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Domenico(Domingo)Ghirardelli

Son of Giuseppe Ghirardelli and Maddalena Ferretto

Brother of Agnese Ghirardelli

Father of Virginia (Ghirardelli) Mangini, Domingo Ghirardelli, Joseph Nicholas Ghirardelli, Cesare Ghirardelli, Elvira (Ghirardelli) Sutton, Louis Ghirardelli, Angela (Ghirardelli) Jorgensen and Eugene August Ghirardelli

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Biography

Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli was born Feb. 21, 1817 to Giuseppe Ghirardelli and Madalena Ferretto.

He apprenticed at a fancy confectionary shop in Genoa. In 1837, he and his bride, Elisabetta "Bettina" Corsini, sailed to Montevideo, Uruguay. He worked there for a short time but then, in 1838, took the voyage around Cape Horn to Callao, Peru, and then settled in Lima. He opened a shop selling confections and specializing in chocolate. It was in South America that Domenico changed his name to the Spanish equivalent and became Domingo. Bettina died in 1846 and Domingo married, the next year Carmen Alvarado Martin, a Spanish-Peruvian widow with an infant of her own.

When the Gold Rush hit California, Domingo went to America and opened his first store in a mining camp where he stocked the shelves with chocolate. In 1852, he founded a confectionery shop in San Francisco which later became known as the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.

He became a naturalized citizen of the United States on Jul. 19, 1871.

The 1870 national recession and subsequent panic of 1873 led Domingo and his business partner, son-in-law, Angelo Mangini, to declare bankruptcy. By 1874, Domingo was forced to auction everything he owned, including his home, property and stores with the exception of th

Italian-American businessman

Domenico "Domingo" Ghirardelli (Italian pronunciation:[doˈmiŋɡoɡirarˈdɛlli]; February 21, 1817 – January 17, 1894) was an Italian-born chocolatier who was the founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California.

Biography

Early life

Domenico Ghirardelli was born on February 21, 1817, in Rapallo, Italy, to Giuseppe and Maddalena (née Ferretto) Ghirardelli. His father was a spice merchant in Genoa. In his teens, he apprenticed at Romanengo, a noted chocolatier in Genoa.

At about the age of twenty, in 1838, he moved to Uruguay, then in 1838 to Lima, Peru, where he established a confectionery, and began using the Spanish equivalent of his Italian name, Domingo. In 1849 he moved to California on the recommendation of his former neighbor, James Lick, who had brought 600 pounds of chocolate with him to San Francisco in 1848. Caught up in the California Gold Rush, he opened his first store in a mining camp to sell sweets and treats to miners who were lacking the small pleasures of life. Ghirardelli spent a few months in the gold fie

People love chocolate, but how many people know that the country's second oldest chocolate company is Ghirardelli? Founded in June 1852, it has been operating for more than one hundred and fifty years now; only Baker's Chocolate, founded in 1780 in Massachusetts, is older. (1) And Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, the company's factory from 1894 to 1964. is the granddaddy of industrial sites adapted to become public attractions, now common to many American cities. (2) The fifteen-foot-high letters on the chocolate factory's towered brick "castle" are as local a landmark to San Francisco as the TransAmerica Pyramid or Coit Tower. Ghirardelli also stands for chocolate with the potential for intense pleasure that rivals other brand names like Mars, Hershey's, or Godiva. Few people do not recognize the name. But just be sure to säga Chirardelli with a hard G as in ghost or spaghetti, and leave the J sound to gin and gypsy. My gra

1111 139th Avenue
San Leandro, California 94578
U.S.A.
(510) 483-6970
(800) 877-9338
Fax: (510) 297-2649
Web site: http://www.ghirardelli.com

Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprungli AG
Incorporated: 1852
Employees: 300
Sales: $100 million (1998 est.)
NAIC: 311320 Confectionary Chocolate Made from Cacao Beans

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is one of the leading producers of chocolate in the United States. It was long one of the premier chocolate manufacturers in the West. Its historic factory in San Francisco is now a key landmark in that city, where it functions as an urban mall called Ghirardelli Square. The company’s main manufacturing facility is in San Leandro, California. The company has a significant business selling chocolate wholesale. In the 1990s Ghirardelli increased its retail business, selling bagged candies in grocery stores and other outlets, as well as Ghirardelli brand baking chocolate and cocoa. Ghirardelli also operates several ice cream and chocolate stores, mainly aimed at the tourist trade. A family-owned company for over 100 years, Ghirardelli passed through a series of owners in the 1980s and 1990s, and was bought in 1998 by the Swiss confectioner Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprungli.

Early Years

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was founded by an Italian, Domenico Ghirardelli, who was born in Rapello, Italy, in 1817. Domenico’s father was a merchant, and he apprenticed his son to a confectioner and spice importer. Domenico learned the trade, then moved to South America and went into business for himself. He worked for a time in Montevideo, Uruguay, and then settled in Lima, Peru. While in South America, Ghirardelli changed his first name from the Italian Domenico to the Spanish Domingo. Ghirardelli’s shop in Lima was next door to that of a cabinetmaker, James Lick. Lick was either a restless or an adventurous fellow. In any case, he decided to leave