“You’ve got to know the standards and the structure, and then know what you can play with, and then you can do your own thing from that.”
Ranny Starnes is the co-owner and head chocolatier at Chocobella in Florence, SC. She develops and designs new chocolate bonbon flavors and makes them by hand with her team.
About
“My family owned a restaurant growing up, so I have been in the food and beverage business since I was born,” Ranny Starnes says. “I would have to go to work with my parents at, y’know, age three, age four, and like, hang out at the restaurant. That’s what we did. So, I knew that food was definitely going to be something that I really enjoyed. I loved it.”
Starnes majored in hospitality management and got the restaurant management job she wanted while she was still in school. After college, she moved to Pennsylvania to be near her brother and ran a deli with him while also working at Starbucks part-time. They decided to move back down to South Carolina, where Starnes became a Starbucks store manager and trainer in Florence. She took those skills to Dolce Vita, a wine and chocolate bar in downtown Florence, where she met their chocolatier and her current business partner. She began teaching herself how to make colored bonbons while also attending professional chocolate school Ecole Chocolat before opening her own business. Starnes’ interest in making chocolate was sparked by the owner of Dolce Vita, Dr. John Keith.
Starnes and her co-founder, Marvin James, opened Chocobella in November 2020 with Dr. Keith’s investment and blessing. They have a regular weekly schedule for making their painted bonbons. “It’s typically a five-day process,” Starnes says. Mondays are their paint day. “We use colored cocoa butters. They work very much like paint, except for they’re solid at room temperature,” Starnes says. “We use airbrushes, we use paint brushes, we use gloves, a whole different variety of styles to get the different designs on the different flavors of bonbons.” Tuesdays are their shelling days. Wednesdays are their filling days, and Thursdays and Fridays are for finishing up. “Every single week we do the same production schedule,” Starnes says. “You can do chocolates without all the paint, but for me, I’m already an artistic person… I have to be able to create.”
Starnes advises students who are interested in chocolate making to look into the many resources available online. She also encourages them to get a job in a restaurant. “I would definitely work in food somehow or another while you’re in school, or when you can,” she says. Most of all, she encourages them to be curious about food. “You have to learn the rules so you can break them,” she says. “Keep being creative, keep being curious.”
