Brooklyn chocolatier has sweet spot for Dominican Republic.
“There’s an expression in chocolate: Every step is the most important step”
By Ana Sofia Pelaez / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
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Daniel Prieto Preston, an aerospace engineer and inventor, started and sold a company that specialized in neon sign electrodes, then developed satellite guided parachutes used by the U.S. military.
When he was done with that, in 2009, he turned his attention to something decidedly different and very challenging: making organic “beans to bar” chocolate.
Los Prieto, una familia unida por el cacao
Written By: Silvina Sterin Pensel para EDLP | El Diario
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Muchos en el vecindario lo tildan de héroe; una suerte de redentor que le cambió la cara a esta zona de Brooklyn donde una enorme construcción en la esquina de las calles Conover y Coffey permaneció abandonada durante 22 años. Es él quien con una mezcla de agallas, confianza en el área y sobre todo en sí mismo, logró que este complejo de edificios de 1846 diera un giro de 180 grados convirtiéndolo en la fábrica de chocolate Cacao Prieto; una de las joyitas de Red Hook. “Siempre me encantó este barrio y no solamente trabajo aquí, vivo en el último piso”, dice Daniel Prieto, el hombre detrás de la idea y de casi todo en esta dulce iniciativa que, –a partir de este fin de semana– abre sus puertas al público en la que será la primera tienda de Cacao Prieto.
Gastronomics: Building a Megabusiness From the Ground Up (Literally)
By: Felix Salmon, from newyork.grubstreet.com
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The food business has even more startups than the tech business: Every new restaurant, coffee cart, farm, dairy, and butcher shop is a story of micro-entrepreneurship. (In the case of restaurateurs who think very small, the advantages are clear.) The model is pretty straightforward: Come up with the idea, find the space, get the money, find your ingredients (preferably local and/or organic), sell your value-added product. But a new breed of owners are flipping the equation.
Still Life: New York’s distillery boom revives a spirited tradition.
Story by Paul ClarkePhotos, from ImbibeMagazine.com
One thousand to one. As ratios go, this one’s pretty fierce. It’s also roughly the ratio of the number of small-scale distilleries scattered across New York at the state’s 19th-century peak to the number that existed in New York less than 10 years ago.
One thousand to one would also have been the likely odds of New York’s distilling industry ever bouncing back, had you wished to place a bet on such a thing in 1920, after the Volstead Act shuttered the state’s last legal distilleries. But some people are attracted to long odds, and when that happens, something that seemed less than possible can suddenly appear inevitable. As the old slogan for the New York State Lottery put it, “All You Need is a Dollar and a Dream”—a dollar doesn’t go quite so far nowadays, but a dream? That still counts for something.
From Rocket Science to the Language of Love: Chocolate at Cacao Prieto
By Jade Doskow from the Huffington Post
Photographer and educator in New York.
The large brick building near Coffey Street in Red Hook had always caught my eye—-especially when it was renovated to create double-height 30+ foot ceilings and a correspondingly gigantic set of doors. There was always a bustle of people in and out, and it seemed that some sort of wonderful and top-secret operation was going on at all times.
It turns out that I was right in my suspicions. Behind those huge doors were bags and bags of cacao beans, and some magnificent machinery specially invented to create artisanal chocolates and correspondingly sweet rum. And seeing as Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, what better time to turn my lens to such a subject?
Just in Time for Valentine’s Day: The Best Chocolates in America
Unique Chocolate Liquor May Be Recession-Proof
“Unique Chocolate liquor may be recession proof” – from International Business Times – Featuring our Red Hook chocolate factory.
By Sally Turner | Jan 30, 2012 12:14pm EST | Video length: 5min:43sec
Cacao Prieto, the artisan chocolate factory, was founded by inventor and former aerospace engineer Daniel Preston. Following a skydiving injury, Preston decided that he could design a better, safer parachute, one that would correct the design flaw that led to his own accident. The design was a major financial success and when Preston sold his controlling shares of the company he decided to go into the chocolate industry. He built his factory here in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood.
Aerospace Engineer Turns to Artisanal Chocolate
From bloomberg.com
Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — Bloomberg’s Cali Carlin reports on Dan Preston, a former aeronautical engineer who now makes artisanal chocolate and rum in Brooklyn. In 2009, Preston sold Atair Aerospace, his $22 million business that designed parachutes for the military. He then founded Cacao Holdings and began selling cacao-based rum through a company called Cacao Prieto. Carlin reports on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)
An Aeronautical Engineer Turned Willy Wonka
From businessweek.com. By Jonathan Keehner
In 2009 aeronautical engineer Dan Preston sold Atair Aerospace, a $22 million business that designed parachutes for the military. Largely barred from the defense industry by a noncompete clause, Preston, who holds more than 100 patents, sought a new direction. He found one while surveying his family’s property in the Dominican Republic, which contained a few small cacao farms. Contemplating the multicolored fruit, he saw untapped potential.
Made in Brooklyn: Cacao Prieto Chocolate by Alva French from CUNY J-School Video Storytelling on Vimeo.
Made in Brooklyn: Cacao Prieto Chocolate
From isnapny.com. October 21, 2011 by Jonathan Vit
Cacao Prieto, is probably Red Hook’s best kept secret. The chocolate factory in the heart of industrial Brooklyn, has quietly been making chocolate bonbons for private parties and to the public in its pop-up shop in DUMBO. Although, the pop-up shop closed at the end of the Spring season, the Red Hook factory is poised to open it’s doors to the public this summer. Visit Site…
