64 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} Bakery in Woodside as well as Selby’s in Atherton. “Some of the pastry chefs got together to make candy bars and they were spectacular,” he recalls. After some packaging and branding work, a “tiny little company” called Woodside Chocolate Company launched three product lines: gourmet chocolate bars, hot chocolate bombs and bonbons. Woodside Chocolate Company has brought new life to the mignardises, the sweet finale at the end of a meal. The bonbons get rave reviews when they are handed out to dinner guests as after-dessert desserts at The Village Pub and Selby’s, and “sell like crazy” at The Village Bakery and the company’s café at Spruce in San Francisco, Tim shares. Andi Rouse has worked for Bacchus restaurants for several years and became its chocolatier and pastry chef in 2023. She and her apprentice keep busy, devoting their attention full-time to the making of sweet creations in a pastry kitchen located upstairs from Selby’s. Andi says the most popular item in the rotating lineup of their seasonal, well-balanced confecGiven that chocolate makes just about anything better, it seems fitting that the creation of Woodside Chocolate Company brought hope in a dark time. “We were searching for ways to keep everyone employed” at Bacchus Management Group’s restaurants during the early pandemic, explains Tim Stannard, the founding partner and president of the hospitality company behind The Village Pub and The Village words by KATE DALY • photography by PAULETTE PHLIPOT CHOCOLATE bonbon bounty
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