With the curiosity and persistence that Lorena Galasso has, almost (absolutely) anything could be achieved.. Of course the environment has to help, also a little luck, a childhood where grandmothers and grandfathers knew how to be buddies, and a mother and father who gave each other the most tempting gifts.
Maria Cristina Gamallohis mother, loved chocolate. Ricardo Osvaldo Galasso, her father, gave her boxes of chocolates that María Cristina knew how to hide very well but that Lorena found better. With the chocolates under her arm, the girl would find a corner and she would sit down to eat her little delicacies. Then, as if to say “nothing has happened here,” she arranged the few chocolates that she had left and returned the box to her place.
José Abel Gamallohis maternal grandfather, some afternoons arrived on a bicycle, and took out a bunch of chocolates from his bag. Jack with collectible dolls, stuffed in that chocolate capsule. Violeta Lidia Burón, her maternal grandmother, bought a white chocolate and walnut alfajor that she shared with Lorena. Today a reversal can be found in The Romeas -the happy granddaughter’s chocolate factory-, with buffalo and walnut dulce de leche, which comes with a little love sign “For the unforgettable moments with grandmother Violeta”.
Romeo Ricardo Galassohis paternal grandfather and giver of the name of the brand founded in 2010kept cans with candies and sweets of all kinds. How Lorena wasn’t going to become the expert she isin terms of cocoa beans, terroir and chocolates. How could he not speak with the fascination with which he speaks, if what he does is, in some way, in honor of those grandmothers and grandfathers who founded part of his childhood. “We care about everything,” she says. “The soil, the plant, the climate, the terroir, the producer. How to pay that producer, that there is no child slave labor. We care about what happens in the entire process.”
This is how it came about The Romeas. Without additives, preservatives, or stabilizers. Dark chocolates of 70, 75, 80, 90, 100 percent cocoa from different origins, and 100 percent (always) of love and passion.
Lorraine studied Design in Visual Communication in the city of La Plata. Admire the aesthetics of a curve, a texture, a color, all these things that could easily be found in a chocolate bonbon. But that only happened in 2010, when he founded a chocolate factory that had, before a bar, an alfajor or a bonbon, the name The Romeas in honor of one of her grandparents, and that childhood where sweets enjoyed the throne of a queen.
Now, chocolate is becoming a food, that is the search that Lorena Galasso is doing. “A well-made chocolate from the seed provides antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. The largest proportion will always be in the fresh fruit or the nibs, obviously,” says this expert who, In 2018, he gave a chocolate tasting for professionals from the European Parliament. “They were surprised with all the prevailing and necessary information there is, when choosing a chocolate to consume. And throughout the entire product path, traceability and good practices are required,” he says. Lorena talked about cobs, harvests, fermentation, nibs, traceability, origin, flowering, grain, husk, refining and tempering.
After creating The Romeas and with the title of designer, she studied chocolate making at the Buenos Aires Master Pastry School, and the factory began to produce chocolate, but she lacked information, she knew there was more. In 2016 she decided to take a trip to Europa and visit the most important chocolate shops: Domori y Amedei in Italy, Pierre Marcolini in Belgiumwhere he also visited the city of Lebbeke to meet a multinational chocolate company; Patrick Roger in France that, together with Pierre Marcolini, they had an aesthetic vision that specifically interested her. “But the trip went further. I ended up in many other small and large chocolate shops, very careful in terms of cocoa and others that were very commercial. I walked a lot, I let myself go to learn, and that’s how I saw the differences in chocolate shops that had traceability and good practices.”, he reports.
The result was an overweight suitcase where there were books and many chocolate bars to taste and continue studying.. Thus she spent two years being a self-taught person who read and tried chocolates, cocoa of various origins: Congo, Cuzco, Piura, Emeralds, Vietnam, Java, Chuao. Later came the trip to Peru – the largest supplier of cocoa beans The Romeas-; arrive Nuria Martínezhis Colombian teacher and trainer, agricultural engineer and professor of National Agrarian University La Molina, Peru, The trip to that country arrived, with his partner Claudio Javier Santarsieri, owner of a wine distribution company; field work on farms, with producers, specialists and engineers, with whom they continue to work, and the implementation of the “Bean to bar” concept, from the grain to the tablet and “Tree to bar”, from the tree to the tablet, which requires absolute traceability. Clear, The magic of Lorena Galasso arrived stored in a box that, when opened, manages to expand the world of chocolate to infinity and beyond.
Varieties of Chuncho, Vrae15 and 99, Wild cocoas, Contamana and Curacay, Ecuadorian Nacional, Nacional del Marañon, Krislala and Kriskawas, CRA, aromatic mix, Amelonados, criollos and modern criollos, various clones, Copoazú, Eshpe, Majambo. These are some of the cocoa beans and other Theobromas that Lorena works with, coming from Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Venezuela, Colombia, each with its own particularity. terroir and meters above sea level, which, together with their genetics, achieve their own identity.
When she places the heavy white hard plastic box on a factory table, the cook Maximo Cabrera He opens his eyes, then Lorena lifts the lid and he exclaims like a child, “Wow, this is like the magic box”. This is how the box with which Lorena does tastings was named, she works with different chefs such as Alexander Feraud and Tomas Treschanskior curates grains for Anchoiteone of the most requested restaurants in the city.
Inside the box are jars with all those cocoa beans. There are cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, beans in jars, dried pod halves, mucilage and flours, dehydrated husks, dehydrated pod husks. Everything, absolutely everything, is extracted from a cocoa pod and nothing is thrown away… rather it is transformed. The Romeas It is not only a factory, it is a laboratory where it is investigated, tested and discovered. “We want to go beyond cocoa for chocolate. Dabbling in different areas, mainly in gastronomy with chefs, in everything that is salty food and drinks. Show the breadth that the product has for other types of uses,” says Lorena, and while we’re at it, we make it the million dollar question.
Clap, clap, music to my ears. Chocolate must have a particular sound, “the clap or snap is the sound that a bar makes when it breaks when it is perfectly tempered; the best It is what one likes to consume, what gives one pleasure and satisfies one. “Argentina has a European palate, it is going to look for products with a refinement, as if it were silk in the mouth, that is the texture of Europe,” he responds..
Latin America is the place of origin of cocoa, although Europe had a lot of participation in the development of techniques and machines.. When we talk about Swiss chocolate, for example, it is because the chocolate was produced in Switzerland, but the beans are not Swiss. There are several conditions that must be met for a chocolate to be good (beyond personal preference). So, and here comes the “rigor of truth”, the word of a connoisseur, “For me the best chocolate is the one that is made with excellent cocoa, that is well processed, and that manages to maintain the aromatic notes. Let it be silky in the mouth and, in addition, continue to maintain the aromatic notes that give the product its personality. That would be my definition of the best chocolate, technically speaking.. The recommendation is to always read the labels: the first product that label should contain is cocoa paste or cocoa mass, cocoa butter,” he explains.
Hoy, The Romeas, with its lines Amantheo and Sabecacao -composed by Lorena, Claudio, Agostina Salas del Fueyoher daughter and partner in the project, and Macarena Santa CruzLorena’s right hand, works with three areas of Peru: Cusco, San Martín and Amazonas; It has limited edition products from other areas and is in constant dialogue with producers.
They elaborate dark chocolates from microlots of cocoa from different origins, in percentages of 100, 90, 80, 75 and 70 percent; 7 varieties of alfajoresamong which is one with pistachio creamanother with dulce de leche and cardamomand the famous alfajor in tribute to grandmother Violeta, with buffalo dulce de leche (unforgettable); signature chocolates with fine aromatic chocolates of origin and fillings of different varieties; caramelized almonds and hazelnuts coated in natural cocoa, local truffles.
They do not use additives, preservatives, or stabilizers and continue persevering in the idea of making something delicious and, at the same time, taking care of the earth“We have micro plots with chuncho cocoa plants that we have planted with the idea of maintaining them, monitoring them. Give back to the earth even a little of what it gives us in cocoa fruits”, he concludes.
Orders are only managed with home delivery from the website: www.lasromeas.com. IG: @lasromeas @loregalasso. Mail: [email protected]. Consultations and Events and business gifts, Cocoa Tastings and Tribute to Cocoa, call T: 11 5126 6396, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
