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Arcelia Gallardo, owner and chocolatier, is passionate about pre-Columbian culture, chocolate, sustainable farming and empowering cacao growing indigenous communities in Latin America. She started the company after graduating from UC Berkeley while working at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Pasadena and has received training from world renowned pastry chefs Ewald Notter, Andrew Shotts and chocolatiers in Mexico City and Italy. Additionally she traveled extensively through Europe to learn about traditional European chocolate making techniques and Mexico and Belize to learn the importance of cacao to indigenous communities. She was also a chef instructor at the Summer Cooking Academy in Los Angeles where she taught children and teenagers to work with chocolate. As the business grows Arcelia expects to create a non-profit that will focus on youth empowerment in the San Francisco Bay Area which will focus on exposing youth to entrepreneurship, professional development and the global cycle of food; including the farming communities in both the Central Valley of California and the Mexican, Central American and South American communities where Casa de Chocolates sources its cacao. Arcelia was born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents from Colima, Mexico.

Amelia Gonzalez, co-owner, comes to Casa de Chocolates with a love affair for cacao that started when she was a young child -- beginning with her first hot mug of Mexican hot chocolate and pan dulce. Amelia has traveled extensively throughout Latin America, including Peru, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Nicaragua and, of course, Mexico. She is passionate about the culture, the arts and the diverse foods of Latin America. Amelia has a background in public media, with over 20 years at KPFA Radio in Berkeley.

Originally from Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, born to immigrants from Puebla, Mexico, Amelia studied Latin American Studies at Rio Hondo and Whittier College. She has lived in the Bay Area for many years, and has also lived in Lima, Peru and Oaxaca, Mexico where she worked with Corazon Del Pueblo, a folk art boutique, where she learned of the rich legacy of Oaxacan and Mexican folk art. It was in the land of the moles where Amelia was reminded of her love for chocolate and rich chocolate-based foods.