By Jecca Berta

Director Colt Bradley of Graphite Productions just released Tempered, a short documentary spotlighting our Director of Curriculum, Stephen Durfee. In it, Stephen commutes to our 16^th Street factory to teach classes and guide visitors through our bean-to-bar process. It’s a fantastic window into his world, which has taken some interesting turns since his years at The French Laundry. The two joined us for a few questions about the film.

Colt, how did you come up with the idea of focusing on Stephen? His enthusiasm comes through in the documentary. Did that draw you in?

Colt: For this documentary, and really for any documentary, I always look for someone who’s passionate about what they’re doing to carry the energy of the film. This is the central character who can serve as a hero and an advocate for the organization. Stephen was an obvious choice: He’s excited about his work, he’s very skilled, and he speaks with real authority. We always look for a physical journey and an emotional journey. In this case, the emotional journey is his love for Dandelion, while the physical journey — his movement through the film — connects the viewer and marks the passage of time in a tangible way.

How did you first learn of Dandelion? 

Colt: I know I heard about it on the Acquired Mars episode (the chocolate story). I also have a brother-in-law who lives in The City and mentioned [Dandelion] previously. Around the holidays, I decided to get my fiancée a class there — one of the Chocolate Making experiences.

Stephen, your first three words of the documentary are “it’s not crazy” — in reference to your daily ferry and bicycle commute. How long is that commute, and do you ever not bike? 

Stephen: I don’t get to bike nearly as often as I’d like. My total commute takes about two hours — between the ride from home to the ferry terminal, the ferry itself, and then biking from the dock to the factory. Admittedly, it’s a long commute, but when broken into parts, it can actually be quite pleasant. Yesterday I tried driving my car to the ferry, but with all the road construction I missed it and ended up having to drive the rest of the way into San Francisco. Bay Area commute traffic can be brutal.

The return ferry presents another challenge. The last boat leaves San Francisco at 8:15 p.m., but I often have evening classes and events. For instance, tonight I’m teaching a Caramel Bonbons class, and I don’t want to tell people — who are elbow-deep in chocolate — to hustle up so I can catch the ferry. I’m always a little anxious about that …

Have you ever biked in and missed the return ferry?

Stephen: Yes! Sometimes I wind up spending the night in The City. But there are so many amazing restaurants here, it’s hard to complain about being “stuck” in San Francisco. Plus, a bean bag can make a pretty comfortable bed … (Kidding.)

Colt, the documentary is about six minutes long. How much footage did you shoot, and what was the editing process like? 

Colt: I think the length of any documentary is very important, right? You never want to overstay your welcome. You want it to hold people’s attention and be entertaining the whole time. One thing I often think about is how many distinct scenes there will be. For a six-minute film, I’m usually aiming for roughly one scene per minute, maybe a bit longer depending on how it breaks down. So I knew going through the day — you have the ferry and the arrival, then the tour, then his preparation, then the class itself, then the reflection on the way back. That felt like the right rhythm for a six-minute film.

Part of the inspiration for this film was a “One Day Doc” competition put on by The Art of Documentary, a filmmaking group I’m a part of. The rules are simple: Shoot it in one day and keep it under six minutes. So I targeted that, but I also felt like six minutes was the natural length for Stephen’s story.

In terms of how much we filmed — a lot. We filmed the whole day with Stephen, from before he got on the ferry in Vallejo to when we dropped him at the ferry at the end of the day. I didn’t quite have eight hours of footage, but I ended up with two terabytes of footage that we shot. There are a couple of ways to approach a documentary like this: You can sit someone down for an interview and build the story around their words, or you can just film and discover the story in the edit. We chose the latter. It’s harder since you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get, but it’s often more rewarding because the audience really feels like they’re coming along for the ride.

That last moment, where the one student interacts with Stephen and asks about his past experiences — that was not scripted at all. That was a real interaction. Those unscripted moments — that’s why you film for multiple hours.  

You begin and end the documentary with Stephen’s commute. There’s a serenity to that ritual — the sound of the water, the bicycle gliding. One can really notice their surroundings when traveling in those ways. Was that something you sought to convey? 

Colt: Stephen’s commute was a big part of the story. I wanted to capture what it feels like to move through the Bay by ferry and bike, and to ground the audience in that experience. The film is structured almost like a day in the life, so giving a sense of place was important — you see San Francisco, you see the Bay, you see the factory. You understand what Stephen’s world looks like as he goes about his work.

I think I connected with that because of my own past commute. Before moving to the Bay Area a year ago, I lived in Baltimore and used to bike to the train station, take the train into D.C., and then bike again to work. Very different from a ferry, but the rhythm of relying on public transit and having a bike as part of the routine was something I immediately understood. It’s also something Stephen and I talked about, and a piece of the story I felt was important to show.

Stephen, the documentary reveals that you first encountered Dandelion while bringing a group of culinary students on a field trip to San Francisco. In retrospect, that was a life-changing moment. Did you sense it at the time? 

Stephen: I live in Napa, and for years I thought of going to San Francisco as a big commitment — a bit of a hassle to get to. I remember once taking my kids to the Pirate Store at 826 Valencia, and noticing brown paper covering the windows nearby, announcing the grand opening of Dandelion. I didn’t go back until years later, when I brought my culinary school class on a field trip to Tartine Bakery.

That’s when I met Greg and Cynthia — the “Dean of Beans” — who was teaching at Dandelion at the time. They were running a Chocolate Making class and invited me to join. I did, sometime around 2014 or 2015, and I was fascinated by what they were doing.

Not long after, I invited Greg to bring the Dandelion team up to the culinary school. They were making chocolate but didn’t necessarily have much experience with chocolate applications. I said, “Come up, we’ll work on some skills — it’ll be fun.” About thirty people came and spent the day with us.

In 2017, Greg invited me to travel to Tanzania with him, Todd, Elaine, and others from the team to visit Kokoa Kamili. That trip was transformative — I had never been to an origin before. Since then, I’ve traveled to Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, India, Hawai‘i, and other places where cacao grows.

All of this grew out of that first visit, which truly changed my perspective. At the time, I didn’t fully realize it, but I did notice something really interesting: The couverture chocolates I had always used — Valrhona, Scharffen Berger, Cacao Barry, and others; all great brands, by the way — contained added cocoa butter. Dandelion’s deliberate choice not to add cocoa butter really intrigued me. I had always assumed that couverture was “high quality” precisely because of the added cocoa butter.

Now I explain it differently: Of course cocoa butter makes chocolate more fluid, rich, and easier to work with — but it also dilutes flavor. That perspective was new to me, and it made me think about chocolate in a whole different way. I wouldn’t say one approach is better than the other, but being exposed to that shift was impactful.

Thank you, both. Reader, you can watch the Tempered documentary here.