The Team
A FAMILY OF CHOCOLATIERS //
In her free time, Pam Vieau would take cooking classes, from spices to sweets , she was always learning new things in food. After attending a class or reading a new cookbook our family and friends would be the lucky taste testers of her decadent dishes, pastries and sweets.
Then one day she took a chocolate class and walked out thinking “This is for me.” She came home, pulled out her homemade Toffee recipe, applied her new skills and made batches of English Toffee.Pam decided to give it to friends as holiday gifts. Her friends shared it with their friends, their friends shared it with their friends and soon her phone was ringing off the hook with requests to purchase her English Toffee. Pam received a call for a company wanting boxes for their customer gifts, Pam tried to explain she wasn’t a company just someone playing with chocolate, they didn’t care, people just wanted more of her toffee! Pam said yes and thank goodness for our large family, my grandmother, aunts, cousins, all helped Pam fulfill her orders. Pam realized she suddenly had a candy business, she traded a batch of her homemade oatmeal cookies for her first chocolate machine and named her business Chocolate Inspirations.
Her daughter Marcy wanted to tell the world what her mom could do and became her partner.
Today the mother/daughter team along with their team of women, including Charlotte, Pam’s 95 year old mother who packages the candy, create handmade, artisan, traditional chocolates & confections. This amazing team have received awards and rave reviews from USA Today, Food Network, Alicia Silverstone, VegNews, People, and of course their customers.
MASTER CHOCOLATIER
Pam Vieau, owner and resident chocolatier of Chocolate Inspirations, Inc. is a culinary artist with over twenty years of practical experience developing and making specialty chocolate products and confections. She is an accomplished chocolatier with a solid knowledge of chocolate and confections having trained under American, Swiss, Spanish, Belgian, Mexican, Jamaican, German, and French Master Chocolatiers.
Her teaching began based on the recommendation and support of her friend and mentor, Elaine Gonzalez. She began with Triton College, where she developed and taught the chocolate and confection courses for the culinary curriculum. The same year she began teaching at the Wilton School of Cake Decorating and Confectionary Art.
At both schools she taught a Chocolate I comprehensive class and added a Chocolate II class for more advanced techniques and confections. Pam also added short introductory “themed” classes for the non-professional looking to have fun.
Her food science journey began with her association with AACT (American Association of Candy Technologists) and their two year confection program for AACT members. The successful combination of scientific theory provided by industry experts, and Pam’s expertise in practical applications, made this course a remarkable industry program.
Pam consults and conducts research and development for small and large food and confection companies in both the retail and industrial markets. She also teaches food professionals, confectioners, chefs, food scientists and hobby cooks.