It’s a new year, and we’re heading down to the kitchen to talk with Lisa about how her fourteen-person team (split between S.F. and Las Vegas) gets it all done. Crafting pastries, desserts, and drinks that highlight the tasting notes of our single-origin chocolate is no small feat. Lisa dives into the “creative trust” that brings her team together, how they seek inspiration, and the idea behind our soon-to-launch Valentine’s Day pastry offering.
Lisa, the kitchen produces a lot in a year. What were some standout numbers in 2024?
Last year, we made around 5,000 Gâteaux and 2,500 pounds of toffee. We mixed upwards of 1,950 gallons of our House Hot Chocolate alone (not counting the other flavors).
And now that it’s January, how does the Kitchen team make their yearly pastry plan? Where do you start?
We are already in production for Valentine’s Day, which we started planning last August! After Valentine’s Day, we’ll roll into spring and Mother’s Day, which we are framing out now. Anchor holidays and seasons help shape the year. We’re looking at releasing more seasonal items in 2025. This month, some of our café and Bloom items will showcase citrus.
Several members of the Kitchen team have been at Dandelion for years. What makes your team work so well?
There is something very special with the tenure of the Kitchen team. Mary has been here for ten years, and Marianne in Las Vegas has been here since 2019. Our R&D chef has been here for eight years. We started out together on Valencia, before the kitchen on 16th Street was even built.
I think we all are so different in our tastes and what we excel in. Mary is amazing at cakes and execution. Our R&D chef’s palate and flavor profiles are exceptional. He also stays in tune with food trends happening in the City.
There’s something about working together for that long that’s less about the day-to-day production and more about: What are we going to make that’s amazing and unique and really showcases the chocolate? How will we teach new members to be excellent? There’s a level of comfort, a trust — a creative trust. We don’t know how customers are going to react to what we put out, but we get better at knowing what works.
What does your team do to seek inspiration?
We go through cookbooks, history books … Everybody on the team loves to travel, loves to eat. One of our pastry assistants was just in Peru and ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Others traveled to Istanbul, to Oaxaca. We come back inspired by all these different cultures and foods, and talk about them. On a recent trip to Thailand, Marianne brought us all a few different origins of chocolate to try.
I have always found inspiration in taking traditional pastries and adding a chocolate twist to them. It’s an interesting challenge. The Gâteau Basque is an example of that … starting with something that’s historically an old pastry.
The Gâteau Basque was a runaway hit. Did you or the team have any idea that it would be such a success?
No. We developed it during the pandemic in 2020, when all the kitchens were closed. It became a really good vehicle for showcasing single-origin chocolate, and later introducing the Cacao-Fruit, Candied-Orange, and Black-Sesame varieties.
The Gâteau Basque is a great expression of simple ingredients — basically flour, eggs, sugar, and chocolate — that have to be executed really well in order for it to work. Everything is done by hand, including scooping the pastry cream for each one.
Gâteaux aside, will you share some kitchen highlights from the past year?
A standout for me was launching the new Champurrado Hot Chocolate Mix. We worked on that for a while. And then we did some new seasonal cakes for pickup: the dome-shaped Spring Celebration Cake, and the Nibby Yule Log for the holidays. Those menu launches were the most fun for the Kitchen too.
How many people are on the Kitchen team?
Fourteen. We have eight pastry assistants in S.F. and six in Las Vegas. In Vegas, most of the team works on pastries that we sell online — granola, toffee, S’mores Kits, and so on. We have a separate Kitchen team that produces the drinks and treats for our café in The Venetian.
What’s a typical day like in the 16th Street kitchen (if a typical day exists)?
A typical day starts at 5 a.m. The team comes in and bakes pastries for all three cafés and Bloom, and then the next shift comes in and starts on all of the production — things like marshmallows, cookies, and doughs. Our R&D chef spends most of his time looking to the future — researching and experimenting. Every day, there’s somebody on the bake and lamination stations, somebody producing hot chocolate drink bases, marshmallows, and doughs, and somebody working on Bloom and cakes. We all step in where we need to.
Any sneak previews on things to come?
We’re launching Lovebird Macarons for Valentine’s Day. Lovebirds are native to Africa, and of the nine species, some can be found in places where we source cocoa beans. So we are making a set of chocolate macarons with ganache from three “lovebird” origins: Semuliki Forest, Uganda: Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania; and Kpalimé, Togo.
We love them already. Thanks, Lisa.
Lisa – I can’t tell you how many times grabbing one of your treats has brightened my day. Keep it up!