Sooke residents Kelly and Paul DeRocco certainly keep busy.
So busy that the couple just returned from Los Angeles after being invited to serve their fudge at the Oscars. This is the second time in six months Hollywood called out for their delicious treat.
“It was overwhelming and indescribable, just felt incredible,” Kelly said on her return to Sooke Tuesday. “They loved our products so much, and word got out with publicists, that ‘hey, bring these people back,’ we were so excited.”
The duo, who run Fudge In A Round, a small business in Sooke, showcased their fudge during Product Hollywood event, which was held at the Hollywood Post 43 of the American Legion. This year, the newest addition to their long repertoire of unique flavours was Key lime cheesecake.
“They went nuts over it,” Kelly laughed, adding that in the few days they were in L.A. they met more than 130 stars up for nomination for the Oscar Awards. Along the way, they bumped into Lou Ferrigno (the original Hulk) and Peter Weller (Robocop).
But it wasn’t necessarily the stars that impressed them, but the Oscar-driven setup of the whole city, added Paul, and the atmosphere and how they went about doing it.
“No cars, nothing. Looked like a ghost city,” he said, adding all the stores were closed for the day.
The DeRoccos even ran into the Chicago couple brought to the Oscars stage by surprise. It just happened that they were staying in the same hotel.
“Paul went down to see if we could get some tea, and when he came back, he’s like, ‘guess who I ran into’ so they came up to see us,” Kelly said.
Fudge In A Round’s first brush with Hollywood came last year, when the couple presented their fudge during a festival on the Lower Mainland where an unlikely observer would take notice of their fudge-crafting talents.
“The person who was in charge of the vending there, she said, ‘Can you send me some of your fudge, I want to try it out and I want to see how you do it,’” Kelly said that after sending the fudge over, two weeks later the person contacted them back and identified herself as an organizer for a pre-party for the Emmy Awards.
Since then, the DeRoccos created unique fudge mixes, from the Elvis (banana and chocolate with peanut butter), the neopolitan, as well as regular flavours such as maple walnut, cheesecake and watermelon.
Don’t worry if you missed out on the Oscars fudge, because Fudge In A Round is going full-throttle into production to supply local shop Sooke Sweet, where their fudge is sold.