Feve Artisan Chocolatier In The Bayview | Tasting Table San Francisco
This Bayview-based chocolate maker is soon to become a household name
There is a lot to geek out about in the Bayview kitchen of Feve Artisan Chocolatier. An enrobing machine to cover truffles or candied ginger in chocolate. A panning machine that looks like a cement mixer but smells like cacao. A ventilation booth for airbrushing confectionary.
Feve's owner, Shawn Williams, worked under the nationally known Ewald Notter before starting Au Coeur des Chocolats, and then flew under the radar for five years. Last year, new investors and a Kiva loan helped him rebrand and invest in equipment and packaging.
Now Feve's sleek black boxes are appearing in stores such as Faletti Foods and Bryan's, and he's opening his studio for retail sales on Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m.
Williams' truffles–such as spiced Jamaica rum or orange with almond-coriander praline–rival Michael Recchiuti's in their nuanced, layered flavors. "I come to chocolates with a chef's mind," he says.
His chocolate-covered hazelnuts and almonds ($12 for 6 ounces) are compulsively edible. Williams roasts the nuts until they're deeply toasted, then coats them in a millimeter-thick layer of caramelized sugar and a Swiss dark chocolate exterior (a job for that panning machine).
His salted caramels ($20 for 9 pieces) have chocolate shells no denser than a quail's eggshell and satiny centers just on the border of liquid and solid.
They're a marvel of technique and technology.