We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Novosel, Executive Chocolatier Caitlin Lyon, General Manager and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle Novosel, Executive Chocolatier, what is the most important factor behind your success?
We learned very quickly that we had to stay flexible. We had many ideas from the start, both from our original vision of the small chocolate shop that we thought would be a hobby business and from our expanded pastry side, that we had to rework, Customers will tell you what they want, and you have to be ready to respond to that. You can’t be married to a certain product; as much as you love it, if customers aren’t buying it, it might not be right for your market.

At the same time, we stayed true to our vision. We’re chocolate and desserts, and that’s what we focus on. As we’ve expanded our offerings, and especially as we’ve come back from the shutdowns in 2020, we always ask ourselves, “What was the original visions? What did we want to be known for, and what experience did we want to bring to our customers?”

Our brand is an extension of who we are. We always say that we take our business and our products very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves very seriously at all. We love to have fun, and that definitely shows from the moment that you step into our shop. Everything from the colorful decor, to the music (anything from Metallica to the Beastie Boys), to the names of the chocolates and our Funko POP! collection on display tells you that this is not your typical chocolate shop! We have open kitchens, so customers are able to see our processes in creating our edible art and ask questions or interact with our staff. We want customers to have a fun, memorable experience, and to leave with a greater understanding of chocolate and pastry arts.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We opened Pizzelle’s Confections in 2013 in Lowe Mill, Pizzelle’s is an award-winning eclectic mix of edible art and culinary exploration. They bring their lifelong love of fine chocolate, culinary and visual art to every creation. Our mission is to share our love and knowledge of chocolate and confections so that our customers have a greater understanding and appreciation of fine chocolate and confectionery art.

We’re sisters, and we had planned for a long time to open a little chocolate shop and dessert cafe. After graduating from culinary school at the Art Institute of Tennessee in Nashville in 2009, Michelle attended Ecole Chocolat Professional School of Chocolate Arts and obtained a Professional Chocolatier Certificate with honors in 2012. In 2021, Michelle began teaching Ecole Chocolat Color on Chocolate Masterclass. Michelle’s class is taught virtually to accommodate her students from all over the world. Classes are limited to 14 students at a time to ensure individualized instruction for each student.

Just like a potter uses clay, chocolate is Pizzelle’s artistic medium. Pizzelle’s team of highly trained chocolatiers, pastry chefs, and pastry cooks brainstorm, develop, prototype, and troubleshoot all their recipes and decorations. Our chocolates are made with the finest, fair trade chocolate from Felchlin Switzerland and, when available, fresh local ingredients. The chocolates are decorated with colored cocoa butter, cast in chocolate and filled with a variety of ganaches, caramels and other confections. The chocolate-making process is very technical and relies on the perfect combination of time, temperature, patience, and exact measurements.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would definitely start with a day at Lowe Mill (www.lowemill.art)! Lowe Mill houses over 100 artists and art studios, plus several eateries, and it really takes a whole day to explore it all.

Campus 805 (www.campus805.com) is a refurbished middle school that houses two of our favorite breweries, Yellowhammer and Straight to Ale, as well as a Speakeasy, a coffee shop, pizza place, and an arcade.

If the timing is right, we’d catch a show at our new amphitheater, The Orion (www.theorionhuntsville.com). It’s an amazing spot to hear great music, and we’ve already seen some great artists there – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Emmylou Harris, The Black Keys, and Jack White.

And no visit to Huntsville is complete without visiting our many Land Trust hiking trails and the beautiful Monte Sano State Park.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people who have contributed to our success! First and foremost, we have to recognize our mom, Nancy. She was instrumental in getting us started, and one of our most popular items, the Mommy Dearest bar, was her idea. It’s caramel, almonds, and coconut in dark chocolate, and everyone who comes back again and again for that bar can thank her!

We also need to give a shoutout to Christopher Elbow, a premiere chocolatier out of Kansas City. His chocolates were the first artisan chocolates with colorful decorations and surprising flavor pairings that really gave us a lot of inspiration.

And to Lowe Mill ARTS& Entertainment, which is where we’ve had our home for almost 10 years now – it’s the largest privately-owned arts center in the Southeast, and they recognized that we are also artists, just working in the medium of chocolate.

Website: www.pizzellesconfections.com

Instagram: pizzellesconfections

Linkedin: Pizzelle’s Confections

Facebook: PIzzellesConfections

Image Credits
Whitney Briscoe Photography, Eliah McCutchen, JP Bond Photography

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