Carter Chocolatier

My name is Denise Carter and I have 2 little girls named Kassidy and Kierstyn. We are “Carter Chocolatier”. We live in Panama City Beach, Florida. Over the years we have made a lot of people in our neighborhood and community smile because of our homemade fudge. Our fudge making started about 4 years ago. I have a love for cooking and baking. I really wanted to make fudge and tried many recipes. I was never quite happy enough with what they produced. So I decided to come up with my own recipe. What I came up with turned into an instant hit! My family loved it, my friends loved it, I loved it (too much I couldn’t stay out of it). So we started making it every holiday season and it become “our tradition”.

I am from Tennessee and have small town southern hospitality instilled in me. I believe in the gift of cooking and baking with love and care and sharing that with everyone from people you know to the ones that you don’t…your neighbors. I want my daughters to know and do that too. This became the perfect tradition and has become somewhat expected from the Carter family here.

We love the smiles that our fudge has brought to our community and we recently had a great idea! Why not start our own company and sell it! Maybe someone would like to sell it in their stores or restaurants….and guess what? They did! The very first week, Joey at “JOEYS ON THE BEACH” LOVED our fudge and immediately wanted to start selling it! So here we are. With a lot of faith and love behind every ounce made “Carter Chocolatier” is created! We hope that one day, everyone will have had a piece of “Carter Chocolatier”!

 I was just thinking this morning about the history of fudge and it dawned on me that maybe you would like to know where I learned to cook and why I love it so much! As if the history alone about “fudge” wasn’t enough to make you all want to run out and try it!  I was born and raised in TN. When you are from TN, you grow up around a strong southern heritage of FOOD in general. I remember being amazed at how my Papa Whitten could make biscuits and EVERY TIME they were made to perfection..but even more that I didn’t typically care for biscuits but I LOVED his! My Grandma Dolan made the absolute BEST homemade stews and Chicken and Dumplings of the south ( I am pretty certain)! My Dad was always the grill master…he could take meat and make it better than a 5 star restaurant every time!  My Mom ALWAYS made ( and still makes) gigantic Thanksgiving meals and her desserts were and are always above and beyond delicious! Actually, the very first fudge I ever had…was my Mothers.  I do love my Mom’s as well..she makes a very “Traditional” fudge. She started my love for the confectionery without a doubt!  Also, my parents both worked and from an early age I was cooking…. I learned most of my cooking over telephone! My Mom would set aside all I needed and then at about 4p.m. would call and teach me as I went along how to cook it! When they came home, dinner was ready! Pretty soon I was able to do it without the added assistance. The one thing about me…if I go by a recipe, it is never going to be what that recipe intended it to be…I ALWAYS think…hmmm..I will add this too and that! I make it my own. I change it and put a spin to it that may make it an entirely different dish! It seems to work for me…I have made my most successful meals this way! As I got older, I became fascinated with the act of “creating” something “different”.. That is what I did with our fudge.I wanted something that you could walk in and just get anywhere. I wanted something that had a unique quality about it! How lucky am I to have a family of really great cooks?!  If it weren’t for that aroma of biscuits in the morning when visiting my Papa, being the sampler to my Grandmas soups……or having a Mother that made(and makes) the best variety of desserts of anyone I have ever known… (She is also why I cook “military”style…enough to feed a small army)…I wouldn’t be here today launching a business that I hope becomes a household name for you and yours one day! 

CARTER CHOCOLATIER

“MAKE A LIST OF IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO TODAY. AT THE TOP OF LIST, PUT”EAT CHOCOLATE”. NOW, YOU’LL GET ATLEAST ONE THING DONE TODAY”. GINA HAYES