Interview with Cecilia Tessieri from Amedei srl
As part of a new series of interviews with past winners of our awards, we spoke to Cecilia Tessieri from Amedei srl, who won our first ever ‘Golden Bean’ award back in 2005.
At the time, Amedei was relatively unknown to the global chocolate market. But since winning the top prize at the inaugural awards, it has become one of the industry’s most highly regarded bean to bar chocolate companies.
“Winning was very emotional for me and unexpected,” says Tessieri. “It was very early in our journey as a business, and we hadn’t done anything like this before so winning made the family and all of our employees very proud.”
The company won the best ‘Bean to Bar Chocolate Makers bar’ with their Chuao and Porcelana bars, with the former winning the very first Golden Bean.
Tessieri explains the efforts the business went to in order to create a product that they felt happy with: “When we won the award, we had only been in business for a few years, but we had actually been researching to find the best cocoa for years before that. There were many, many laboratory tests to help us develop a product which helped to create memorable chocolates with their unique and often complex characters.”
Since winning the award, the company has grown its business and markets its products in more than 30 countries in the world. Tessieri believes that there is a greater appreciation of fine chocolate since the business launched. “The awards have acted as a base to grow from. As soon as we won the award it really felt like the beginning of our journey.”
She says: “Awareness of great quality chocolates has encouraged us to develop new products. This has really changed over the years. We’ve used our awards to help communicate our message about chocolate and help people enjoy better products.
But the impact on the sector hasn’t been limited to good chocolate. As one of the first women to run a successful and award-winning business in the chocolate world, Tessieri has set an example to others and acted as an inspiration to many.
She says: “I am very proud to be one of the first women to change perception in the chocolate world. I have dedicated myself to selecting seeds and then processing them in the most efficient and quality-based manner. It’s great to see so many more women doing this now.”
Since winning their first awards, Amedei have gone on to win many more for their chocolate ranges including three more Golden Beans for their Toscano 63, Amedei 9 and Blanco de Criollo.
For more information on Amedei, please visit their website www.amedei.it/en and or contact their London/UK distributor KINGS FINE FOOD https://www.kingsfinefood.co.uk/index.php/chocolate-confectionery/amedei-chocolate.html ([email protected]) and REACH FOOD SERVICE https://www.reach-food.com/pastry ([email protected])