It turns out that a scientific background can inspire the art of making fudge.
Gary Ponder started making fudge as a 10-year-old with a serious sweet tooth. “I was doing it the old-fashioned way, taking a small dab of the fudge out of the saucepan and dropping it into a bowl of cold water to test the consistency. I was a perfectionist and it seemed like I would try 400 samples, dripping fudge everywhere. I made such a mess that my sister still remembers it.”
But she also remembers how good it was. For years Gary made fudge for his family and everyone looked forward to it. But to Gary, he hadn’t reached fudge perfection yet. Using the recipe his mother had given him, he tried all sorts of variations.
“I sampled fudge every where we went. Even though I liked to eat it and it satisfied my sweet tooth, it never seemed to be exactly what I was searching for.”
As an adult, Gary became a chemical engineer. Fudge-making took a back seat to his grown-up career, but everyone knew that he still liked fudge. A contractor that he did business with gave him two 10-pound bars of chocolate as a gag gift, one dark chocolate and one milk chocolate.
“It sat on the shelf for a while. My daughter Lauren ate half of the milk chocolate bar. I decided that I didn’t want to just throw the rest away, so I made some fudge. I was hooked again. Lauren and my wife Beth were enthusiastic partners, so together we began our quest for the perfect fudge.”
Gary’s approach was very scientific. He is a product chemist, so he knew the importance of keeping notes on every fudge experiment he tried. “I just had a passion for it. I knew how to take laboratory investigations and scale them up to a larger production process, but it still took me three years to get the right combination of chocolates, the right process, and consistent results.”
The two things that mattered most to Gary were flavor and texture. Speaking like the scientist he is, he says, “Fudge is a super-saturated solution. It’s very difficult to keep the ‘grain size’ below the detection limit for the palate.” What he means is that the key is the creaminess.
In late 2005 Napa Valley Fudge Company was started as a family business with Beth and Lauren taking on the administration and marketing, while Gary made the fudge.
“In my career I’ve managed a lot of people. My biggest frustration is wanting to make everyone happy and knowing that I can’t always do it. That’s one of the wonderful things about this business: everyone lights up at the mention of fudge and when they eat our fudge, it makes them happy. It’s the best motivation for me that there is!”
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