A SWEET BUSINESS FANTASY FORMED INTO TASTY FACT.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

VALENCIA -- Even weeks before Thanksgiving, business at Chocolates a la Carte already is nearly in full swing for the December holiday season.

The Valencia company started filling holiday orders for retailers in July, and the pace of work on the factory floor will pick up in November and December.

But the floor already was busy on Friday as workers including Adriana Rodriguez made white chocolate balls on a mechanized assembly line.

Rodriguez, 19, was sprinkling each ball of white chocolate with candy sprinkles. Working on the assembly line has never reduced her to the comic zaniness of Lucille Ball in a classic episode of ``I Love Lucy.''

In the comedy TV show, Lucy ended up eating and hiding candy to cover up the fact that she couldn't keep up with the pace.

``Once you start, it's kind of hard to keep up,'' Rodriguez admitted. ``But once you've been here for a while, you get used to it.''

Chocolates a la Carte, which occupies 110,000 square feet at the Valencia Commerce Center, employs up to 200 people at the peak of the season.

The company specializes in shaping chocolate into all kinds of forms -- from a suitcase with stickers of China, Paris and New York to an egg with tiny dinosaurs inside.

The company also takes requests and can make custom molds for special events.

On Friday, a special order was being produced -- a tray of chocolate trash bins and a chocolate dump truck.

The company buys its chocolate in slabs or pellets and melts the sweet stuff in vats to be poured into various molds.

It's a process that all started in Rena Pocrass' kitchen more than 20 years ago. Pocrass had a store in Encino that sold chocolate molds, typically to homemakers.

But Pocrass had the inspiration to go for a new kind of customer: professional chefs.

The Encino store was soon gone. Instead, there were countless sales calls to chefs -- especially hotel chefs who might need the perfect crowning chocolate piece for a convention or special event.

Since chefs often move around a lot, Pocrass' company became known by word-of-mouth, even though most customers eating the creations remained unaware they came from Pocrass.

``The thing with chefs is they like to pretend that it came out of their kitchen,'' said Pocrass, company founder and president.

But her husband, Richard, the company's chief executive, said the chefs are unselfish: ``They do that, and on the other hand, they're so generous in sending business to her.''

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sent the hotel business into a slide. The company kept creditors at bay by focusing on making boxed chocolates for retailers, Richard Pocrass said. Now the company's chocolates are found in stores under the name Signature Chocolates by Rena.

To keep up with the demand, there is one rule at the factory to keep the assembly line moving.

``If they are working in the line, they are not allowed to eat chocolate because they have to continue with the movement,'' said Miguel Valencia, 48, a production manager.

``If they are working right here in packaging, they can stop and eat a chocolate. I wouldn't have a problem with that.''

But Valencia no longer eats any chocolate.

``By now, I don't like chocolate at all because I've been working here at the company for 20 years,'' he said. ``So I don't like chocolate.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color; 1 -- 2 -- ran in SAC edition only; 3 -- ran in SAC and AV editions) A traveler could just eat up a suitcase made of chocolate, above, at the Chocolate a la Carte factory in Santa Clarita. Below right, the box is made of chocolate that can be enjoyed after the truffles inside are gone. At bottom left, Adriana Rodriguez keeps up with the assembly line as she puts sprinkles on top of truffles.

David Crane/Staff Photographer