USA

The universal love for chocolate first inspired Norman to become a chocolatier. After learning the craft of pastry-making in France, Norman served as executive pastry chefs for many luxury resorts including The Beverly Hills Hotel and The Ritz-Carlton. He continued his career with The Ritz-Carlton when he was appointed to the position of corporate executive pastry chef where he oversaw global pastry and baking operations. During his 13 years in the position, he opened 30 hotel and resort pastry kitchens in international and domestic locales as Boston, Dubai and Bali.

Chocolatier and Pastry Art and Design magazine named him one of the country’s top 10 pastry chefs in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, he led the U.S. team to a bronze medal in the biennial Coup du Monde de la Patisserie (World Cup of Pastry) competition in Lyons, France, which featured the top pastry chefs from 18 nations. In 2001, Norman Love left the corporate world and entered into private enterprise, and founded Norman Love Confections.

In addition to annual new and limited edition holiday flavors, Norman most recently launched Norman Love Confections BLACK™, an ultra-premium line of intensely dark chocolates featuring rich origin chocolates from five of finest growing regions in the world. Norman and his chocolates have been featured in USA Today, The Today Show, Robb Report, InStyle and Entrepreneur magazines.

Regarding this year’s competition, Norman said “with the accelerated growth in the chocolate industry over the past few years and extremely talented contestants in this year’s event, I am anticipating a very inspiring competition which should bring new cutting edge techniques which certainly will pave the road with inspiration and ideas for chocolatiers and pastry chefs worldwide.”