Northshore Magazine

ne Food sweets Colossal Confections Despite a new name, the recipes and staff remain unchanged at the former Alden Merrell Fine Desserts Company. By Jeanne O'Brien Coffey workers tap dense chocolate cakes from their pans; spread chocolate mousse between the two layers; then frost, decorate, and roll the sides of the cake in a thick coating of tiny chocolate chips. It takes 16 people to make each Ultimate Chocolate Cake put out by Dianne's Fine Desserts in Newburyport. And that doesn't even count those mixing and baking the cakes and fillings. "You'd be surprised at the number of people involved in making our products," says Mike Knowles, CEO. "It's still very much a handcrafted business. It requires human interaction at every point." Fans of that cake and others produced at the former Alden Merrell Fine Desserts will be relieved to know that only the name has changed since Superior Capital Partners, LLC—a Detroit-based private equity firm—acquired the company from Heinz North America last year. While the investors decided to merge Alden Merrell with another company purchased from Heinz (Dianne's Gourmet Desserts in Le Center, Minnesota), they are committed to keeping both Alden Merrell's recipes, 32 nshoremag.com December 2013 KJ NBDec13 Diannes.indd 32 Sweet Success: Top, Quality desserts are their forte; above, Knowles believes in handcrafted business. which call for high-quality ingredients, and its staff, many of whom have been with the company for decades. "Our employees take deep personal pride in the quality of our products," says Daniel Scales, company president. "We aren't interested in cheapening the product with fillers," Knowles adds. Alden Merrell, founded in 1973, quickly built a reputation for providing quality desserts to restaurants. They also had a following of local customers who went to the company's factory store to pick up high-quality yet "cosmetically imperfect" treats. These days, the combined operation is one of the largest providers of premium desserts in the country, producing more than 28 million pounds of sweets a year. The company's desserts can be found at national sit-down chain restaurants, like LongHorn Steakhouse and Papa Gino's. While recipes for customer favorites like the layer cake and the pecan pie remain unchanged, the company is always innovating. In fact, inventing new desserts just happens to be one of the best parts of working here. "People like chocolate and cheesecake, but they are always looking to try something new," Scales says. One recent innovation that has really taken off combines those two popular items into one decadent dessert. The Brownie Cheesecake starts with a chocolate-cookie crust, then features a brownie baked in between two layers of cheesecake, which is topped with chocolate mousse. Carrot cake lovers will enjoy the Carrot Cake Cheesecake—same concept, but the rich carrot cake is packed with coconut, pineapple, nuts, and spices that have been baked into its center. On the production floor, you'll find the same ingredients you'd find in a home kitchen—only in much larger amounts jokes Michelle Perreault, the company's production manager, who has been with the company for 28 years. For example, rather than the 16-ounce tubs of sour cream you'd have in your home fridge, 36-pound containers of Cabot brand sour cream wait to be incorporated into frosting, along with 50-pound bags of cocoa. As Perrault says, "There are real ingredients in our food, made by real people." diannesfinedesserts.com photographs by anthony pira 10/24/13 5:37 PM

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