I'm a professional chocolatier. When cocoa prices spiked, I found ways to make better chocolate — not smaller bars.

High cocoa prices pushed Singapore's Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie to innovate across its business.

Huileng Tan/Business Insider

• Faced with soaring cocoa prices, Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie is turning crisis into creativity.
• The Singapore chocolatier is using the whole cacao fruit and automating production to stay efficient.
• Founder Jerome Peñafort wants to prove that Asian chocolate can rival the world's best.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jerome Peñafort, 38, the founder of Mr.