BWW Interviews: Meet TAD LOMBARDO A Chocolatier Extraordinaire from Down Under

With spring on the rise and the upcoming holiday season, chocolate is popular for gift giving and entertaining. Broadwayworld.com interviewed a very talented Chocolatier, Tad Lombardo. Originally from New Jersey, Tad now lives in Australia where his company, "Cioccolato Lombardo" is becoming more and more popular every day. His story is an inspiration to people who have the courage to try something new and those who love to create wonderful foods.

When did you first become interested in making chocolate?

My food story begins as a child, I always loved being in the kitchen with both my grandmothers at holiday times and at home with my mother.

When I attended Penn State, I started working with a high end Catering Company in Bernardsville, New Jersey. I worked there weekends and started out as a waiter, worked in the kitchen and ultimately part of the management team. It was there that I learned that I loved food. I continued to work there after I graduated from University, but had to give it up due to the demands of my engineering role. I promised myself that I would get back into food at some point in my life since it was an Industry that I truly loved even more than the engineering.

I moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1996 so that my Partner, Richard Perdriau, and I could start our life together. Melbourne is an amazing city rich in diversity, and has an incredible café/restaurant culture. The food and coffee here is second to none in my opinion. In fact the café culture is so unique that several café operators have opened Melbourne style cafes in New York City and are named after streets in Melbourne: Little Collins, Brunswick and Bluestone Lane to name a few.

After 21 years as an Engineer/ Risk Management Consultant I felt that I was either going to make good on that promise I made to myself or spend the rest of my life talking about it. I was becoming disillusioned with the corporate world - the empty promises, limits and playing by the rules of someone else's game so I decided to make good on that promise.

Having always enjoyed chocolate as a treat, I never realized I was so obsessed with it. My Partner gave me a gift voucher to a Masterclass at a Melbourne culinary school located in one of the hotels in the city - it was a pastry class that included chocolate. From the moment I walked into that kitchen I was obsessed and I knew then that chocolate had found me.

At this stage, I thought long and hard about how I would make the transition from engineer to chocolatier. I put a plan into place, keeping in mind that I needed to use everything that I had learned in my life prior, including the good and the bad. But for the first time, I used it to my advantage. And that is what I did. I channeled the displeasure I was feeling in my Risk Management career into fuel for my chocolate venture and I didn't let anything stop me. For a year I reeducated myself giving up weekends and vacations to attend classes, but largely to practice on my own. I started in 2009 and created my business, Cioccolato Lombardo. In 2010 I felt I was ready to make the change to permanent chocolatier and give up engineering.

The area where I live in Melbourne is only about four miles from the downtown Central Business District of Melbourne. To equate this to an area of New York City, it is very much like Brooklyn. For many years, I have been a huge fan of a restaurant which is located two streets away from my home called Attica Restaurant. Over time, I watched this restaurant catapult itself into the World's Top 50 best Restaurants, which was the result of the hard work and dedication of Executive Chef Ben Shewry. I thought that with my business I wanted to pitch it at the top of the tree so I decided to email Ben and see about the possibilities of my chocolate and Attica. We began to work together on a collaboration and this continues even to this day.

Who have been some of your mentors in the field?

As I mentioned, Ben Shewry has been a mentor and close friend since I started in chocolate. He and his family have been an incredible support to me. My friends and childhood memories of sweet treats inspire me. I enjoy recreating chocolates that I enjoyed as a child but with the best ingredients and sometimes my own interpretation. For example, I have chocolates that are inspired by York Peppermint Patties, Bounty Bars, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I even do a peanut butter and jelly chocolate as well as a pumpkin pie chocolate keeping my American roots well and truly at the forefront of what I do.

What have been some of the challenges of your business?

Starting, owning and running your own business from the ground up is one of the most rewarding and exhausting things I have ever done. I knew it would be hard, but I don't think I really knew how hard it would be until I started doing it. There are daily challenges, cash flow, exhaustion, pressure to be on the cutting edge, etc. But probably the most important things I have learned in my experience are that patience, perseverance and at times stubbornness go a long way. The hours can be very long; there have been times when I work 7 days a week, 12 to 18 hours a day. But I push through because I love it.

We are impressed with your customized delights. Tell us a little about your most elaborate order to date.

Probably the most elaborate chocolate creation I have done to date was actually a wedding cake. For this particular wedding the theme was organic food. The flower arrangements on the tables were herbs, carrots, etc in terracotta pots. and there were branches suspended from the ceiling of the reception area. So I designed a wedding cake with that in mind and used real cabbage leaves as my chocolate molds. It was a three-tiered cake. I can send a photo if you like, just let me know.

How many people do you have working with you at present?

Currently, I am the main person who does pretty much everything in the business, which is another challenge, however, on Saturdays I have help in the retail shop.

We asked Tad Lombardo about his plans for future of Cioccolato Lombardo.

There are plans for growth in the future but only when the business is ready. Hopefully over the next few months, I will double the size of my shop/kitchen. With this expansion I plan to hire another chocolatier as well as someone to manage retail sales in the shop. This will allow me to focus on the business side and expand it a more but while maintaining creative and quality control. I certainly don't want a Cioccolato Lombardo shop on every street corner but I would love to be able to have a shop in my hometown of New Providence, NJ and one in New York City. That would be a dream come true for me.

For more information on the art of chocolate and Cioccolto Lombardo in Australia, visit http://www.cioccolatolombardo.com.

Photo Credit: Colin Page