It’s quite a leap from being a hotel manager to running an award winning fudge company but, for Peter Tofalos, it was more a series of small steps. He trained as a restaurateur and hotel manager -both stressful and demanding professions - and it was a friend who suggested taking up painting for relaxation. Watercolour painting became a passion and a natural progression was to buy a gift shop in which they could be displayed for sale.

It was while he was visiting a trade fair in association with the gift shop he saw a fudge kettle -and bought it. You can’t go into a gift shop anywhere without seeing fudge for sale so Peter decided from the outset his fudge would be
different - new recipes but produced traditionally using only the best ingredients - butter not margarine, cream not milk powder or condensed milk and no preservatives. He also decided to produce in small batches. Big batches take longer to cook and this darkens the colour.

Peter started selling the fudge at farmers’ markets. “It just took off,” he said. “So much so I eventually had to give up the gift shop to concentrate on the fudge.”He now supplies 10 shops from his base at Llangollen as well as
attending a range of farmers’ markets. His White Chocolate & Bailey’s liqueur fudge is a speciality while White Chocolate & Demerara and Scots Tablet - a traditional Scottish recipe given to
him by a Scottish neighbour in Llangollen - are big sellers. On the day we spoke to him, however, he was looking forward to a rare weekend without a market. A chance to relax? “Not really,” he said. “I’ve agreed to open my painting studio to the public"