Trading Software for Chocolate
By Bill Spring
In her old job in software quality assurance, April Ervin was often the bearer of bad news, telling programmers and engineers what was wrong with their work.
These days Ervin is able to offer something far sweeter than criticism — chocolate.
She creates gourmet treats from simple molded chocolates to exquisite truffles and novelties for Richard Donnelly Chocolates (www.donnellychocolates.com) in Santa Cruz, California, and she loves every minute of it.
While growing up in Santa Cruz, Ervin pursued dance and athletics, but dreamed of being an anesthesiologist like her favorite uncle. Her future in medicine was cut short, however, when she learned she was rather squeamish about the sight of blood.
Instead, she turned to math, and in college interned at high-tech companies, including Netscape. After graduation in 1999, she landed a job at CrossWind Technologies, a developer of network productivity applications. But nine months into her tenure at the company, she was forced to deal with a family crisis.
"My mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer my senior year of college, so I almost didn't graduate," Ervin says. "The whole family stopped their lives to take care of her."
With her mother's health deteriorating rapidly, Ervin quit her job and started living off savings. "I took care of her so my dad could keep working, to keep health insurance," she says.
Following her mother's death in 2001, Ervin says her heart wasn't in returning to the tech world.
She could not bear the thought of returning to the 80-hour workweeks, which left her little time to spend with family and friends. "I feel like I missed out on the last couple years of my mom's life because of (my job)."
Unsure of what she wanted to do, Ervin answered a job listing for Richard Donnelly Chocolates, which needed retail and general help for the 2001 Christmas season. Ervin had no experience working in food or retail, but Donnelly liked her attitude and her sense of humor, and gave her the job.
Richard Donnelly Chocolates is a small operation, with a maximum of four employees in the peak season of Christmas to Easter, and a minimum of two workers in the off-season. Ervin went to work packing boxes and serving customers, and found that she enjoyed it a lot more than sitting in front of a computer screen. Knowing that Donnelly couldn't afford to keep her on year-round, Ervin began looking for ways to justify her job, like selling the company's products at local farmer's markets.
"I generated enough revenue to keep me there full time," she says.
Then, in 2002, the woman who made most of Richard's chocolate decided to move back to Spain. Although Donnelly still made some of the chocolates himself, his time was better spent developing new products and building his brand name. He needed someone to take over in the kitchen. He offered the job to Ervin.
With no real experience making chocolate, Ervin began to train on the job, learning the secret techniques of this much-revered culinary art.
At first, this was a shock to those who knew her. "I used to burn water," she explains. "I couldn't cook to save my life. My husband and I ate out every night."
Learning the tricks of the trade was not easy.
"I kept ruining (the chocolates)," she explains.
But with practice and dedication, plus a course at the Callebaut chocolate school in Montreal, Canada, Ervin turned herself into an expert. Today she makes the majority of Donnelly's award-winning chocolates, using the highest quality ingredients and crafting every batch by hand.
"It's a blast," she says.
Working with gourmet chocolates has changed Ervin's tastes. "I have definitely grown an appreciation for good, dark chocolate," she says.
She has also grown a new appreciation for life, with a career that makes her, and chocolate lovers across the globe, very happy.
"I can see myself doing this when I'm 50 or 60," she says, "and still enjoying it just as much."
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