Pierre Marcolini is the poster boy for doing work you love.

The award-winning Belgian chocolatier, whose shop Pierre Marcolini Haute Chocolaterie recently opened at Ala Moana Center’s upscale Ewa Wing, is a rare chocolatier who takes cacao from bean to bar.

The work is an extension of a lifelong love of chocolate. Born and raised in Belgium, Marcolini recalled bartering with his brother as a young boy — toys for dessert.

“At dinner I would have three desserts, no dinner,” he said with a laugh.

“Once during breakfast when I was 9, my mother asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Even then I said I probably wanted to be a chocolate maker.”

Marcolini, 51, was in Honolulu last month to visit his new shop and check out the local cacao, at Waialua Estate Coffee & Chocolate and 21 Degrees Estate in Kahaluu. He approached his day on the North Shore with an infectious exuberance and unjaded enthusiasm that made quick friends of everyone around him, from shop owners to field hands. It seems that no matter where he happens to be in the world, cacao — trees, pods, seeds, beans, whatever — makes him feel at home.

At Marcolini’s shop you can provide your sweetheart with an experience — or two or three or 12 — on Valentine’s Day. But it won’t be cheap.

These candies aren’t meant for gobbling up willy-nilly. One good reason: A box of six rather petite pieces runs $19, about $3.16 for each morsel that’s just a bit bigger than a Hershey’s Kiss.

“It’s appreciating the chocolate. It’s degustation. After dinner, like a beautiful wine, you crack a piece for tasting,” he said.

The way to eat Marcolini chocolate, said its maker, is to “take a small portion, 6 grams” (about the size of that Hershey’s Kiss), place it in your mouth and savor it. Appreciate the concentration and intensity of flavors. These include almond praline, caramel with sea salt, Kona coffee, ganache with yuzu and many more.

“Big is not necessary. If you eat too much, it overwhelms the tongue. With a small piece you can taste everything.”

In a 10- or 12-piece box of his chocolates, “you have 10 or 12 experiences.”

Marcolini has some 40 stores bearing his name in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Kuwait and Hawaii.

Strolling through rows of cacao trees in Waialua, he explained that the key to chocolate is the beans housed in cacao pods. They are fermented and then dried before being roasted to develop the flavor. After removing the shell, the bean is ready for processing.

As an artisan chocolatier, Marcolini roasts the beans himself and then creates his confections. He sources single-variety cacao from independent producers in Brazil, Cuba, Ghana, Madagascar and Vietnam, paying double fair-trade prices to support these farmers.

“It’s not in my DNA to work with big growers or big companies, or to do things fast. This is slow food,” he said.

MARCOLINI got a culinary education in Brussels and became a pastry chef in Belgium in 1983, then began racking up awards in competitions, including being named world champion of pastry in 1995. In 2014 he was inducted into Le Salon du Chocolat Hall of Fame in Paris. Today he is a certified supplier to the Belgian royal family.

The years have only enhanced his obsession with chocolate. He said he even dreams about the stuff. When he wakes up each morning, he begins the day … with chocolate. One small piece from a block called a tablet, embellished with only a touch of sugar — it’s chocolate in its purest form. In the tablets, he said, he can taste the bean’s flavors, its origin and fermentation. It’s one of the ways he scouts for beans.

“First thing in the morning, the mind and the taste buds are clean. The morning is a good time for creation.”

As it turns out, so is the afternoon. In a cacao field in Waialua. On a dirt road. In a lunch line. In Kahaluu.

During moments of inspiration, Marcolini buries his head in his phone, his expression uncharacteristically serious.

“I was brainstorming a recipe. See here?” he said holding up his phone, his smile returned, scrolling through an endless list of recipes. “Either that, or I was using my dictophone. It’s my secret.”

The recipes? “Everything! Hot chocolate, cold chocolate, desserts — brownies, ice cream and, of course, macarons!

“Sometimes it’s instant. Sometime it takes three months or five months,” he said of crafting recipes.

Whatever recipes make the final cut are executed by his 80 patissiers.

Spend a day with Marcolini and you’ll wonder at his inherent joy. It’s no doubt related to the fact that, though an entire empire is built around him, he’s pared down his job to what he’s always loved: tasting chocolate and making chocolate. The traveling is a bonus.

“This is my heart, this is my passion.”