Peter Dale: Condor Chocolates (Athens, GA)

You know how some childhood foods become taste touchstones that live in a memory? Well, for brothers Nick and Peter Dale of Athens, GA, that taste was Ecuadorian chocolate. When they went to visit their mom's family there on vacations and holidays, there was just something special about that chocolate, something they could never quite taste outside of the country. And for a future chef like Peter Dale, that was the fuel for a creative journey. See in 2012, Peter was named The People's Best New Chef of the Southeast by Food & Wine Magazine, as well as a Rising Star Chef. He helped Hugh Acheson, who he worked with at Five & Ten, open Empire State South in Atlanta, and since then, Peter has become an Athens chef powerhouse, with The National, Seabear Oyster Bar, and Maepole. In the middle of all that restaurant work, in 2014, he and his brother Nick created Condor Chocolates, which imports Ecuadorian chocolate, then produces and sells bean-to-bar chocolate bars, truffles, sipping chocolate, gelato and a variety of confections. It's their homage to the birthplace of their mother, a testament to the sense of adventure that brought their Dad to her, and a celebration of that taste of Ecuador, home of some of the finest cacao in the world.