In following her father’s footsteps, a civil engineer, Nicole Patel didn’t neglect art for the sake of science. In 2006 while pregnant with her first son, Patel made a batch of handmade chocolate truffles as last-minute holiday gifts. To the delight of friends and family, she continued to create chocolate treats as a way to relieve stress from her corporate engineering job.

In 2008, a chance trip to Becker Vineyards in the Texas Hill Country led Patel to becoming the first in Texas to make truffles using local wines. Within five years, what started as a hobby turned Austin-based Delysia into one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers in the United States, as selected by the International Chocolate Salon and Taste TV.