A signature.

Today is a perfect day to make chocolate and that is what I just finished doing, the completion of chocolate tiles, cooling and getting ready for the next step of wrapping.

As I contend with many different factors while creating these chocolate tiles, I am aware that I have a signature in my chocolate.  Painters and weavers, carpenters and architects, and all those who create for a living, have a signature.  I recently read of a newly found painting assumed to be painted by Leonardo da Vinci's very hand, without his pupils,  now under scrutiny by those who know his signature, to prove or disprove the paintings creator.  My chocolate flavor profile and the tiles themselves have my signature stamped all over them.  For the record, I make no claim of being a master painter or even a master chocolate maker.  I still have much to learn.

I make my chocolate by hand, and the imperfections tend to be repeatable.  In fact, I am not sure that I can make something completely perfect, like a machine can, and, if one day I hire someone to do some of this process of chocolate making, how that will affect my signature and is this good or bad?  I do try new methods and, even as I explore a new way of creating the tiles, I make certain style decisions that identify me as the maker.

In the end, I have product that does not last long, as does a da Vinci painting, so my signature is fleeting, but a brief moment of recognition is worth all the work I put into making chocolate.