Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli (; February 21, 1817 – January 17, 1894) was an Italian-born chocolatier who was the founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Biography

Early life

Domenico Ghirardelli was born on February 21, 1817, in

Rapallo Rapallo ( , , ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in the Italy, Italian region of Liguria. As of 2017 it had 29,778 inhabitants. It lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, on the Tigullio Gulf, between Portofino and ...

, Italy, to Giuseppe and Maddalena ( Ferretto) Ghirardelli. His father was a spice merchant in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. In his teens, he apprenticed at Romanengo, a noted

chocolatier A chocolatier ( ; ; ) is a person or company that makes and sells chocolate confections. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other raw ingredients. Chocolatiers work artisanally with pre- ...

in Genoa. At about the age of twenty, in 1838, he moved to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, then in 1838 to

Lima, Peru Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, where he established a

confectionery Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two bro ...

, and began using the Spanish equivalent of his Italian name, Domingo. In 1849 he moved to

on the recommendation of his former neighbor, James Lick, who had brought 600 pounds of chocolate with him to

in 1848. Caught up in the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

, he opened his first store in a mining camp to sell sweets and treats to miners who were lacking the small pleasures of life. Ghirardelli spent a few months in the

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

fields near

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

and Jamestown, before becoming a merchant in Hornitos, California.

Career

In 1852, he moved to San Francisco and established the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company at what would come to be known as Ghirardelli Square. According to the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' he is San Francisco's most successful chocolatier.SF Chronicle, July 25, 2010. "Where to Find Celebrities' Resting Places" by Charlie Wells Around the year 1865, a worker at the Ghirardelli factory discovered that by hanging a bag of ground

cacao bean The cocoa bean, also known as cocoa () or cacao (), is the dried and fully fermented seed of ''Theobroma cacao'', the cacao tree, from which cocoa solids (a mixture of nonfat substances) and cocoa butter (the fat) can be extracted. Cacao trees ...

s in a warm room, the

cocoa butter Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, edible Vegetable oil, fat extracted from the cocoa bean (''Theobroma cacao''). It is used to make chocolate, as well as some ointments, toiletries, and pharmaceuticals. Cocoa butter h ...

would drip off, leaving behind a residue that could then be converted into ground chocolate. This technique, known as the

Broma process In chocolate making, the Broma process is a method of extracting cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans, credited to an employee working for the chocolatier Domingo Ghirardelli. The Broma process involves hanging bags of chocolate liquor, made fr ...

is now the most common method used for the production of chocolate.

Personal life

Ghirardelli married Elisabetta Corsini (nicknamed "Bettina"), a native of Italy, in 1837. She died in 1846. Ghirardelli married Carmen Alvarado Martin (1830–1887) in

, in 1847. Her first husband had been a French physician who had been lost at sea, and she had an eight-month-old child, Carmen. He and Carmen had seven children: Virginia (1847–1867); Domenico Jr. (1849–1932); Joseph Nicholas (1852–1906); Elvira (1856–1908); Louis (1857–1902); Angela (1859–1936); and Eugene Gustave (1860–?).

Death

USA-Oakland-Mountain View Cemetery-Tomb of Ghirardelli family-6

He died on January 17, 1894, in Rapallo, Italy from influenza. His body was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California along with the rest of his family.

References

;Notes ;Citations

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghirardelli, Domingo 1817 births 1894 deaths Immigrants to the United States Businesspeople from San Francisco People of the California Gold Rush Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Chocolatiers Businesspeople in confectionery 19th-century American inventors Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) 19th-century American businesspeople People from the Kingdom of Sardinia