Life after Zin
Jeff and Susan Mall approach chocolate making with a chef’s mentality, because that’s what they are. After a hiatus from Sonoma County following the sale of their popular restaurant in Healdsburg, Zin, the couple have a new chocolate venture and have set up production in the Shiloh Business Park.
Now self-taught chocolate makers, Susan and Jeff once owned and ran Zin for 16 years. Between running the restaurant and catering, they managed a staff of 30, maintained a farm with 100 chickens and enough produce to fulfill their farm-to-table vision. When Zin closed at the end of 2014, the pair needed a well-deserved break. Instead, they moved to Mexico to run the dining program for a farm- and sea-to-table resort, Rancho Pescadero in southern Baja California. Susan and Jeff had already been visiting the resort regularly as consultants when they were invited down full time.
“It was a great post-Zin getaway,” said Jeff. But it wasn’t a vacation. The job had the Malls running the restaurant with three services a day, as well as morning pastries, evening turn-down sweets, running the on-site farm, room-service and more. In addition, they had a difficult time adjusting to life in Mexico versus visiting. As consultants they had stayed in the hotel rooms and been driven around, Jeff said. Living in Pescadero, a one-stop-sign town with few paved roads, was sometimes difficult.
“We look back on it fondly, but it was incredible challenging,” said Susan. Something as simple as getting gas for the car was less of a certainty, as the station could be out of gas that day. At the restaurant, they had to order fresh meat 10 days in advance.
But there were many advantages, too. As a full service hotel, Jeff and Susan would occasionally have down time for their staff. One side project they started to keep people busy was shelling the cocoa beans that were in the kitchen. Very high quality Mexican cacao was everywhere, Jeff said. Mostly it was used in pozol, a traditional beverage that combines fermented corn, cocoa and water.
“That was kind of like taking a single vineyard wine and dumping it into Gallo,” he said. Instead, Jeff and Susan began to teach themselves how to make chocolate from the basic ingredients that were on hand in the kitchen. Through trial and error, they quickly had results that they were happy with and started selling , handmade chocolate bars through the hotel.
After 18 months in Baja, the couple said they missed home terribly.
“It was good to still be cooking, still be farming but not having most of the responsibilities of owning a restaurant,” Jeff said. “But it was also a good thing to realize that, ‘You know what? Maybe cooking isn’t what we want to do with the rest of our lives.’”
Susan and Jeff moved back in July, 2016 and wondered what they would do next.
“We thought, ‘Maybe we’ll just work for friends or do catering,’ and then we started playing with chocolate again,” said Susan. “We took some to a party over Labor Day and passed it out and Jeff posted a picture of it online and suddenly everybody was asking, ‘Where can we buy your chocolate?’ and I looked at him and said, ‘Damn, are we already in the chocolate business?’”
They began making chocolate in earnest in November, under the name Volo Chocolate, first in a space in Petaluma before making the move to Windsor at the end of March. They’re producing about 1,000 bars per week between their four different chocolates: 73% Deep Dark Chocolate, 62% Dark Milk Chocolate, Creamy Dark Mocha and Candied Orange Peel. These are bean-to-bar chocolates and Jeff and Susan’s chef background comes through loud and clear in the flavors.
“We approach it from the standpoint that it’s a food and not a candy,” said Susan.
Sugar takes a back seat to the characteristics of their beloved Chiapas cacao with inherent caramel, a great deal of cocoa flavor, a hint of orange citrus and nuttiness.
“I was never a sweets person; I was always a savory person,” Jeff said. “I would rather have mashed potatoes for dessert than something sweet. Even as a kid going to the movie theater, I would order butter and salted popcorn and a hershey bar and I would crush up the chocolate and put it in the popcorn to get that salty buttery thing. I always loved salt, which isn’t great, but that’s how chefs are.”
By scaling back the sugar, Jeff said Volo Chocolate pairs better with other foods and drinks.
“With our chocolate, we’re using brown butter, we roast almonds in extra virgin olive oil, so we’re throwing more savory in there,” he said. “It’s unique. Some people go crazy for it and some people say it’s not sugary enough. Winery people find that, because it has salt, it’s actually better for pairing with wine than a really sweet chocolate.”
They’ve also paired their chocolates at Lagunitas Brewing and at the recent Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma.
Though Jeff and Susan are enjoying the minimalism of the new business after the chaos of managing restaurants, demand for Volo Chocolates has them weighing whether to hire on help. They’re in no hurry, however, preferring to pace themselves as they acquire new equipment to make larger batches.
While it might take a while before Volo Chocolates are available on the shelves at local supermarkets, chocolate lovers can order online at volochocolate.com. Volo can also be found at Relish Culinary in Healdsburg, Jimtown Store, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Bella Vineyards, Dry Creek Vineyards, Wilson Winery and Ferrari-Carano.
There will be a Volo Chocolate “Pop-Up” at Relish this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. where bars, limited edition Easter bunnies and bon bons will be available for purchase.
