Some women dream of greatness, but a fair number of others dream of chocolate truffles.

St. David's islander Catherine Bell is a woman who dreams of both.

In February, Miss Bell, 27, started her own chocolate truffle making business called The Sunflower Company.

"Before I started this I was working as a senior chef d' partie at the Hamilton Princess," said Miss Bell. "I have always wanted to have my own business.

"It was a dream of mine to be my own boss."

After working at the Hamilton Princess, Miss Bell decided to take a leap of faith.

"I was enrolled in an online chocolate making class," said Miss Bell. "The next part was going to France."

Miss Bell now has a Master Chocolatier certification from Ecole Chocolat Professional School of Chocolate Arts in Valrhona, France. The exclusive course was led by Chef Philippe Givre.

The school was nestled in Tain l'Hermitage on the Rhone Valley.

Valrhona is a small factory that believes in the quality of their product and only sells to artisan chocolatiers.

The factory are highly protective of their chocolate-creating secrets and won't even allow cameras into the factory. However, they opened up their kitchen long enough for 12 students hailing from all over the world to take the three-day intensive training course.

The students were taught to create specialty chocolates including a Black Forest truffle with three beautiful, melt-in-your-mouth layers, a Cappuccino truffle with a perfectly subtle coffee flavour, a Rocher – a popular praline and almond chocolate – and violet marshmallows.

"For now, though, I am just keeping it really simple," said Miss Bell. "I offer truffles in three flavours, white chocolate, dark chocolate with macadamia nuts and dark chocolate with coconut."

But she is currently working out her own recipe for milk chocolate truffles, which might soon be added to her company's offerings.

"I am going to keep experimenting with things I like best," she said. "In the future I might expand to doing different things, possibly doing molded pieces.

"I was experimenting with doing molded pieces with Bermuda-made jams. I made the jams myself such as cherry jam and loquot jam."

Her chocolate truffles come in beautiful gold boxes of four or eight and include a trendy gift bag.

And customers don't have to drive to St. David's; she delivers.

"The number of customers I have varies," she said. "With the holidays I have been doing twenty to twenty-six boxes.

"I am looking to expand for the next year. I want to get into doing showers, weddings and dinner parties."

She said her truffles were a great gift for the host to go along with the customary wine and flowers.

"I don't have a retail outlet as yet, but I take orders by telephone or online," she said.

Miss Bell said the chocolates themselves are just made from chocolate and cream.

"I don't add anything like preservatives to extend the shelf life," she said.

Miss Bell said it is not hard to make them, but it can be time consuming.

"I think anyone can make the truffles up if you want," she said. "But you do have to get the chocolate right."

The chocolate truffles are made from couverture chocolate which means it has to be tempered.

The temperature of the chocolate has to be raised to a certain point, then lowered, then raised again.

"Humidity is a big factor," she said. "I have air conditioning and a dehumidifier. For tempering stuff I have to get the humidity down to fifty percent which can be very challenging in Bermuda."

She chose to call her business 'The Sunflower Company', because sunflowers were her late grandmother, Ruth Skinner's favourite flower.

"She loved to cook and she used to make lemon meringue pies," said Miss Bell. "She had a neighbour who had cows. She always tried to make cheese. She was very unsuccessful and always ended up making butter instead but she never gave up trying."

Miss Bell started her career in the food industry in 1999 as a waitress for Mulligan's Golf Club Restaurant. She enrolled in a Food and Beverage Service Certificate programme at the Bermuda College and graduated with distinction. In the fall of 1999 she began her Associate Degree in Hospitality Management and graduated with Merit. Eventually, she went into the hotel industry.

"Now I am enjoying having the time to experiment," said Miss Bell. "Working for a big chain or hotel, it is hard to have the time to experiment because it is always so busy."

She originally enrolled in the culinary arts programme at the Bermuda College because she wanted to have her own restaurant and guest house one day.

"I thought I better learn how to cook," she said. "I went to the Bermuda College and did culinary arts. Then I did my internship at the Hamilton Princess. I stayed there until I started this.

"I haven't given up the guest house thing, I just have put it on the back burner right now."

The downside to the chocolate business is that she has to watch how many she eats per day.

"They do say that chocolate is good for you, but they also say that one ounce per day is suitable, because it does have cocobutter which is fat," she said. "There have been some studies which say that the coco butter can lower your cholesterol, but I don't recommend people try it. "

For more information about the Sunflower Company's products and prices contact Catherine Bell at 297-0527, 732-5266 or email cathbell@northrock.bm.