Chocolatier founder Steinberg dead at 61

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Robert Steinberg, who founded the California chocolate company Scharffen Berger, has died in San Francisco at the age of 61, his company says.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker said Steinberg, who had lymphatic cancer, died Sept. 17, after a career that saw him found the chocolatier in Berkeley, Calif., in 1996 based on Old World artisanal standards, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Noted cookbook author Alice Medrick said the former physician, who founded the company with a former patient, helped revolutionize the chocolate-making industry with his candy creations.

"He changed chocolate from being seen as a mere sweet candy to having the status of a complex and interesting food. A new age of chocolate was started in this country with that company," she told the Times.

Steinberg, whose cause of death wasn't specified, said in 2005 that he decided to embrace the world of chocolate after reading a book about the science behind the tasty confectionary.

"Here's chocolate, this thing that we all think we know, but you look under the surface and it's something different," said Steinberg.

The Times said Steinberg is survived by his mother Selma, a sister and a stepsister.