Forbes magazine asks, “Is it chocolate or is it art?” The esteemed U.S. business journal isn’t talking about some New York or L.A. creation, but about what artist John Down has made at his little chocolate factory nestled away in the hills above Halfmoon Bay.
In Forbes’ Oct. 11 issue, contributor Sherrie Nachman features Down’s and partner Joe Guiliano’s company, Christopher Norman Chocolates, and specifically its latest “artistic edibles” – a Halloween-themed box of “stunning squares. Seriously scary cats, spider webs, skeletons and pumpkins almost too beautiful to eat.”
You’d think a Sunshine Coast company would be over the moon about getting exposure in a publication south of the border, with more than six million readers at the high end of the disposable-income scale. But while Down and Guiliano are pleased, they’re a little hard to impress – they’ve been there before.
“John’s been on TV with Martha Stewart and Anthony Bourdain, and we were in Forbes a few times before,” Guiliano told Coast Reporter, adding that they’ve made candy bars for big U.S. corporate clients and New York’s Guggenheim Museum. And then there’s the Oprah Winfrey connection. “She had a box of painted chocolates we made as one of her gifts of the year for Christmas. We sold thousands of those boxes after that.” No kidding.
That was back in the day, when New Yorker Guiliano and Vancouver-born Down lived in New York City, and for about 20 years Christopher Norman Chocolates was one of the biggest names in the business. But living and working too long in the area around the devastated World Trade Centre cost them both their health. “At one point, Joe’s lungs were so bad, they gave him six months to live,” said Down. Guiliano defied the prognosis, and they moved to the Coast in 2013, where Down’s mother lived, and bought a house on Leaning Tree Road, where they’ve set up shop, hand-making and distributing their delicious, premium wares to dozens of retailers.
It’s a happy outcome in a competitive business, but it’s one that Down never intended to pursue, and had started out on as a lark. “One night [in 1990] after one of his art shows opened in New York, we decided to make some chocolates,” Guiliano recalled. The sweets were a big hit with friends and colleagues. “After one year, we had a factory making chocolates and had 12 people working for us.” It was full-time and hugely successful, but not at the heart of Down’s ambition.
Formally trained at the Vancouver School of Art before it became Emily Carr University, Down has been a painter since his youth. He has shown in more than 30 exhibitions and still turns out dense, high-energy abstracts from a small out-building on his property, away from the chocolate factory. As an Art Crawl venue this year and in 2018, Down displayed no chocolates, but happily showed off dozens of his paintings, and plans to create many more canvasses and exhibits. “I’m ready to go for it again,” he said.
The Halloween box from Christopher Norman Chocolates is available on the Coast at Plethora Fine Foods in Sechelt, and online at www.cnchocloates.com
