“I like to tell people I’m Willy Wonka,” says Mark Mackey, chief chocolatier for Ethel M Chocolate Factory. Ironically, it was his favorite movie growing up. And from a young age, he says, “I developed a passion for food and creating things to make people smile.”
So he went to culinary school, graduated and took an internship at Mars—the world-renowned candy brand— while he figured out what he wanted to do as a career.
“That’s where I really discovered my passion for chocolate,” Mackey says. The 18-week internship turned into 17 years with the company. Mackey spent many years at the Mars headquarters in New Jersey, where he worked with the incubator team to develop new items, but by 2015, he had made his way to Las Vegas and Ethel M—the artisanal chocolate branch of the brand.
“I wanted to find my way here,” he says. “This is where you get a chance to be creative—create things that you really can’t create at mass scale. Because we have the Mars backing, we can source our own beans, blend our own beans, craft our own artisanal recipes.”
Visit the retail store and you can peruse all of Mackey’s chocolate creations—and there are a lot of them, and they are all mouthwatering.
“Creating chocolate, tasting chocolate—that’s my favorite part,” he says. “When I’m in the plant creating something and guests come in and watch us ... and look at what I’m working on, and I see their reactions—it’s like working in an open kitchen in a restaurant. Pretending like you’re Willy Wonka is always a fun thing.”
Product: Chocolates
Ushering in fall, Mackey has created new seasonal chocolates that guests can purchase in the retail store. Some of the new flavors include milk chocolate cinnamon apple caramel, milk chocolate bananas Foster truffle, dark chocolate brownie ganache and milk chocolate cookie butter caramel.
Benefit: Check out the daily chocolate and wine tasting that pairs chocolates with four handpicked wines.
Click here for your free subscription to the weekly digital edition of Las Vegas Magazine, your guide to everything to do, hear, see and experience in Southern Nevada. In addition to the latest edition emailed to every week, you’ll find plenty of great, money-saving offers from some of the most exciting attractions, restaurants, properties and more! And Las Vegas Magazine is full of informative content such as restaurants to visit, cocktails to sip and attractions to enjoy.
