April 18, 2011
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'Tis the season for chocolate bunnies. This year, skip the dime-store staples and upgrade to designer confections created by one of the three leading women entrepreneurs infiltrating today's booming candy market.
Each attribute their companies' sweet success to creating flavors from unusual ingredients such as Asian spices, olive oil and sea salt. They have another thing in common: they were inspired to start their own companies after being treated poorly by famous and not-so-famous chefs.
“If you are a girl in the kitchen you are treated like an object,” said Katrina Markoff, founder and CEO of Vosges Haut Chocolat. “Women were expected to be a cute and flirty pet in a foul-mouthed environment.”
Her decision to “do my own thing at my own pace” has paid off. The privately-held, Chicago-based company estimates 2011 sales will reach $20 million. This spring, Markoff and her team will open their eighth boutique in Beverly Hills.
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Markoff initially headed to France to study culinary arts, but after unhappily working in several expensive restaurant kitchens, she bought an around-the-world airline ticket. She headed east, visiting exotic Asian countries, sampling street food and asking locals she met to recommend their favorite restaurants.
“It was very important to be open to receiving the signs because I believe everything happens for a reason,” said Markoff. “I am a big ‘follow your instinct’ person.”
Markoff said she always finds the connection between food and where it comes from fascinating.
“Back in 1997, American food was all about big plate portions and not much of a story,” she said. “The only spices were in the McCormick spice aisle.”
“I found chocolate needed innovation,” said Markoff. “There was a strong demand for something other than the big chocolate bars sold in grocery stores and gas stations.”
One day in 1998, while visiting Paris, she stopped at a café in the Place des Vosges, the oldest and most beautiful square in Paris. There she took a life-changing bite. It was a bitter chocolate ganache wrapped and fried in beignet pastry dough. “Growing up, I wasn’t a big chocolate person, but that’s the moment when I fell in love with chocolate.” In tribute to that experience, she named her company after the Place des Vosges.
She believes chocolate is so popular because it is an affordable luxury and eating it makes you feel better. Markoff explained the active ingredient in cocoa mixes with the caffeine in dark chocolate and releases endorphins, which trigger a release of the brain chemical serotonin. “Eating chocolate gives you a feeling similar to being in love,” said Markoff.
Her advice to business owners: “You have to continue to evolve and follow your instincts,” she said. “Follow your gut—don’t make decisions based on everyone else’s opinion.”
Liz Gutman, founder of Liddabit Sweets, studied French cooking at the New-York-City based French Culinary Institute.
Gutman met business partner Jen King at cooking school. “We had been kicking around the idea of making stuff to sell on the weekends,” she said. In 2008, the friends applied to sell their candy at the Brooklyn Flea Market. “Even before we had our website up, there was a photo of our candy bar in New York Magazine.”
She considers herself and King to be accidental entrepreneurs. “We didn’t have a plan. It just snowballed from this might be fun to do, to now this is our job."
Liddabit was started with savings and money borrowed from their families. They make candy in a commercial kitchen in Brooklyn. The company still doesn’t have a credit card or business loan, although Gutman said they are meeting with potential investors and hoping to buy new equipment to boost production. The company’s first year sales were under $40,000. In 2010, Gutman said sales were around $200,000.
Gutman recently signed a deal to write a cookbook and writes a food blog. Although she works about 60 hours a week, she loves being her own boss. “Working in a professional kitchen under someone else really sucks,” she said. “There are a lot of egos flying around, especially now that chefs are superstars.”
Across the country, another woman is making headlines with her unique, handmade chocolate.
Last year, after eight years in business, Kathy Wiley’s Poco Dolce won its first ‘sofi’ Gold award from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. The prize was for bittersweet tiles topped with grey sea salt. “We’ve won something every year, but this was our crowning glory,” said Wiley. Before starting her business, she worked as the IT director for a digital printing company and in restaurants.
“I had always wanted my own business,” said Wiley. “Eventually I honed my focus and decided it would be a food business.”
Today, Poco Dolce has 13 employees who craft every chocolate by hand. In addition to selling online at they sell their wares through 200 retail outlets.
“These are all my recipes,” said Wiley. “It’s hard to protect recipes but I have (confidentiality) agreements in place with my staff. And, there are things I don’t divulge about the spices and other ingredients.”
Funded with family money and small loans, Poco Dolce’s 2010 revenues were under $1 million in 2010, but Wiley said she hopes sales will hit $1 million in 2011. She said she admires the other women in the high-end chocolate business.
“There is always room for people to bring their own personal twist to the industry,” said Wiley. “The customer loves trying new things.”
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