"Simply Divine"
The hand-dipped chocolates of Grand's newest retailer are not just any confection.
"Chocolate to the Stars"
Jet set takes a liking to hand-dipped confections of Grand's newest retailer.

Article by Catherine Condon (Grand Gazette)

Three years ago, Just Truffles owner Kathleen O'Hehir-Johnson got a call from a gentleman who had purchased a box of her rich chocolates to take home to his wife in Guam.
"He said, 'Thank you very much,' but he was very sarcastic," she recalled. "I thought, 'Uh-oh! What did I do?'
It turned out the gentleman was a traveling executive who had brought truffles home to his wife from every place he visited. Now, he complained, 'she won't eat any other truffles, so you're going to have to ship them here."'
It's a request often heard at Just Truffles, which moved last month to 1326 Grand Ave. after nearly nine years in the Saint Paul Hotel.
"We needed more space," said O'Hehir- Johnson, who lives in the Summit-University neighborhood with her husband and business partner Roger Johnson. "We were kind of tucked away in a corner down there. Unless people knew we were there, they'd never find US."
But they did. Besides being the preferred candy company of 3M, Just Truffles boasts clients as far flung as Anchorage and Washington, D.C. Tenor Luciano Pavarotti, singer and talk show host Marie Osmond, singer Lionel Ritchie and pianist George Shearing--all of them celebrities first introduced to Just Truffles during stays at the Saint Paul Hotel now regularly phone in orders. The store offers 28 flavors ranging from the simple, like chocolate, peanut butter and raspberry, to the ex- otic, including apricot brandy, strawberry cheesecake and Bailey's Irish Cream.
The evolution from making truffles as a hobby to creating 500 a day in a 1,500-square- foot store started in 1988 when O'Hehir-John- son brought her homemade truffles to a holiday party at Northwest Airlines, where she still works as a customer service agent. "They said, 'Can we order from you next year?"' she said.
By the following summer, she had orders for 50 dozen truffles. Her British-born husband suggested she start her own business.
"I spent a couple weeks at the library," said O'Hehir-Johnson. I knew nothing about business."
She read books on business building and heeded tips like that of a friend 3 who suggested she rent a commercial kitchen. She~ also sought out candy industry pros, who were eager to help.
"When people find out that you're new, they say, 'Here's my card: If you have any problems, give me a call,"' she said. "It's a neat industry to be in, not cutthroat or back-stabbing."
A chance meeting with St. Paul Pioneer Press food critic Eleanor Ostman at a 1989 holiday party led to a Valentine's Day article. Soon after, O'Hehir-Johnson sold out her stock of truffles and started a waiting list. Then the St. Paul Hotel called, asking her to open a shop there.
O'Hehir-Johnson now orders chocolate one ton at a time--40 boxes of five 10-pound blocks. She and her staff first make the center 0' ganache, by mixing chocolate, butter, cream, egg yolks and, depending on the truffle flavor, fruit, nuts or liqueur. After 24 hours of refrigeration, they cut the mixture into pieces, which are rolled and then hand-dipped in chocolate. "The outer coating of a good truffle should snap when you bite it," O'Hehir-Johnson said.
After decorating them, "we'll add an extra layer of chocolate at the bottom," she said. "When chocolate gets warm it exudes a gas. That will cause the candy to crack or break. Nine times out of 10, your soft spot is at the bottom."
Lionel Ritchie prefers chocolate truffles, O'Hehir-Johnson said, while cafe au lait is the favorite flavor of Marie Osmond. "(Osmond) is very nice," O'Hehir-Johnson said. "She's kind of a closet chocoholic. She bought a box of eight and took the kids to Camp Snoopy. She sat down and ate the whole box while the kids went on the run!"
One truffle flavor, a mixture of milk chocolate, Malibu rum and cream of coconut, was created especially for Luciano Pavarotti when he was in town a few years ago. "(His staff) approached us and asked if I would come up with a truffle for him," O'Hehir-Johnson said. I "So I coordinated with his secretary, and we came up with Tenor's Temptation."
Pavarotti fans around the country will now phone the store to request boxes of the candy to bring to him as gifts at Performance time, she said.
O'Hehir-Johnson and her husband employ a single worker year-round, but they will hire additional workers during the holidays when they hip around 3,000 truffles a day.
"Because we make all of our own, we can do different things," O'Hehir-Johnson said. "Numerous times, I've put engagement rings in truffles." She has also filled clear tubes with shredded iridescent mylar and then put 14 truffles in with one letter on each truffle spelling out "Will you marry me."
After a stressful day of ticketing and gate duty for Northwest, "I like to come to work here and relax," O'Hehir-Johnson laughed. "After 10 years, I still get excited when some- body who has never eaten a truffle takes a bite Of one for the first time."