{"id":5649,"date":"2014-12-20T12:25:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-20T20:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/?p=5649"},"modified":"2024-02-18T17:09:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T01:09:08","slug":"life-after-chocolate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/local-chocolate\/life-after-chocolate\/","title":{"rendered":"Life after chocolate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anni
Anni Golding of 650Food.com and Nancy Martin of CBTB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does a successful, award-winning chocolatier do after she decides to stop selling chocolates?<\/p>\n

We met up with Anni Golding, owner of the former Gateau et Ganache,<\/strong> whose intensely flavorful chocolates and pretty flower-shaped marshmallows we remember fondly, to see what the next chapter turned out to be and get her take on the business of artisan chocolate.<\/p>\n

Chocolate beginnings<\/h2>\n

First, some background: Anni started Gateau et Ganache in Palo Alto in 2004 with culinary school experience, training in Paris in pastry and confections, and the idea to do both (hence the name). She figured out pretty quickly that the gateau<\/em> part was not going to work logistically, so she concentrated on the ganache<\/em> part.<\/p>\n

\"Gateau
Pretty packaging complemented the bright flavors inside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She used quality ingredients, such as local seasonal fruits and herbs, in her bon bons, truffles and marshmallows, put them in beautiful packaging, won lots of awards, and sold a lot of chocolate. We first met her at the 2010 SF Chocolate Salon<\/a> and were impressed with her \u201csmall indulgences.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what happened?<\/h2>\n

\u201cIn 2012, I was approached by a writer for SFoodie, who wanted to write about Gateau et Ganache,\u201d Anni told us, \u201cBut you have to be in a physical store in San Francisco to be written about, and I ended up connected with Michael from CocoaBella [a local store that carried a selection of premiums chocolates from around the world, including Oakland\u2019s Michael Mischer<\/a> and Napa Valley\u2019s Kollar<\/a> \u2014 it has closed].<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving my chocolates at CocoaBella opened things up for me. And it became clear that I was on the threshold of \u2018More\u2019: More time, more money, more people. Plus I needed to find a new space because at that time I was working in 2 separate spaces: a commercial kitchen and an office.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Peninsula has a lack of commercial kitchen space \u2013 business opportunity for someone! \u2013 and most of the spaces I saw on the Peninsula needed a lot of work, and there was a lack of quality, available space that met the needs of my business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s the biggest hurdles, which are the cost of ingredients and labor. There are a lot of challenges for small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tipping point or breaking point?<\/h2>\n

\u201cI\u2019d had no life since I started this in 2004,\u201d Anni continued. \u201cNo vacation, no days off. And now I was thinking, \u201cShould I take on a partner? Find financing?\u2019… When I started, there weren\u2019t a lot of other artisan chocolatiers doing this kind of work: small-batch, French-style bonbons, with a focus on local, organic ingredients. There was Dennis (of now-closed Coco D\u00e9lice) and me… maybe a few others around the Bay Area? None on the peninsula. I had started with one flavor of chocolate and one flavor of marshmallows. But now [in 2012] there were a number of other chocolatiers, and I had done a lot of good stuff, got noticed, won awards. So, when it came time to decide whether to scale up or move on to other projects, I was thinking, \u2018I\u2019m good.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough decision, I love the business, but I was moving away from what I love: working with chocolate, and moving permanently into a management role \u2014 not fun. So I had a day of clarity, and that helped me make the decision to close the business. That was in August 2012, but I wanted to finish out the year, so the official close date was Dec. 31, 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh start<\/h2>\n

\u201cAfter I closed, there was another 6-9 months of details, tax stuff, equipment to sell. And I needed some downtime after all that,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Anni started 650Food.com,<\/strong> a blog about food topics centered around the 650 area code on the San Francisco Peninsula. \u201cI have a degree in technical writing, and I love the writing right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I planted my first garden in decades. Number one, I wanted to grow mint because I could never get enough peppermint for my mint chocolates. I use it to make simple syrups. I\u2019m growing lemon verbena and lavender for desserts and syrups. And I love peppers \u2014 so I\u2019m growing two kinds of jalapenos.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy neighbor has lived in his house since 1960 and always grows amazing tomatoes, so I decided to grow one tomato plant, and lettuce because lunch is always salad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always had a healthy diet, and now that\u2019s in vogue. So I\u2019m writing about what we have locally, what chefs are doing with it, and what you can do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blog is centered on 650, but it\u2019s intentionally broad. \u201cI get to focus on what interests me. I\u2019d like to do lists, like 5 unknown taquerias in the area; or alternative diets \u2014 where you can get gluten-free, vegan, GMO-free \u2014 and which chefs are buying from local farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Educating eaters<\/h2>\n

\u201cI want you to know your food, know what\u2019s in your food, and support your local businesses. Having been there, it\u2019s one of those things I think is really important.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intent in culinary school and training in Paris was to open a small pastry shop in Palo Alto, but the real estate agent said rent would be $10,000 plus triple net [tenant pays all costs associated with the property, like taxes, in addition to the rent]. I don\u2019t see how people can do it. I figured I couldn’t sell that much pastry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real Catch-22. You need to build a business and a nest egg to get a space. But you need a space to do that. Finally, it\u2019s a leap of faith to take on a space.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was just starting up Gateau et Ganache, I ended up taking a trip to Japan, where I researched their style of packaging confections \u2014 packaging is very important to convey quality \u2014 and I put a lot into our packaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this goes into the price of the product. In the past decade, especially in the Bay Area, people have gotten educated about food quality and the higher prices you pay for better quality. But a lot of what I had to do in my first years was educating customers: \u2018Why are you so expensive compared to See\u2019s? I can go to See\u2019s and get a pound of chocolates for 8 bucks.\u2019 I had to explain the higher quality ingredients; they\u2019re local, organic, and it takes 24-30 hours to make these chocolates by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recipe for success<\/h2>\n

So if a retail space was out of reach, how was Anni able to sell chocolate and develop a reputation for high-end chocolate?<\/p>\n

\u201cI never did farmer\u2019s markets. It just didn\u2019t seem to make sense to me. Instead I went with local grocery stores: Draeger\u2019s<\/a>, Bianchini\u2019s<\/a> and Piazza\u2019s<\/a>, who are all family-run, higher-end grocery stores and were all supportive of local businesses. Alexandra, the buyer from Draeger\u2019s was always super supportive, and she would go to the chocolate salons and bring in new local chocolatiers to the San Mateo store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe customers were there too. Every time I\u00a0 did an in-store demo at Piazza\u2019s, I\u2019d sell out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get local artisan chocolate onto store shelves,\u201d Anni explained, because shelf life is an issue. \u201cMy chocolate didn\u2019t have any preservatives. I\u2019ve always said that anything that can sit on a store shelf for 9 months before selling is not a food. After years of experience in the food world, I\u2019ll amend that statement and say that there are some amazing small foodcrafters who are creating delicious preserves, jams, pickles, and so on that do extend the shelf life of certain foods. But when it comes to confections, I still believe fresh is best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Future options<\/h2>\n

So now that she\u2019s no longer selling chocolate, what might we see chocolate-wise from Anni?<\/p>\n

\u201cI hang onto my recipes and techniques. They give me options for the future, like classes or cookbooks,\u201d she told us. \u201cI might do classes or consulting, teaching people about artisan foods.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned a lot. On the pastry side, people are willing to share. That\u2019s more me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a hot-side cook, but I really love fresh food. One of the draws of chocolate for me was using seasonal produce in my chocolates. We have such wonderful food here. You don\u2019t need to salt it up, and you don\u2019t need a ton of garlic or cheese to flavor vegetables.<\/p>\n

\u201cStealing a line from a friend of mine: \u2018I\u2019ve got to pick a major at some point\u2019,\u201d she said, but for now the blog is where she\u2019s focused. In her articles, she wants to encourage people to be more conscious about food issues. \u201cI try to be specific, but not overly detailed, and look at food issues that interest me without being preachy.<\/p>\n

She mentioned a couple of topics we can look forward to: food deserts, \u201ca lot of people don\u2019t have access to healthy food,\u201d and uniquely California food topics, \u201cwe have a farm-to-fork office<\/a> in California \u2014ya gotta love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want it to be educating and entertaining,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

No problem there. Check out 650Food.com and see for yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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