It started with a challenge. Not a shouted dare or some dramatic showdown, but a quiet nudge from a friend. The kind of friend who knows exactly how to push your buttons. We were standing on the Redondo Pier, waves...
You don’t really plan these things. They happen the way good stories do—unexpectedly, and then all at once. It started at the Torrance Farmers Market. Saturday mornings, way too early for most sane people, but just right for the ones...
Let’s be real. Mother’s Day has become a cliché. Brunch with bad mimosas. Greeting cards with soft-focus flowers and zero honesty. Maybe some store-bought chocolates wrapped in cellophane and guilt. But if you’ve lived long enough, if you’ve screwed up...
You meet a lot of people when you’ve been making chocolate as long as I have. Some come and go. But a few stick around—not just as customers, but as friends. Per is one of those friends. He’s a photographer...
You think you’ve seen it all. You’ve burned your hands on copper pots, stared down tempering curves like they were wild animals, ruined a dozen batches just to chase one that sings. You tell yourself—there are no surprises left. Then...
From the lab of Chef Jeffray We live in a world where “natural flavor” is often anything but. Some lab in Jersey reverse-engineers an orange, gives it a fancy name, and pumps it into a chocolate bar with a shelf...
It started in aisle six of the grocery store. Me, with two of my five kids hanging off the cart, staring down a wall of neon-wrapped chocolate bunnies. The kind that look fun but read like a chemistry textbook...
I’ve always believed the best ideas don’t come from boardrooms — they come from phone calls that catch you off guard. A few months back, I got one of those calls. It was from an old friend up in...
Back in December, a parent walked into our shop — eyes a bit tired, voice calm but urgent. Their kid, a rising hockey player, had a shot at making it to a big tournament. Problem was, they needed to raise...
