"Salvatore Ferrara came to America from Nola, Italy in 1900 and founded Ferrara Pan Candy Company in 1908 in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of his immigration from Italy, Mr. Ferrara was skilled in the art of making Italian pastries and sugar coated candy almonds. Sugar coated candy almonds, otherwise known as "confetti", continues to be a tradition at Italian weddings.""Nello Ferrara, the son of Salvatore Ferrara, created the famous Atomic FireBall in 1954. At this time in his life he had the idea to develop a spicy candy. When the product was presented to the candy industry, the capacity at Ferrara Pan was limited to 200 cases per day. Within three weeks of sending samples to Ferrara Pan brokers, orders were rolling in at a rate of over 50,000 cases per day, far beyond the capacity Ferrara Pan could handle at that time."
"The word "pan" in the company name indicates that some of the candy we make is "panned". This process involves building candy pieces from single units, such as grains of sugar, nuts or candy centers, tossing them in revolving pans while adding the flavor, color and other candy ingredients. This process continues until the pieces become the desired size." -via FerraraPan.
