Part II Chef Jeffray Gardner The Willy Wonka of Los Angeles, CA

Michael Dugan: 1:02

So let's talk a little bit about Marsatta as a whole can you kind of help us understand what it would be like if we come to visit you What would your chocolate be like? What would the experience customer experience be like?

Chef Jeffray: 1:18

Well, you know the the customers experience from our Marsatta chocolate is very personable and when I say that, we probably care about more of the people and their lives than we do our chocolate sometimes, probably over the top because we're just we just love people. You know, we like hearing their stories and so we have to kind of you know, reflect and look back and go, Well, why did they come into this store? You know, they're coming in, obviously for chocolate, but at the same time, they want to hear from us, which is really cool. You know, and we've always got stories, so it's maybe an escape for, you know, our customer that they get the most and best of both worlds, right, they get chocolate and they get us as well. So, you know, I get back to that story where we are just manufacturers that was a lot easier of a lifestyle for us because let's face it, you work, you know, seven in the morning till four or whatever the hours are on, you go home, you know, we ended up the kids. I was saying this story. The kids were playing hockey in front of our manufacturing, and the landlady drove up and didn't like that. Didn't like kids or whatever it was and put a kind of kibosh to that and I gave us a 30 day notice which kind of turned our lives upside down, you know, and so, my wife at the time we had Emma and Tegan, our eldest daughter and son, and and all of her but didn't have Dustin yet she was carrying Dustin, through all the stress. I'll never forget we are leaving our house, going to a hockey practice for my daughter and my wife started having some serious complications and you know, heavy bleeding and so forth and without getting too graphic. She was rushed to the hospital and we had a very short amount of time to get Dustin out she was in serious trouble both the baby and my wife and so he was born at a very, very young age at 30 weeks into particular hemorrhage of his brain, heart problems. But our spirit continued on we of course in my mind, I want the best health for my wife, make sure she's situated and things are well with her and definitely over time she recuperated but our little Dustin didn't come out of the hospital until two months later. So, you know, with the chocolates we didn't I was at the time renting space and selling at farmer's markets, you know, just to you know, create getting ends meet, you know, sort of things. So that's how I continued on with Marsatta and we're kind of on the outside looking in but you know, we never have we have a great spirit and we ended up just doing farmers markets. I rented space again and until I found this retail spot that we're in now, and I always recall when I first took over this place, this was an old floral shop and there was literally weeds coming out of the concrete because it's sad for so long. Oh my gosh. I had vision and just said, I'll turn this into a farmer's American. You know, we'll sell it here. I'll take it either like vision sight, unseen kind of thing. I was so excited to find a place but we're getting into the retails, you know, retail world and I had no experience of that. We were always b2b, you know, wholesale manufacturing but for some reason we made it work. Although it was very challenging. You know, we had a lot of challenging times with this shopping center. It's another story and maybe another. Yeah, but we Yeah, we're still here and so now you know through COVID We survived through thankfully our our following our customers and people loving

Michael Dugan: 5:49

oh my gosh, that that's a big one for so many people.

Chef Jeffray: 5:54

A lot of businesses unfortunately. You know, closed I know. And yeah, so we continued on and now we're moving we're moving into a more like a ghost situation. Situation where, you know, we do a lot of, you know, online our online presence is probably right now about 90%. You know, I've got quite a few since COVID. You know, you get a lot of people that are just don't really want to go out too much. You know, I hope that changes soon but as a business person. I mean, let's face it, I came from sports, to business and I really learned a condensed MBA. You know, in my work here and even more with a a whole team of students came in and turned our whole business not necessarily upside down but really studied our business. We're really thankful for that. Oh, wow. Yeah, a business school came in and and so we know and all everything. Yeah, so that happened last year was that? Yeah, last year. And so I really got to know everything about business, including, you know, pricing down to the last drop of cream, you know, just different things that I before. Remember my thought and Carrie and yourself can appreciate that. Yes, we're, we're artists, right? We're the passionate side. So I would much rather hop on a plane or driving a car and go to your house and give you our chocolates here. Here. Try this happens, you know, and we're the artists I'm not I don't really care for the business side I don't I just want to please people and please their palates with our products, our chocolate right. And our while was our coffee, but it was really an eye opener for me. Because these students came in. They identified what our top sellers are what people want. What easy. Yeah, what people want versus what a chef or chocolate maker wants to do is totally different. I wanted to do pale shook a lot, which was making out the market I used to bake 100 of those at a market bring him in, sell them all.

Michael Dugan: 8:31

For those that don't know, pal

Chef Jeffray: 8:32

Aux Chocalate is you know, it's a very complex when I'm saying complex, it's it takes a while to do because there's a lot of resting in between the folds. It's a basically a croissant with chocolate in it just like you know I was saying as a young age I had the French

Michael Dugan: 8:51

yeah, there's the connection. Yeah, look for that. And my guess is like for that man.

Chef Jeffray: 8:56

I love making them it's so much work. It's like a day day and a half of work. But when used

Michael Dugan: 9:03

passion comes from to do this. Do you see that dissident? I clear as day because I interview Southside I asked this question. Can I just ask a question? It's what is your soul about? Right? Yes, your soul. This is Yeah. Oh speaking. Right. Yeah.

Chef Jeffray: 9:22

Yeah, that's cool. And also brownies, you know, all with our bean to bar chocolate. You know, it's just the flavors out of this world. You know, looking back at that too, and that's how we discovered the 100%. It's our best seller out of any chocolate we can make. So think about that for a sec. This is a 100% chocolate, one ingredient that has nothing else in it. Who would think as a business person, that that would be your best seller? Yeah, yeah. Well, it is. Why is it? It's the first chocolate on Earth. We've tasted a lot of chocolates and I even said to my customers, I'll give you $100 If you can bring a bar from anywhere in the world that will top this one. I had to back it up with something or else people just wouldn't believe you. But it's the first chocolate that is not better. At 100%. Of course I understand Michael, it's not for everyone. It's certainly not for me although now being a recent diabetic, maybe it is for me. But you know, I'll catch my wife in a dark closet any day of the week having that the 100% She loves the 100% You know, but that dark chocolate is just Yeah, it's very, very good. It's amazing, but I wouldn't have done it. If it wasn't for Naomi. I really wouldn't have be like, who buys 100% Remember when you're a little boy or little girl going into the pantry and discovering that baker's chocolate for the first time and it was nasty. You need to run and get a cup of flour, a little teaspoon of sugar with that.

Michael Dugan: 11:06

I drink milk. Yeah.

Chef Jeffray: 11:09

Right. So this is and it took us about a year and a bit. A lot of thinking. Was it the machinery? Or was it our cacao beans and when you look back now yes, a chocolate maker could have the same cacao beans from you know different origins. We work a lot with you know a lot of Elysium Beans, beans from Dominican Republic from Ecuador all all over and we never mix them but we always have different batches you know? But

Michael Dugan: 11:44

my brother right now is in Dominica.

Chef Jeffray: 11:47

Oh nice.

Michael Dugan: 11:48

So living on a sailboat for a year there. Oh

Chef Jeffray: 11:51

my god. He's

Michael Dugan: 11:52

just visited us a chocolate factory there. Wow chatted with him about having an interview with you last night that

Chef Jeffray: 11:59

reminds me of oh gosh, what was his name? God rest his soul out of Grenada, Grenada. He also lived on a boat for a period of time and then started a chocolate factory there. Gosh, I apologize for thinking I can't think of his first name right now but it's still called the Grenada chocolate company. And just a beautiful soul and he had a untimely you know, accident and passed away unfortunately. But same type of deal as your brother you know on a on a bow but gosh for a whole year. That's just

Michael Dugan: 12:51

The essence dreamers do on a sabbatical from teaching and he's got a son and his and his wife and they're traveling, but they got to deal with COVID Right in the pandemic. So it's a little bit tricky for him but they love to go on hikes. And so it's remote and there's no one around and you know, that's what they do the most. That is cool and then snorkeling and scuba dive and stuff like that. I'm sure he's talking. Yeah, I'm gonna interview his wife because she figured out how to prepare all the food for the travel they they sailed from Boston to the Bahamas. Basically, we're living in the Bahamas and living off her skills. So I'm gonna

Chef Jeffray: 13:31

show you find that as credible.

Michael Dugan: 13:33

That'll be a ways out but but anyway, getting back to a few questions I have for you about chocolate. Yeah, these come from friends and actually one of my guests is attending the Escoffier Institute, which is the first online Culinary Institute in the US are based out of I think it's New York. I'm not positive but I pretty sure are but it's all online. Right? So she has homework and I mean literally, it's really interactive. She loves it. And she's a food blogger as well. Kelsey, you should listen that episodes pretty cool, but when you send me the link, I will absolutely buy please. What I was going to say is she had a few really good questions and what makes a quality chocolate high quality what makes a chocolate high quality?

Chef Jeffray: 14:26

For me it's flavor. Yeah, it has to be flavor. There can't be you know, any sort of bitterness or volatiles or acidity. You know, unfortunately, there's some people that make chocolate out there that you know, and I'm talking the higher percentage. Remember, you can mask a lot of nasty taste Yeah, flavor with sugar. You really can you know, so I think the truth serum to create chocolate is the higher percentage chocolates because you're using using less sugar. If not, you know no sugar like are 100% And so, flavor must come through in the forefront. It's got to, you know, so for me, that's what high quality chocolate and a high quality chocolate experience is all about. Definitely flavor. So that's what we try and do so we do both bond balls and bars. So I have experienced as a chocolate tear first and now as a chocolate maker. So I love doing different infusions. So we do a lot of year infusions. Lots of beer. I saw that yeah, whiskies I've teamed up with Suntory. Jim Beam. We do. Japanese whiskies we love our job. A lot of different whiskies you know, we'll do scotches right now. I'm doing a one for a very large company, and it's black note which is a Scottish whiskey from the islands. Just beautiful. So I'll infuse that. And it's much different. I'm sure you and Carrie have experienced, you know Bomb balls coming from, you know Europe that are full of you know, lick the cure, and you bite into one and it just spills out of your mouth. Ours is much different where it's incorporated as he can arch. So truly, yes, so the experience is just amazing. When you bite into one of these, you know and you bite into one of these and just people are hooked you know they love it and for me it's a holiday every day because I just love as any chef job it does I just love the reaction from people you know, it gives me goosebumps when I just thought back at their reaction and and specially I have to say you know coming from now seeing the retail experience in business you know in manufacturing you don't see too many people coming in unless they're coming to visit your factory but truly retail you see a lot of ladies and I always tell tell them my my chocolate psychiatrists psychologists I understand women in chocolate they Michael they have midlines cream crazy sounds they have experiences with chocolate like no other male has ever I've never seen I mean I've heard some that say, Oh, my toes are curling and I'm like stand back. I'm very bad. You know, it's it's crazy. But as a chocolate maker you must just observe, observe their reactions and it's truly special. They have this out of this world experience with chocolate where a male most males I'm not saying all but most males. Sorry for the background.

Michael Dugan: 18:02

All right, this is real.

Chef Jeffray: 18:06

Yeah, we're in that packaging room right now. A window hopefully that person is going to be okay. But that's what I was thinking. Yeah. Getting back to that the male usually we eat chocolate and we're like, yeah, it's okay or it's good or whatever, and we consume it but with a female. It's a total experience, you know, and you have to listen to them and sometimes they don't say anything and that kind of scares you because you're wondering the worst, right? You're like, oh, my gosh, it's not saying anything, what's going on here, but they're truly just experiencing and bringing it all in from their, their palette, you know, and it just moves down throughout. Their whole body. And it's just a really different different experience to observe this, you know, and I've learned over the years to just watch and just, that's it. I don't have to say anything. And then I just smile. You know,

Michael Dugan: 19:06

So what about kids? What about kids kids?

Chef Jeffray: 19:11

Oh my gosh, yes. Their parent experience. Well, with with it's really funny. I we have five children and I mean, they could have chocolate any day of the week but no, they're not too interested. In in chocolate although my daughter recently experienced a box going her way to a family she was going to be staying with and that didn't work out. They had different plans. So that box although was going to that family ended up going somewhere else but she so certainly wanted that chocolate and we're like, you know, like our chocolate do you? Oh man. She hasn't had it for so long. She said if she says yes, she would love to have some you know, so that was a real surprise for us. But kids come in here and I mean, let's face it. A father of five children. I love kids kids can do no wrong in my eyes. I think a lot of times when kids make mistakes. We got to kind of point it to the parents and go where where was that education? Maybe it's online. Or it's somewhere else but with children I like to provide and I like to give you know and so any child that's coming in and into our store, they're usually getting one or two extras, you know for the kids, I just love kids, you know and so we have five of them from age, you know 17 down to four years old and it's really interesting. The four year old, little Maya. She loves any day of the week if she can work in the kitchen, you know she Yeah, the boys not so much. The boys give him a hockey stick and away they go you know, but but the girls are a little bit different especially my the younger one but we'll see what happens with with Marsatta . I mean, we're going through some changes right now where I told you about the I mentioned as the school that came and it was really a really an eye opener for both Naomi and I because we've gone from a mom and pop to scaling up majorly and right so we really had to change. We had to really change a lot of our thinking Michael, where I alluded to you before where I wanted to make pale chocolate. I wanted to do chocolate dipped strawberries because I know these are people have react to these things right that love. It's like you guys with your fly fishing or you guys we talked about the figs these are Game Changers.

Michael Dugan: 21:56

Right? And and so I couldn't do those anymore. And so the students identify two products that we got to continue on and that's what we're scaling up with. So changes you sometimes you have to embrace changes, and if you don't, we know what it's like to struggle and be challenged and we don't want to go there. You know, we really don't we've had a lot of that. And so now we're scaling up and we're actually going to be moving out of here and the next week we can have possibly two weeks. Don't have much time. So we're really turning out chocolate right now. So we're stockpiled for that transition into a ghost kitchen and it's really interesting because you know we've since COVID Customers have really come on board with delivery you know home delivery and lot of things being delivered. We see here any convenience we can have were on board with that whether it's Amazon or Starbucks drive thru or any other coffee shop, we want things now right? Join expectations, it seems anymore, but you know, so those are great expectations and people expect that so we've had to really change our thought process. Instead of Yeah, it's gonna be ready in three, four days. It has to be ready in one or two days, you know. And so, with the advent of DoorDash and Grubhub and UberEATS and those sales, we've embraced those companies and they're you know, we use them regularly and so people order their people still love to come in and see us in order here but that won't be first too much longer. You know we're moving into a ghost kitchen. This ghost kitchen houses a few other, you know, manufacturers businesses, and we are the first company chocolate company in this specific location here. But what it does is it kind of they're more fine tuned with the, you know, those delivery services. So we're going to be on a platform with them and it just gets you know, chocolate. The word out everywhere really, you know, we have a opportunity now to ship locally throughout the US which is huge. And so it's we're fastening our seatbelt is going to be a fun ride. It's going to be a challenging transition initially, because let's face it, we have a lot of big machinery here that has to be moved and carefully planned on where this new spaces but I mean let's face it it's not my first kick of the can you know I've done a few Barsaat already so I'm kind of experienced in that department. So what did we talk about the name Masada? No, we did we all three. Background obviously.

Chef Jeffray: 25:11

Is Carrie listening.

Michael Dugan: 25:13

No, but she I'll play it for oh,

Chef Jeffray: 25:16

yeah, that's funny. Tell me when to start on that one. Yeah,

Michael Dugan: 25:19

let's Okay, so So Jeffrey, Chef Jeffrey does tell us about the origin of Marsatta the name itself how did that come about?

Chef Jeffray: 25:29

Yeah. Interesting with Marsatta of course I was dating Naomi then and I was we were going on a bus ride from Wilson Park which is located in Torrance, California, all the way to the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, and we're going to watch a you know, was a symphony o r something music, music to movie kind of deal. And we I just thought, you know, I'm going to be on this bus for an hour and a half. I gotta make some fun out of it, you know, so I proceeded to get a flask of wine. I think we add a couple glasses of the bottle and add our chocolate right and so we started tasting the chocolate. If we have the wine, Naomi, I don't know, but we certainly tasted the chocolate. Yeah. Yeah. And we are bringing the wine to, you know, to the show. Yeah, to the Hollywood Bowl. And so I had a piece of paper in a pan and basically Marsatta chocolate Mart. The word Mar sada is an acronym. So in our minds, we're describing this taste of this chocolate. And it was it was wonderful am it might have been i i have the paper somewhere I just haven't located it, but it is somewhere but M may have been marvelous or magnificent. A may have been awesome or something else. And then so we had all these words these descriptor words for you know how we're describing this chocolate and brought it all together and I just thought it kind of sounded Italian. My grandfather's Italian, you know, my mother's from France and but Marsala had a nice little Italian ring to it. And that's how the mic named Maurice Hara came to fruition you know?

Michael Dugan: 27:34

Wow, that's, that's really, really cool. Couple last questions, and then I'll take us out so my niece wants to know, Samantha wants to know in some areas, how many types of chocolate are there and what types do you make?

Chef Jeffray: 27:54

How many chocolates do we have? Or how many are out there?

Michael Dugan: 27:58

She didn't say so. Let's just say do you have and how many types and what types do you make?

Chef Jeffray: 28:05

Okay, so out there. Samantha? may be referring to, you know, white chocolate, melt chocolate and dark chocolate. You know, we all grew up, you know with those three chocolates in mind. And of course with a white chocolate. There's actually no cocoa in there. It is. Cocoa butter and a whole heck of a lot of sugar. And a little bit of vanilla possibly to taste so that's white chocolate. Melt chocolate. Yes, you have cocoa in there. But you also have milk powder in there. And a whole lot of cocoa butter as well. So you need that because there's a lot of sugar involved in the milk chocolate. So as a chocolate maker, that sugar kind of bogs down the conching machine. So you need that cocoa butter as an emulsifier. And on an ingredient list and the listing, you may see some form of an emulsifier in there, you know could be coke and I did it could be you know an oil and olive oil or you know way back when and still to this day, some maybe some soy lecithin very tiny amount in there, but that helps with the viscosity of milk chocolate. Then of course our specialty is the dark chocolate you know as a chocolate maker so ours is ours range from we actually do a 55% goat's milk, which is really cool. Right up to 100%. So, you know when I did listen to my wife, Naomi, about the 100% You know we had an 89% a 74% a 63% and then a health bar we have a 82% which is a super Ray bar named after my late father. It has 33 Different superfoods in it. So it was really cool packaging where all these super foods are listed on the actual packaging. Because there's so many audit when a bar is so is so big of a size right so that was really cool. So that's the difference between the three chocolates. Now the question as far as what we do, remember, I was a chocolate tear first, and then a chocolate chocolate maker, right? So as a chocolate tear for those that don't know, you import blocks of chocolate and you make beautiful things. As a chocolate maker, you import cacao beans and it's a whole heck of a lot of work but a lot of you know you're roasting beans to a certain profile, your winnowing beans which is taken the shaft or the skin off the cacao bean and it turns into a nib which then goes into a coffee machine and then made into a chocolate the cure you know and then that's when you or liquor when that's when you add your you know whatever ingredients you're using or wanting to you know if you want to make 74% chocolate bar for us. It's two ingredients. It's the cacao the nibs and then of course the organic sugar. So it says 74% Cacao 26% sugar so 74 plus your 26 is your 100. So we don't use an emulsifier in that in those high percentage bars. It's just two ingredients in it and then of course the 100% which is easier for us to do, which has just the one ingredient in there. So thanks for the question. Samantha.

Michael Dugan: 31:55

Levin's demand pic great, great question. One more from Australian chef Gunawan who's become a great friend of mine

Chef Jeffray: 32:03

Hi, Gunawan is the other one. Right.

Michael Dugan: 32:06

Gunawan. Yeah, he's amazing. He's awesome. You might you might have seen him on clubhouse before.

Chef Jeffray: 32:13

I did see his name and I just got to do some more investigation when I have some time. Absolutely.

Michael Dugan: 32:20

He's an award winning chef. And he actually created a pastry or a chocolate. I think it was a chocolate dessert in a competition in cooking school and he was really young really young. But he won over 30 other chefs because he was so creative, you know, impressive. He breaks the barriers down. Like that's great. It comes up with unique flavors that are Yeah, sweet and savory. Right.

Chef Jeffray: 32:49

So, so thinking out of the box, yes.

Michael Dugan: 32:53

Outside the box. So do you use spices in your chocolate?

Chef Jeffray: 32:57

Yes, absolutely. Yep. Really interesting. That some of the bond balls we make one of the first real hot spice we used was of course ghost pepper. And then I wanted to push the part even more although I'm not a big Spice guy. I got my goggles on and my gloves of course and starting to imagine that a visual on then cutting up Carolina Reaper is so so hot so I carefully after making the shell. So think of you know when you're making a chocolate bar ball while you reverse it right so the top is now a bottom for the shaft or chocolate maker and so when I create the shell and it's empty, I placed gently a nice piece of Carolina Reaper in each bomb ball. Okay, and then I'll fill it. For instance with Carmel right caramel Carmel. Type it in there and then seal it. And it is a hot party in your mouth. Let me tell you. Yeah, but just one piece. I don't want it too overwhelming, but it's enough that when people tasted the light, okay, it's a little bit of a delay. They're eating the chocolate. Okay, hang on. Ah, there it is. And they have it and it's like, okay, and it's an experience that continues to harvest in their mouth and the warmth kicks in. And it's just a beautiful, warm experience. Yeah, all over the upper portion of your body. Yes. Isn't that a great way of experiencing or at least describing that Naomi she likes the hot stuff. I'm Oh, yeah. Yeah, I like I like my simple coffee. And I just like creating.

Michael Dugan: 35:12

I think it's really cool to have a variety, you know, and yeah, because people have different kinds of tastes. Yeah. So, as we take things out are there any

Chef Jeffray: 35:23

one more one more Michael? So another spice that I think more deer to Naiomi she loves the spices because she's a coffee roaster. And she loves experimenting with flavor as well. Right? And I try and shoot her out of the kitchen because remember, we're a married couple, right? We have five kids and that door is my domain. That's my kitchen. Right? And I love creating there. I love her to death. And I think our relationship would be even stronger, even more stronger than what it is now. If we didn't work with each other, but yeah, we're with each other all the time, right? You got to kind of be careful with that in that door is our kind of magic kingdom. You know, she works the front at a time she was rose. She was a coffee judge. She knows flavor. She really does. And I'm in the back creating right and so there are many different teas she actually was the one that created the lemon lemon robust and the Hawaiian fruit blend and the you know, the pure teas that was the only soy her doing was also the 100% That wasn't my doing but those are great best sellers for us, you know, so sometimes guys, yeah, listen to your wives.

Michael Dugan: 36:54

That's, that's for sure.

Chef Jeffray: 36:57

I do. Yeah. Carrie, Michael is listening. But she she loves, you know different spices. We did a I'm trying to think of the one that I love doing was the from the tea. Yeah, but it was a toasted coconut. Ooh, long black tea. Wasn't that something

Michael Dugan: 37:23

very strong.

Unknown: 37:24

Yeah, it's strong and it's just amazing. Flavor flavor and then we added coconut. We did this. We had experienced the Thai restaurant that brought on coconut more so and teas are in the ideas. They have coconut a lot of times with their sauces and flavors. So

Chef Jeffray: 37:43

our chocolates were right on their menu. Yeah. And we're actually doing the same thing with not in Chinatown, but the Japanese town in in Los Angeles at the far bar. We're going to be soon collaborating with them and we're going to have our chocolates right on their menu and we're going to be doing a lot of different whiskies, infusions and so forth.

Unknown: 38:08

A lot of years and our infusions are so smooth and natural tasting that it's it's amazing how how it's it comes out or how you're tasting it when you're on balm. That is it's it's really unique and fun experience to

Michael Dugan: 38:26

try it sounds like to from what you guys have shared is that you don't cloud it with anything. You know, it's very pure and yes, flavors

Chef Jeffray: 38:35

Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, we did a cranberry and gravy. I know. And again, it wasn't something I came up with. It was our team, you know, our team suggested they said, Listen, you got to do things that are outside the box. They call that a head scratcher, you know and so we're always coming up with some really interesting stuff.

Michael Dugan: 39:00

That's why you will love kind of one. Yeah, he is. Oh, he he's a lot like you he's so yeah, and creative. And that's awesome. I hope one day we will introduce you to him. I'll I'll send an intro because he's really awesome. And he's connected. Like he loves to connect with people around. That's awesome history and baking and stuff. Who knows where that would go? Yeah, exactly. So the last thing Oh, sorry. Go ahead

Unknown: 39:28

and say what was his what is his background?

Michael Dugan: 39:32

He is so you're his background is very interesting. He's originally from Indonesia. He grew up and he wasn't allowed in the kitchen at all. Like because his family thought it was unsafe. As a kid. They didn't want him in the kitchen. So he always was curious, but he never knew how to cook. Then he goes as an adult moves into an apartment doesn't know how to cook and he's going to cooking school. And he literally basically elevated himself in cooking school. He worked during the day and at night, almost every day because he was fascinated by it. And he loved the hospitality side of it just like both of you and that's where I'm passionate as well. Yeah. So you combine the two and then he became really interested in pastry and baking. And he competed in competition at Le Cordon Bleu. And he won the competition and then he eventually became an international judge for baking. And, yeah, he's fascinating and he's humble. He's just so humble. I love him. I just, it's

Unknown: 40:38

his background and growing up I'm sure that the women in the kitchen too. Were very, more than was there 14

Michael Dugan: 40:50

Maybe. I guess Mom, probably his mom more more so right. I think they didn't even have the kids in the kitchen. Yeah. But he eventually moved to Adelaide, Australia and that's where he is. Now. And which is the pandemic of fancy restaurant. He was the executive pastry chef, I think pastry chef. He literally left and started working in a cooking school for kids. So now it is just kids how to cook which is so ironic when it circles back but yeah, it's a it's a beautiful story.

Chef Jeffray: 41:23

Just sounds like he's got a good heart.

Michael Dugan: 41:25

He does. He does. So the last thing is I want to make sure to honor you and I want to make sure that people know how to reach us. So I'm going to ask you two more questions and matter. Do you have any special message that you want to share with our audience about your business about chocolate, anything that we can take away?

Chef Jeffray: 41:48

Well, gosh, that's that's a loaded question. Is about our chocolate or

Michael Dugan: 42:00

about what with what you're about what what your, what you want people to know about Marsatta as whole.

Chef Jeffray: 42:06

Yeah with with Marsatta . It's, you know, it's all about flavor and chocolate and chocolate experience like no other. I mean, Naomi, right now. Michael is pointing to a sign we have and I'm looking at it. And it says, let the chocolate speak for itself.

Michael Dugan: 42:31

It's beautiful. Yeah, that says it all.

Chef Jeffray: 42:33

You have is there? Yep. The okay.

Michael Dugan: 42:37

And then how can we find you? How do I how do I connect with you?

Chef Jeffray: 42:42

You can find us? Of course Marsatta.com right not massage talk. I always have to check with my team now you know, but it's masada.com Yeah. And then we're on all the social platforms. You know, Facebook is Marsatta chocoalte but Instagram we have a lot of vivid pictures there. That's also Marsatta chocolate. You know, we do the LinkedIn we have Pinterest as well. And then recently the Tic tock stuff, you know,

Michael Dugan: 43:20

so yeah, yeah. Okay. And so that's

Chef Jeffray: 43:24

Yeah, that's us in a in a nutshell. And like I said, I'll never forget. You know, how we really mad is me listening to you, you know, talking and I actually think you weren't even talking on food is religion was chef mini it was. It was with Jennifer on food and beverage magazine. Yeah, I think it was and and I was riding my bike, and I was listening to you. And then I sat on a picnic bench and continued to listen to your story. And I'm listening to you know, and now it's pretty unique and with with the clubhouse it's audio, you know, the same as a podcast, which is brilliant. And I'm listening, and I'm like, Oh, this guy sounds like a really nice guy, you know? And I'm listening to your story. I'm like, oh, yeah, I know that I know that you're describing these different stories, you know, and I just, I just enjoyed it. And so you know, you and I kept in touch and, and yeah, I hope one day that we will actually you know meet in person Oh, I think so. And and and Carrie will be at your be able to taste our chocolate. We'll definitely set some stuff up to you guys, you know. And then maybe you guys will point to the sign too and say let the chocolates speak for itself because it really is very unique. You know, when I I sent I sent some stuff to New York last week. And I always send the 100% bar besides the lower percentage bars, because that's kind of our our calling card that it's the true serum to chocolate that if a chocolate maker can make 100% bar that is not bitter that it doesn't have all dials. You gotta be on to something, you know. So it's, it's really cool. So I we try and put that in there. as well.

Michael Dugan: 45:32

You just shared your special message. I can voice over that too. But that's that's really cool. So, so chef Jeffrey, I just want to thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been my dream to interview a chocolatier and you made that dream happen. Oh, I can't say how grateful I am.

Chef Jeffray: 45:52

Yeah, thank you. My God. I appreciate you interviewing both Naomi and myself and us being able to share some memories that I look back at now and i i Just smile, you know, and I'm like wow, that was That was some good times, you know, and I hope the world has, you know, we can be offered some even more better times. You know. It's been a tough world we've been living in and my message is just take care of one another, you know, I gotta be kind be kind. Then we're gonna do it through chocolate. So I thank you, Michael.

Chef Maria Campbell: 46:35

I'm Maria Campbell, Chef by trade and founder of cooks who care a community advocate to cover mental health costs for food and beverage workers. We've launched our first Community cookbook project to include 28, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Delaware County, and they include chefs, mixologist, as long as experts who contributed recipes to inspire home entertainment ideas. You can get to know the people behind the recipes as you watch videos as they share how to steps as well as get great ideas for gathering people in your home or places you love. You can donate to the fund to help us kickstart this project and as our initial in the 2022 year it'll be ready to help serve others are serving you thanks so much.

Michael Dugan: 47:23

Take care. Thanks for joining us today. Follow us on Facebook. Find our website in the show notes, subscribe on Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you listen. Leave a comment with five stars and stay tuned for the next episode of Voice for chefs.