Ghirardelli Made Life Better One Chocolate at a Time

An Italian merchant established one of America’s earliest and longest operating confectionary companies.

An early-20th century can of Ghirardelli powered chocolate. Victorgrigas/CC BY-SA 3.0

In 1849, Domingo Ghirardelli arrived in California intending to earn his fortune as a gold prospector. It was an unusual enterprise for the Italian-born merchant, who had, up until that point, been mentored and skilled primarily in the confectionary and candy industries.

He gambled on the promise of the wild American frontier—and it paid off. Ultimately, ground chocolate not gold bars would be the source of his prosperity. Despite setbacks that included a pair of devastating fires, Ghirardelli lived a deliciously successful story built on hard work, value, smarts, and reliability, and 175 years later, his surname is familiar worldwide.

Life of an Adventuresome Chocolatier

Son of a Genoese importer of spices and exotic foods, Domenico Ghirardelli (pronounced Gear-are-delly) was born in Rapallo, Italy, on Feb. 21, 1817. Giuseppe Ghirardelli exposed his son to a wide assortment of lively tastes, flavors, scents, and colors. Perhaps this early experience motivated him to learn the confectionary trade at a young age, apprenticing under a Genoese candymaker and chocolatier named Antonio Maria Romanengo.