven't thought about that in a long time, but it just kind of popped in my head. And I that was really a formative experience for me. And I would love to have those things. Again,
Stephanie Burt 37:18
is there any Georgia food that you just got to have in there?
Peter Dale 37:21
I mean, this sounds like cliche, but like a really good Georgia peach, like, good peaches are hard to find like even in Georgia, like finding that peach that's perfectly ripe that not doesn't have any bruises or blemishes and that just like you bite into, maybe it's been chilled for a little bit, and it's a hot day, and then the juices run down your face. And you don't care, it's it's just so good. You're just sort of like maybe it's probably best to eat it over a sink. I don't know that's, it's hard to beat that.
Stephanie Burt 37:49
That sounds really great. And like a pretty decent picnic. It worked out really well for you. So if people want to learn more about Condor chocolates, and Peter JL, you know where to go, go to thesouthernfork.com There will be links there. So you can click on the links to find out a little bit more about the company and all the different flavors you're going to want to go through. There's like, there's just so many delicious things to think about when you think about chocolate and Athens, Georgia. And you can also see images of the face behind the voice. As I always say, if you like what you hear this time, there are more than 320 episodes in the archives. So dive in there and get hungry. Listen to some of them. Most of these interviews, all of these interviews are under 45 minutes, I want you to be able to have a snack, not a five course tasting meal when it comes to my podcast and dream of chocolate when you're done. So thank you so much for taking the time walking me through the factory, letting me look at chocolate and just over and over take pictures of it. So I appreciate it.
Peter Dale 39:07
Come back anytime.
Stephanie Burt 39:10
Hello, and welcome to Talking with my mouthful. Now I know a lot of you out there when you hear the words Athens, Georgia, you think of the Georgia Bulldogs and depending on what sports teams you love and what colleges you support. You might not like them, you might not know much about Athens beyond their sport. But one of the things that I loved about the town of Athens is that it is a vibrant artistic community. And of course those of you that are familiar know that major bands have come out of the city including rem and the B 50. twos. It has a wonderful visual arts community. There is a obviously amazing restaurants, which is why I went and visited. And I think that Peter and Nick's chocolate just fits in with all of that. It is a beautiful, creative artistic expression. Chocolate at some point becomes almost a work of art. And, and not almost it does become a work of art because like Peter and I were chatting, it is so fussy. It is such a beautiful gift. And it's just meant to be special. And so what is so wonderful about Condor is not only is it absolutely delicious, and the flavor combinations are so onpoint and unique, and of that combination of Ecuador and Georgia, but that it's made in a beautiful location. It's beautifully wrapped, it's designed well. Every little detail is taken care of and it feels my box of truffles feels like a jewel box. And that, to me is a win, not just the flavor. So I hope you'll take a chance and take a road trip through Athens soon. And also stay tuned for more Athens content coming soon. In the meantime, I think it's time for a chocolate break in my world. So thanks a lot for listening, and I'll be right here next week.
Stephanie Burt 41:39
You've been listening to the southern fork. I can't wait to bring you more culinary conversations. But in the meantime, I have one question. Are you gonna eat all that?