Marsatta's Journal

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...

I never liked Easter chocolate from Big Chocolate. There, I said it. Too sweet. Too fake. Too much fluff, wrapped in shiny pastel foil that gets tossed aside like yesterday’s promises. Chocolate that looks the part but says absolutely nothing....

  Let me tell you something about nuts. They're not polite. They don’t whisper. They don’t melt quietly into the background like a supporting actor. Walnuts, pecans, pistachios—they show up loud, proud, with stories written in every wrinkle and roast...

How do you measure greatness? Is it championships? Awards? The sound a bar of chocolate makes when you snap it in half? The way a sip of espresso lingers on your tongue? John Wooden, the 10-time NCAA championship-winning coach from...