Plaster Project for Beverly Hills from Vosges Haut-Chocolat on Vimeo.

Carved, White and Extradorinary Arches Leave Morocco for our Beverly Hills Boutique

In September, our new purple house will be opening in Beverly Hills. Alas, all of the elements are starting to come together! I recently received the above video from the artists in Marrakesh Morocco who carved this ornamental beauty… my jaw dropped.

For me, inspirations often come together after a variety of impressions intersect. All my life, I have dreamed of traveling to Morocco. I have been drawn to the allure of spice markets, riads, Moorish architecture, the French tongue, the call to Allah and mint tea rituals. I too am fascinated with the idea of East meets West, a style I think interior designer, Alberto Pinto does beautifully. His hard cover book highlighting his work titled Albert Pinto Orientalism is perched in my office. Within it, intricate carved plaster arches creating frames of neighboring opulent spaces seems to be a stand out. He celebrates opulence with sumptuous gardens, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, exquisite parquet floors and fine damasks and silks. His work is forever a stunning piece of luxury.

As I was crafting the idea for the Beverly Hills boutique design, I kept peering into Pinto’s book and thinking of my friend Stephanie Rudloe who first suggested I buy it. She is one of the owners of Imports from Marrakesh in NY – a fabulous resource for great and fine Morrocan pieces. It was with Stephanie that I took my first step into Marrakesh (via Chelsea in New York), for she welcomed me into her elegant stall, filling an ornate teapot with voluptuous mint leaves, black tea and sugar. We sipped and talked as we sat on jewel toned poufs and admired the silver dangling wedding blankets. I left with the blanket and the tea service along with an imprint of Morocco forever being a romantic and mysterious locale.  So, when I glistened onto the idea that carved arches as I had seen in Pinto’s book had to grace our newest boutique, I called my friend Stephanie and asked if she had a connection with Moroccan artisans who could create these masterful beauties. Did she ever.

Oh, and a little more about Miss Stephanie, she is also a creative goddess with her hands as she is known for her henna work and has even painted such celebrities as Christie Turlington and Madonna. See more of her other talents at Shingara.

The Chocolate Laboratory of Beverly Hills

Beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, funnels, balances, scales, distillation equipment, pipettes and droppers. It is time for the chemistry student inside me to fully unite with my present day chocolate activist.

In mid-September, we are opening a new boutique in Beverly Hills and I am thrilled to announce that it will feature a Chocolate Lab fit for a High Priestess. I have long experimented in my various kitchens, but it is time to bring my chocolate meanderings, Practical Magic wannabe, mess-ups and un-thinkables public.

Though I can’t be there full time, I will plan to spend a number of weeks a year in Los Angeles so I can feel the west coast vibe, utilize the chocolate lab for my R & D projects and find a general escape to ponder my next move.

Our Beverly Hills/West Coast manager, Hayley, is also a pastry chef specializing in vegan creations and a veteran of famed Millenium in San Franciso. In my absence, she will ensure that the flow of creation is strong. Expect to see more hemp and brazil nut milk in the fridge (definitely not soy).

Our opening menu includes exotic chocolate bars wrapped in croissant dough to aromatize freshly baked pain au chocolat, cacao beans roasting before your very eyes and glassware of all shapes and sizes filled with chocolate concoctions, spices and distillates. This is just a sneak peek, hope to see you soon.

The Root to Bar Project
The power of manifestation has once again proved if you dream it, say it, write it and believe it — it will become your reality.

Today, in this moment, I feel a dream has come true. Before I started Vosges Haut-Chocolat I knew I wanted to have a creative, change-the-world type of business that allowed my loves and inspirations to create something special.  Somehow along the way, I found chocolate and knew it was to be my medium for storytelling and certainly an agent to change the world.  My mantra, we can bring peace to the world through chocolate was set ablaze. Putting a statement like that out into the ether carries a heavy weight on the crazy one who says it; for now, they must execute. And so, with every decision I make, it is evaluated; is this decision making the world better?  Opening Minds to New Ideas through Chocolate, Green Purchasing Oath, Ingredient Selection, Charity Affiliation, Message, Story….

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(pictured above: criollo seedlings in nursery for planting)

Through some supreme act, I was connected to a group of people with similar missions that are born from the heart and for the earth. In the southern part of Belize lies 100,000 acres residing from the rainforest to the sea. 3,000 of those acres are dedicated to my beloved cacao.  We are actually planting the virgin land with cacao in a project I like to call the root to bar quest. 300 acres have been planted thus far and every day more are going in. We’ve had agronomists galore helping analyze the current varietal stock and soil conditions to help us determine how we can plant exclusively, organic, Belizian criollo and trinatario varietals.

Over 32,500 seedlings have been planted in the nursery already, with the majority of the farm being criollo. The impact of this farm of origin project is to celebrate the production of the finest chocolate, coffee, vanilla and spirits that can be made at the source. There is a luxury eco-lodge with an agro-tourism educational center examining the creation of these artisanal crops (chocolate, coffee, vanilla and distilled spirits).

This year we will have our first small crop of about 1,000 pounds which will be a great starting point in evaluating the finished chocolate profiles we can achieve. As all the acreage continues to be planted, these new cacao plants will begin to yield cacao in approximately 5 years from planting. We will be doing cocoa and chocolate processing in both Belize and Chicago. You will be able to take a course in how to make any of the crops grown on property, from plucking the pods with a machete to deciding the roast temperature of your beans.

I look forward to keeping you updated and eventually inviting you down and sharing a taste of this chocolate that will be grown, roasted and created in Belize by Vosges H-C!

A Little Peek Into My Office

People often ask me about my office and where I work. Since I am regularly traveling or on the go, I work like most people these days – in my car, on planes, at the kitchen table and sometimes at our corporate office. The last year has been a bit different since the arrival of my little angel, now 7 months old. I’ve been learning how to juggle even more things from more locations.

Our corporate office, kitchen and shipping facility is in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood alongside the river. My office is not very large but has many windows with a view of the river where I occasionally see a lone kayaker on an industrial barge. Almost always, I have trays of chocolate concoctions awaiting my revisit. Each new product usually requires many rounds of trials as I taste, test, adjust, add and experiment. All tasted at different times of the day to get a true sense of the parfum.

So I look, smell, snap, taste and feel at all hours and write my feelings.

Along the length of one wall is my inspiration board. It holds layer upon layer of papers, clippings, tear sheets, packages, drawings and paintings that inspire me or drive my creative process. Also pinned on the wall is a 5-foot poster of Bob Marley and one of Erykah Badu saying control freaque. Music is a constant source of relaxation and energy and often serves as a catalyst for my creativity.

The newest additions to my work world are the crib and baby gear. My son doesn’t come to work with me full time but makes regular appearances. My Twilight poster featuring Edward hangs right above the crib where the babe gazes up, dreaming of developing such a head of hair.

For me, it is important to be surrounded by things that keep me leaping from one opposite idea to the next and all with a good vibe. My success relies on my ability to create. With cell phones, many responsibilities and now motherhood, it can be hard to find the needed time and inspiration. I am currently working on creating better time outside of the office to revitalize and find inspiration so that my time inside the office is all the more successful for it.

Hmm wish me luck ~ Who knows how to do this gig anyway?

A Sprinkle, dash and flash into the oven, check your temperatures, calibrate your range and load up on chocolate chunks, but be sure to spread the batter evenly, choose the right amount of gluten and prick the top to know when to start the cooling.  These are the things that accumulate my hours of late as I develop this new line of baking mixes set to hit this fall.

Last year, I developed Mo’s Bacon Chocolate Pancake Mix to bring my original bacon + chocolate concept back to its roots in Ft Wayne Indiana on the side of the highway.  It all began with chocolate chip pancakes lingering with drizzles of maple syrup and strips of sizzling hot bacon on my childhood breakfast plate.  The response to the pancake mix has been uplifting and inspiring.  I have always enjoyed customer feedback but the comments, questions and suggestions from people who have been mixing, flipping and serving these pancakes has added a new level of engagement with customers.  It is a more of a two-way street as we must both put in effort, working together, before the final product is ready for tasting.

The development of mixes is very different than the development of a new truffle or candy bar.  Knowing that someone will take these ingredients into their kitchens and produce the final product him or herself means a new type of information must be provided… instructions!  In developing the pancake mix I found that separating the yolks and whites of the eggs made a big difference and that mixing the batter too much released the precious air bubbles caused by the baking soda resulting in flat flapjacks.  Added hints and tips along the way made the directions a bit longer but also revealed some great tricks of the trade. My hope is that there is no guessing involved in how things should look.

Though not quite like cooking together, this new relationship with home cooks has been inspiring and fun.  I start the process and send it out in the world for others to help finish and also add their personal touch.  Baking mixes open up room for more creativity from people like you.
Always motivated by a challenge, I found the chemist in me stimulated as I work towards the perfect baking mixes. In the past months, I have likely made over one hundred batches of cookies.  The scientific aspect of baking, the portions, ingredients, processes, temperatures and even the perfect size cookie scoop can make all the difference.

I look forward to working together with you in just a few months. Until then, I will continue to make dozens more batches of brownies, cookies and cakes, honing the ingredients and noting the tips and tidbits that will help make them divinely delicious.