You may know Daniel Corpuz from crafting massive chocolate sculptures on Netflix’s School of Chocolate, but these days the Filipino-American pastry chef and chocolatier is focusing his talents on a smaller palate: high-end, handcrafted bonbons inspired by the flavors of his culture.
At Daniel Corpuz Chocolatier, you’ll find popular flavors like sea salt caramel, chocolate crunch and vanilla hazelnut in their Signature Bonbon Box, as well as beloved Filipino flavors like ube and Philippine coffee. In his Fil-Am Bonbon Box, Corpuz goes all out with ube, kalamansi, pandan, roasted corn, Philippine coffee and caramelized banana bonbons. Some of his customers have a similar nostalgic connection to the Filipino flavors infused into the beautiful bonbons, while others get to experience new flavors in a familiar form that they love.
Growing up, Corpuz was an extremely picky eater, but after the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars caught his attention in middle school, his started his path to the culinary world. He attended the Culinary Institute of America, where he received a degree in Baking and Pastry and Food Business Administration, and went on to work in fine dining restaurants in New York City. Then the pandemic hit; he lost his job and suddenly had all this free time on his hands. “I thought, ‘What can I do? What can I make that no one else is doing?’” Corpuz said.
The answer was, of course, chocolate. “Chocolate was something that not many people were doing at the caliber that I was, and people loved my creations,” he said. At the time, he didn’t realize how big his chocolate business would become, or that it would become his full-time job. “But sometimes you just have to take the leap and once you do, it pays dividends,” he said. Corpuz posted his chocolate creations on Instagram, everything from colorful bonbons to 150-pound chocolate sculptures, which got the attention of a Netflix casting producer.
After filming School of Chocolate in 2020, Corpuz prepared for the 2021 release by ramping up his budding business, selling bonbons via Instagram and at pop-up markets around New York City. He put almost all his savings into a pop-up at Urbanspace Market in Columbus Circle ahead of the November Netflix release, hoping he did enough. “I didn’t know what would happen after the show came out, but I wanted to be prepared,” Corpuz said. Spoiler alert: he wasn’t prepared, but in the best way possible. Mere hours after the show came out, customers recognized him and were lining up for upwards of an hour for a chance to get their hands on a box of his chocolates.
Fast forward to today, and Corpuz is in what his friends refer to as his “Mr. Worldwide era”, traveling to the Philippines, Taiwan and beyond to learn more about chocolate, visit cacao farms and cultivate symbiotic relationships between chocolate producers to make more delicious bonbons and introduce lesser known brands and growing regions to a larger audience. Discovering new flavors and sourcing ingredients are also a big part of these trips. “I’m always trying to find the best and highest quality ingredients to use in my bonbons,” he said.
With the holiday season quickly approaching—Corpuz’s busiest season, where his small team produces around 5,000 pieces of chocolate per week—the 25-year-old has big plans for the future: a larger space for his growing business, more travel to Southeast Asia, and pushing his favorite Filipino flavors to the mainstream one beautiful bonbon at a time.