Today we’d like to introduce you to Bob Karisny.
Hi Bob, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Much of my culinary career has been spent in Menu and Menu Item Development for large national restaurant companaies. While that type of work had many challenges it didn’t fully challenge my creative culinary mind. I had made chocolate truffles in all my jobs since gradualting from the Culinary Institute of America. I thought this would be a good place to challenge that part of my mind. So I used my culinary training to develop flavors and my R&D mind to break and fix recipes. I made thousands of chocolate truffles while I was still working for large corporations. I used those truffles for charitable fund raisers and gave them away to friends and family. A few years back my corporate job was moving from Cheyenne to Minneapolis. I have grandchicldren in Fort Collins so I thought it was best to stay close to them. This was the birth of Audacious Truffles. I thought I could try and take those thousands of truffles and years of flavor and recipe development and make them into a business. I didn’t see Farmers Markets as being the best place to sell chocolate (selling chocolate in the middle of a parking lot in the summer can be a challenge), but I tried it and I love it. The people I have met as guests and fellow vendors are wonderful people. If anyone asks if I am a chocolatier i tell them I am a chocolate truffle maker. By that I mean I want to master the craft of making chocolate truffles rather than making a variety of chocolate confections. I was told by a fellow Japenese vendor in their language and culture this is called Takumi.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am at a different stage in my life. I started my first business when I was in my early 60’s so while I wanted work to keep my mind and body busy, I wasn’t looking to build a large business for myself. Since my expectations were not set as high as if I were looking to create a larger business, I was able to take the business as it was given to me. so the road was neither smooth or filled with struggles. If anything the only struggle was how best to fulfill the business’ name Audacious Truffles. Audacious is not a brag on the chocolate truffles I make but rather an audacious prayer I made about what purpose the business can provide to others. So far that prayer is still being figured out so maybe that is a struggle in my mind.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Audacious Truffles?
As of today I am a one person business. In my corporate business days we would work on many business strategies and ways to easily describe our business. We called this a 30 second elevator speach or how could I clearly describe my business to someone I didn’t know, in 30 seconds. Here is how we do that at Audacious Truffles:
We work hard to keep our truffles Fun, Flavorful and Honest.
We slowly reduce flavors from real, Honest ingredients, sometimes up to 36 hours or more. This way, a strawberry cream truffle tastes like fresh strawberries and real rich cream. And each truffle comes with a story, because food with a story is more Fun and creates an experience greater than just eating a piece of chocolate. Lastly, we stay Flavorful with ever-changing flavor varieties to keep your taste buds on their toes.
I like to use ingredients from fellow farmers market vendors, local growers, distillers, brewers, wine makers and other food artisans. I make my own soft cheeses and butter from Morning Fresh Dairy ingredients because I think they have the best dairy in the state. I am always learning, always tweaking and always trying to improve the confections I sell to my guests, so I just focus only on making chocolate truffles in a large variety of flavors (for my farmers markets I make 4 new flavors each week for 25 weeks).
How do you think about luck?
The best luck I have is to be part of the farmers market community. I mean this from both sides of the table, those guests who come to the front of my table and those fellow vendors who stand behind their table. It is a culture like no other I have been part of and it is very fulfilling.
Pricing:
- Box of 4 ever changing truffle flavors = $18 discount given for 2 or more boxes.
- Special pricing for larger orders for businesses and special occasions
Contact Info:
- Website: https://audacioustruffles.com
- Instagram: @audacioustruffles
- Facebook: @audacioustruffles
