Ginger Elizabeth is one of our “Women Who Built their Business from the Ground Up” panelists at the 2010 Entrepreneur’s Edge.

Ginger Elizabeth Hahn grew up in Camino, California, a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She discovered early on that cooking could be much more than a hobby. At the age of 16, a summer course at the CIA Greystone in Napa Valley convinced her that working with food was her passion.

Ginger Elizabeth has extensive training , awards, and work experience in her culinary craft, from the IACP Scholarship to the CIA Management Award and Angel Scholastic Award from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.  She has worked for world-renowned chocolatiers Jacques Torres (the youngest ever Master Pastry Chef in France ) and Daniel Budd (named one of the top ten pastry chefs by Chocolatier and Pastry Arts magazines) and apprenticed under the world famous pastry chef En-Ming Hsu (World Pastry Cup 2001 gold medalist) and the Ritz Carlton in Chicago.

To be closer to her family, Ginger returned to California and lives in Sacramento. She was the Pastry Chef at Masque Ristorante in El Dorado Hills for three years.

In 2005, at the age of 24, Ginger opened the wholesale chocolate company Couture Chocolates by Ginger Elizabeth. The company allowed her to practice and showcase the talents and skills she had acquired, while continuing to learn and explore new ideas. Keeping up with the industry trends, she completed a chocolate science and technology course at UC Davis in 2006.

By 2007 Ginger had decided to expand her business by opening her first retail location. The boutique chocolaterie would feature all things chocolate including individual desserts, hot chocolate, cakes, cookies, chocolate sculptures, and of course a variety of chocolate confections. In 2008, Ginger launched the retail store in Midtown Sacramento under the company’s new name, Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates.