Michael Antonorsi

2350 Camino Vida Roble, Carlsbad, CA 92011
1-760-814-6200
support@chuaochocolatier.com
Visit Chuao Chocolatier

From Engineering to California Chocolate

For Michael Antonorsi, chocolate connects family history, culinary curiosity and a dramatic career change. The Venezuelan-born chocolatier is the co-founder of Chuao Chocolatier, the California company recognised for pairing premium chocolate with ingredients ranging from chillies and cinnamon to popping candy and potato chips.

Antonorsi’s connection to cacao reaches back generations. His ancestors owned Aguasanta, a small Venezuelan farm known for cacao, while his childhood was shaped by both Venezuelan flavours and the European cooking of his German mother. Those influences eventually became part of a chocolate company that approaches flavour with an unusually playful spirit.

An Unexpected Route to the Kitchen

Antonorsi did not begin his professional life as a chef. At 16, he left Venezuela to study biomedical engineering at the University of California San Diego. After graduating, he returned to Venezuela, continued his education and built a career in telecommunications.

Cooking, however, remained a persistent interest.

In his mid-thirties, Antonorsi made the significant decision to change careers. He moved with his wife and daughters to Paris, where he trained in French cuisine at École Supérieure de Cuisine Française Ferrandi and pursued specialised pastry and chocolate training at École Lenôtre.

That combination of engineering, Venezuelan heritage and French culinary training would eventually shape his approach to chocolate.

Creating Chuao Chocolatier

In 2002, Michael and his brother Richard founded Chuao Chocolatier in California. The name pays tribute to Chuao, Venezuela, the cacao-growing region internationally associated with fine cacao.

The brothers opened their first chocolate café and boutique in Encinitas, later expanding into wholesale distribution.

Today, production is centred at Chuao’s Joy Factory in Carlsbad, California. The company continues to make its chocolates in small batches using chef-developed recipes and a proprietary chocolate blend that incorporates the flavour characteristics Antonorsi associates with Venezuelan cacao.

Finding Joy in Unexpected Flavours

Antonorsi’s chocolates frequently blur the line between fine confectionery and familiar snack foods.

The Firecracker Chocolate Bar combines dark chocolate with sea salt, chipotle and popping candy. The Potato Chip Chocolate Bar takes another unconventional route, combining milk chocolate with crushed kettle-cooked potato chips. Other current creations draw inspiration from s’mores, honeycomb, churros, pretzels and cookies.

Behind the playful combinations is a deliberate approach to flavour. Antonorsi favours a chocolate profile with some tartness and fruitiness, characteristics he connects with Venezuelan cacao.

The result is chocolate designed to surprise without losing sight of the chocolate itself.

Chocolate with Venezuelan Roots

Chuao’s growth has taken the company far beyond its original California boutique. Its products are now sold through selected retailers across the United States as well as through its online shop.

Yet Antonorsi’s Venezuelan background remains central to the company’s identity. Chuao says its chocolate is Fair Trade certified, while its sourcing philosophy emphasises responsible farming and working conditions within cacao-growing communities.

More than two decades after founding Chuao Chocolatier, Michael Antonorsi continues to combine the different chapters of his life in chocolate: Venezuelan cacao heritage, French culinary technique, scientific curiosity and California’s appetite for experimentation.