CHEF’S SWEET NOTHINGS

Last year, Isaac Hayes asked Frank Sheftel of the Candy Factory to concoct a recipe for “Chocolate Salty Balls”--a decadent snack made popular by Chef in the “South Park” TV series. And now Hayes, the rumbling voice of Chef, has compiled “Cooking With Heart and Soul,” a recipe book that includes the “South Park” sweet. It will be published by Penguin/Putnam this fall.

Sheftel, who has owned the North Hollywood store since 1991, says, “I knew I would never starve because I could always eat the product.” The 38-year-old candymaker also sells more than 50,000 molds and has custom-made about 10,000 others, including ones for orange chocolate fingers (featured in Woody Allen’s upcoming “Picking Up the Pieces”), green lollipops (“Wild Wild West”) and a chocolate version of Evander Holyfield’s ear--with a bite taken out.

“I love making people happy,” Sheftel says. “People don’t come in here miserable.”

Candy Factory, 12508 Magnolia blvd., North Hollywood; (818) 766-8220