I’m Caterina Gallo, an Italian-American professional chocolate taster based in the United States, with over a decade of hands-on experience in fine flavor cacao and bean to bar chocolate.

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This platform is about real expertise, genuine connections, and meaningful conversations around chocolate. Over the years, I’ve collaborated with respected chocolate makers, reviewed some of the world’s finest chocolate bars, participated in international chocolate events as press and content creator, and worked behind the scenes to support the growth of the specialty chocolate movement. But my connection to craftsmanship and flavor started long before chocolate.

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I grew up in Southern Italy, near Naples, in a family where almost everything was made by hand. Wine, tomato sauce, cheese, ricotta, cured meats, preserves, vegetables from the garden: craftsmanship wasn’t a lifestyle trend in my world, it was simply everyday life. My father made wine naturally at home, without additives, alongside vinegar, preserves, and seasonal products. Between both sides of my family, I grew up surrounded by farming traditions, handmade food production, and deep respect for raw ingredients and manual work.

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I learned how to make homemade cheese and ricotta, prepare tomato preserves from scratch, and experienced agricultural work firsthand: from harvesting vegetables to working with tobacco leaves through the curing process. Members of my family raised animals, cultivated the land, and produced food entirely by hand. That environment shaped the way I understand flavor, quality, and craftsmanship today.

 

Before fully dedicating myself to chocolate, I also worked in public relations within the music industry, collaborating with internationally respected house music artists and DJs including Kerri Chandler and David Morales. Those experiences taught me how to communicate, build relationships, and navigate creative industries — skills that later became an important part of my work in specialty chocolate.

 

My journey into chocolate began from something deeply personal. As a teenager, I struggled with severe eating disorders and spent years rebuilding my relationship with food and with myself. During recovery, I became increasingly interested in better ingredients and more conscious ways of eating. I wanted to rediscover pleasure in food without guilt, and that search slowly led me toward craft chocolate.

 

One experience in particular changed everything for me: tasting a Domori 100% Criollo chocolate bar with a cup of rooibos tea in a small gourmet shop in Naples. Until that moment, I had never experienced chocolate in such a complex and aromatic way. It made me realize that dark chocolate coulb be so much more than Lindt or Rittersport. 

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At the time, access to specialty chocolate in Italy was still limited. Aside from a few pioneering Italian makers, discovering fine chocolate wasn’t easy. But after moving to the United States more than ten years ago, my world expanded. I began tasting chocolate from makers across the globe, connecting directly with them, exploring different origins and production styles, and immersing myself in the growing bean to bar movement.

 

What continues to inspire me most is the tasting itself. I’m especially passionate about single origin dark chocolate made with only two-ingredients (or 100%) and discovering the complexity of rare cacao varieties. I love exploring how genetics, terroir, post-harvest and chocolate making process roasting influence what we experience in the final bar. While I deeply respect every part of the supply chain and have increasingly collaborated with cacao farmers in recent years through cacao and bean evaluations, my strongest expertise and personal connection remain with the finished chocolate bar itself — the sensory experience, the flavor development, and the craftsmanship behind it.

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I also consider myself somewhat of an outsider within the industry. I value honesty over hype, substance over marketing, and independent thinking over conformity. I’m not interested in influencer culture or polished narratives designed only for visibility. I believe chocolate deserves thoughtful discussion, constructive criticism, and genuine standards. If I love something, I’ll say it openly. If I believe something could be better, I’ll say that too. The Chocolate Ambassador exists to share that perspective through tasting, education, research, and real conversations about chocolate and cacao.