Dr. Robert Steinberg, a food-loving doctor who threw himself into the chocolate business, eventually joining with a former patient to make the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker brand into one of the most highly regarded fine American chocolates, died Wednesday near his home in San Francisco. He was 61.
The cause was lymphatic cancer, which Dr. Steinberg had battled for nearly two decades and which spurred him to shift careers, his sister, Nancy Steinberg, said.