Sweet desire: Art, Italian heritage infuse Longmont woman’s custom chocolates

When some people sleep, they dream about faraway places or stresses at work.

But when Vanessa Metalli Dionne’s head hits the pillow, sleep tends to take her into the kitchen, where she dreams about combinations of spices and ingredients that might taste delicious in her chocolates.

Vanessa Metalli Dionne uses her artistic background, Italian heritage -- even her dreams -- to create her Desiderio Chocolates. Julie Fowler photo

Those nighttime concoctions have resulted in some award-winning recipes, too, working to the advantage of her real-life business, Desiderio Chocolates.

Italian born and raised, Dionne says she’s been creating recipes for nearly as long as she can remember. The Italian system of high school, which is different than in the United States, allowed her to focus her education on art.

After she finished school, Dionne fed her interest in cooking by working in her family’s restaurant in Rome.
“Pastries were my thing at the restaurant,” says Dionne, who sells her handmade chocolates on the internet and in Longmont at Glacier Ice Cream and The Cheese Importers. “I helped with desserts and breads. I took a few classes and joined the Italian Pastry Association.”

From there, Dionne’s journey took her into the kitchen of a popular vegetarian restaurant in Rome and eventually to America. She will tell you that the things that make her chocolates different than others are the quality of her ingredients and the passion that goes into making each batch.

Dionne says she uses chocolate from a single region in Venezuela, fresh cream and butter, good quality liquor, and top quality local mix-ins such as Colorado honey, organic fruit, and Left Hand Brewing Company beer. For example, she’s partnered with Left Hand to use their brews in her Imperial Stout chocolate, which combines milk chocolate ganache, cream and the brewery’s Imperial Stout.

“Everybody pairs chocolate with wine,” she says in an accent thick with her heritage. “I wanted to pair chocolate with beer.”

And then there’s her passion that is evident as she talks and gestures about how she molds and paints each piece and her ability to put unique flavors together.

“I always had this passion for making things,” says Dionne, whose background in art also is evident in her designs. “I have a hard time following a recipe. I have to put a little of my own thing into everything.”

While necessity requires Dionne to work full-time on the custodial staff at the Federal Aviation Administration, she knows that in a roundabout way, it’s that job that led to finding her love for chocolate. It was there that she took her first batch of truffles to share with friend in various departments.
She remembers coworkers saying, “You should be selling these chocolates.”

“For me, working in the kitchen is a stress relief,” says Dionne, whose company name means “desire”. in Italian. “I spent the next two years experimenting in the kitchen trying different types of chocolate. I got a little addicted.”

But her addiction has paid off. That’s because at the Colorado Chocolate Festival, Dionne won best traditional flavor for her Gianduja Chocolate, a traditional Italian flavor made with 100 percent pure Italian hazelnut paste, and best truffle for her Asia creation that combines five Chinese spices with a double layer of milk chocolate ganache and white chocolate coconut.

When asked how she manages to create delicious chocoate without overindulging, Dionne says it’s easy.
“For me, it’s not about the eating. It’s about the making and the smelling. I think I’m like my grandma. I get more from the enjoyment of watching other people enjoy my chocolate.”

Email: juliefowler3@gmail.com