Italian chemist Francesco Rivella, best known as the inventor of Nutella, died on Valentine’s Day, various news outlets reported. He was 97.

Dubbed the “father” of Nutella by Italian media, Rivella helped create the world’s most famous hazelnut spread.

Rivella began working for Italian chocolate and confectionery company Ferrero in 1952, twelve years before Nutella was introduced to the world, the Jam Press news agency reported.

He was 25 years old and fresh from a degree in food chemistry from Turin.

Nutella worked in Ferrero’s “chemistry room,” where some of the brand’s most iconic creations were born.

He was part of the Ferrero team, studying ingredients to develop new products by mixing, refining, and tasting ingredients to find the perfect flavors.

Throughout his long career at Ferrero, Rivella eventually rose to become a senior manager at the company founded by Pietro Ferrero in 1946.

According to Jam Press, Ferrero’s son, Michele Ferrero, took over the family business, serving as his right-hand man.

The first iteration of what would become Nutella was originally called Giandujat, derived from Gianduja, a confection made from chocolate and hazelnuts, and was marketed in 1946.

“The first recipe featured a sweet paste that could be cut into slices and spread on bread, and was named after a local carnival character,” Nutella’s website says.

By 1951, the paste had “transformed into a new product with a creamy texture that was easy to spread,” Nutella’s website says. It was called Supercrema.

It would take more than a decade to refine the recipe, which led to the creation of the first hazelnut and cocoa cream jar in 1964, the website says.

In his book “Mondo Nutella (The World of Nutella),” Italian journalist Gigi Padovani recalled that Rivella and Michele Ferrero traveled the world to buy the confections “not to imitate them, but to make them better.”

Nutella is made from seven ingredients, according to its website – sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, milk, cocoa, lecithin and vanillin.

World Nutella Day, established in 2007, is celebrated on February 5.

After retirement, Rivella devoted himself to fruit farming and the traditional Italian game of pallapugno, Jam Press reported.

Rivella is survived by three sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren. Rivella died 10 years before his death – on February 14, 2015.

Rivella’s funeral was scheduled for Monday in Alba, where he had lived since retirement. He will be buried in Barbaresco, according to reports.