Articles by Bernie Pacyniak

You can often tell when an article’s good by how much you’ve left out, and my cover story on Mike Bianco is missing plenty of material.

There’s been an increased interest by confectionery as well as pharmaceutical companies to produce candies that deliver specific nutraceutical benefits, be they vitamins, weight control, cold prevention, etc. So where to starches come into play?

A certified master chef of pastry and sugar artistry, Alain Roby is internationally known for his sugar and chocolate masterpieces.

Rhonda Dehn always had a head for figures. Thus, when asked to work Saturdays at the family’s retail candy shop in Palatine, Ill., there were no issues when it came to computing sales taxes on purchases or giving out change.

“Innovation does not, of course, mean throwing out the old for the sake of the new," says Mitch Barns, ceo for Nielsen.

Mike Bianco openly professes that he prefers “talking to machines.”

Once again — as is the tradition at the Kettle Awards — the crowd burst into applause when Crosio read the recipient’s name: Mike Bianco of the Jelly Belly Candy Co.

"Eliminating positions is a difficult decision to make,” says Bob Simpson, the company’s president and coo. “This move to private-label manufacturing is a forward thinking step for the best deployment of the Illinois facility and the company overall.”

It took all of thirty seconds, but an earnest crowd of 721 baseball fans from around the world managed to blow a bubble gum bubble together and hold it for half a minute to break the previous world record.

Illinois’ Senator Richard Durbin'spithy, “Is ‘the corner of happy and healthy’ somewhere in the Swiss Alps?” quickly became a sound bite with teeth.