How Katrina Markoff Built Her Chocolate Empire from the Ground Up

So we're just toasting some coriander seeds.

I'll know they're ready when I can smell them.

My process of creating a new chocolate

is really all about like falling in love

with something first,

usually it's beauty, cause or curiosity.

Everything I wanna do is rooted in personal experience.

You don't really think of coriander with chocolate,

but it is so delicious together

and it had a really beautiful,

bright, kind of citrus, floral scent

and it adds a lot to the white chocolate

and orange flower water.

I always lived my life making decisions quick

if I saw the sign,

so when I got to the last semester of college,

this woman gave me a book,

Where Your Heart Leads You, Success Will Follow

and it said into a like beautiful, natural place

and write down the things you love doing

and so I wrote down horseback riding, cooking

and then I circled cooking and decided

like that was gonna be my path.

I've stayed pretty committed to that,

even as the business has grown.

What's my gut?

What's my intuition?

And I follow it pretty much at all costs.

I traveled around the world,

mostly Southeast Asia and Australia,

and just started writing about things I saw,

ingredients, herbs, fruits, recipes.

Started working on modern dessert recipes.

I love sharing an unexpected discovery.

It's so exciting for the other person,

it makes me feel so fulfilled by creating something

that puts you in the present moment and surprises you.

I had my first falling in love with chocolate experience

in the Place des Vosges in Paris

and I kept thinking about that experience

when I was planning what this chocolate company would be.

But the name was always so hard to say,

I didn't really want to call it Vosges, but I felt like,

Oh, I have to be authentic to my first moment.

And so I did.

We're trying to figure out, with the caramels,

they're getting, some batches are getting really hard,

so I think it's happening because the kettles,

like everything's cooking a lot faster,

so I think we need to cook it to a lower temperature

on like the subsequent batches.

I think it's difficult to be a chef as a woman,

at least for me, like I didn't want to have to be

tough like a man and I didn't like that aspect of it,

but I just didn't feel like I could be fully me.

Hey Bill, how are you?

Hi, how are you?

Walter, Katrina, heard so much about you.

Good to meet you.

Well I wanna show you a few new bar ideas

that I had to get your gut on it.

It's really hard to do it all,

but you can break it up into chunks.

I owe it to my family to have that dedicated time

and I take it when I can.

I want you to try some of my new chocolates I made today.

I find that a young person's mind

brings so much curiosity to what we're looking at.

Actually, I learn so much from them.

What do you think of these?

I liked it.

Do you think it needs to be a little bit more tart?

I want more, it needs salt.

A little more salt?

(laughs)

It's really important for me to pick up Rowan from school.

There's a lot of quality time in the car,

so I always make it a point to drop him off and pick him up,

but that's important and, you know,

I'm always connected outside of that.

Oh man, hi, papi.

Hi, papi.

Hi, papi.

My advice to the young entrepreneur is

be true to your idea and passionate to no end

but always listen.

Be sure that you're creating a niche

or doing something better than anyone else

before you launch.

Never be afraid of changing and evolving,

even if you think something's perfect,

keep looking at it, it could be better.

And have fun.

(laughs)