12 Nights of Chocolate
A Tradition to Add to your Holiday Wish List Every Year
After being on a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dandelion Chocolate was excited to invite up-and-coming and well-known chefs from the Bay Area and beyond to come to the Dandelion chocolate factory for the 12 Nights of Chocolate event and let their imaginations run wild. There is just one rule: use Dandelion chocolate in any application on the plate.
Our suggestion? Be sure to mark your calendar in early November 2023 to check on Dandelion Chocolate’s website to get your tickets to at least one of these events. They sell out quickly!
Kristine Keefer, Suited Hospitality’s Director of Public Relations and Strategic Partnerships, worked with organizers of the 12 Nights of Chocolate event to gather four of our client chefs to collaborate on one spectacular night of chocolatey magic on Sunday, December 4th. With so many talented chefs to choose from, it was an embarrassment of riches. The lineup included:
Steven Greene, Executive Chef- Herons Restaurant at The Umstead (North Carolina)
Phillip Tessier, Executive Cher - PRESS Restaurant (St. Helena, CA)
Mark Lieuw, Pastry Chef - Gozu Restaurant (San Francisco, CA)
Baruch Ellsworth, Pastry Chef - Little Saint (Healdsburg, CA)
Executive Chefs Steven Greene and Phillip Tessier showcased the savory side of chocolate. Steven started the evening by pairing toasted cacao with beets, madeira, black walnut, and yogurt in a creamy, crunchy, earthy starter. In a later course, elk took center stage, surrounded by quince, trumpet mushrooms, cranberries and chestnuts. His anise-chocolate sauce complemented all of the flavors in the dish, making it as he described, “autumn on a plate”.
Phil created a cocoa nib whey, a creamy, savory chocolate sauce, then topped it with a light and airy ricotta gnudi and white truffle butter. In another course, he baked oxheart carrots in a cacao pod before plating them on a dark chocolate sauce, topped with preserved habanada (a heatless habanero pepper). This dish also included a pickled collard green rolled and filled with Benton’s bacon.
“Who knew collard greens and chocolate would go so well together?” he exclaimed after presenting the dish.
The two pastry chefs on the team for the evening also had a chance to demonstrate their skill and creativity. Baruch Ellsworth, pastry chef at Little Saint, a plant based restaurant in Healdsburg, created mouthwatering desserts using his plant-based ingredients that have earned him high praise. His Whipped Chocolate Tart topped with almonds and candied orange in a crisp, buttery crust will make you a believer in using plant-based ingredients.
Then enters Mark Lieuw, Pastry Chef at Gozu Restaurant in San Francisco, where the menu is focused on using wagyu. And yes, wagyu made its way into some of Mark’s pastries like his Wagyu Entremet using Okinawa sugar and covered in a dark chocolate mousse. Diners were asked to add their own house made salt to the dish. The culinary team at Gozu makes a special salt made with beef garum, which is ground beef fermented with koji salt, using their own sushi rice blend. Adding this to the top of the dessert, toned down the sweetness, brightened up the flavors in the chocolate and the wagyu in the dish, and added a nice crunchy texture. Sweet, savory, chocolatey, and a little salty… it hit all the right notes in your mouth.
“It has always been a dream of mine to be a featured chef in the 12 nights of chocolate,” said Mark. “Getting the chance to showcase my work while working alongside some amazing chefs was incredible. It was truly a perfect night and I can't wait to be a part of it again!”
In addition to seated dinners, the 12 Nights of Chocolate included demonstrations from acclaimed pastry chefs, musical performances, and the Dandelion Chocolate Night Market on Sunday, December 10th. This is an event where the chocolate factory was transformed into a holiday shopping destination featuring some of the best local chocolatiers, ceramists, food producers, foragers, and printmakers. This year’s market was attended by over 1000 guests and Suited’s friends Candice Koseba at Sonoma County Bee Company and Chef Darryl Bell from Stateline Road BBQ, who will open a restaurant in spring of 2023, showcased their various products and had a very successful night meeting customers and helping shoppers check off their holiday shopping lists.
