Since 2018 Riad Hilal and his son Georges have shared a passion that began in their country of origin: making homemade chocolate. 

While the family was still living in Syria, Mr Hilal was interested in passing on knowledge that might be useful to his autistic son. 

“All of a sudden, I had this idea: why not work with chocolate? It’s manual work, it’s good, and he really likes chocolate,” said Mr Hilal.  

The father and the son took part in a chocolate-making course at a hospitality school in Lebanon, where they learned a great deal about chocolate-making. The course gave them the confidence to make beautiful chocolate products and start sharing them with others. 

“We started by offering our chocolates to relatives, friends, and everyone on religious holidays, and then we found that there was an opportunity to sell our products,” Mr Hilal continued. 

“They took part in a small bazaar before the holidays and sold all the boxes, which was a great success; that’s how it started,” said Kinda Albadin, Riad’s wife. 

The family was forced to flee from Syria, beacuse of the war in the country, which began in 2011. When they decided to take refuge in Canada, they wanted to pursue this entrepreneurial activity. 

“When we were accepted in Canada, we didn’t want to lose this asset, so we packed up all our equipment and sent it to Canada by sea. It was around 800 kilos of equipment,” said Mr. Hilal. 

Once in Canada, the family settled into a small apartment downtown where it was difficult to pursue their passion for chocolate. However, a few years later, in 2024, when they moved into a house, they decided to dedicate a small chocolate workshop in a basement room. From there, father and son began experimenting again with ganaches and chocolate combinations. 

“In our house, we have a small workshop, and every day, when my son Georges comes home from work, the three of us get together and make chocolate,” said Kinda Albadin. ” Recently we’ve been making an oriental chocolate with knafeh, a traditional Arab dessert”. 

At the end of 2024, Georges and his father had their first entrepreneurial experience in Canada with chocolate.  

“At Christmas, we had the opportunity to be in a church bazaar. At first, we were a little reluctant to do it, but then we got down to it and it was a great success! We sold much and got a lot of orders for chocolates,” said Mr. Hilal. 

The chocolate bears the Chevalier of Saint-Georges’ logo to honor the son’s name. When people asks Georges what his favorite part of the activity was, he replies, “I love making chocolate with my dad.” 

*this article was originally published by JRS Canada.