We’ve had a great run this summer with our guest pastry chefs. From Kika’s s’mores to Jenn’s amazing cheesecake bars and the Babes’ pies, it’s been so much fun hosting such talented chefs. As the summer begins to wind down, we’ve started thinking about what comes next and we are looking for a permanent pastry chef to join our team.

Our ideal candidate would have a passion for chocolate and desserts, have significant restaurant pastry experience, and be extremely nice, communicative, and flexible. If you know of someone who fits this description, please send him or her our way. We will start reviewing resumes next Tuesday, so please send us a note before then.

You can find the full job description here: http://dande.li/PastryChefJob

We’ve been having so much fun with our weekly guest pastry chefs that we’ve decided to keep it going! Every week is like starting a new chocolate cafe and getting to try the amazing dessert menu that each of our artisans creates.

To catch you up on what you may have missed — Cristina from Kika’s Treats did indeed do a take on a s’more…

… but in pot de creme form! She also had an amazing array of small chocolate-dipped treats and strawberries. And people keep writing in about her chocolate chip cookie recipe (which she was nice enough to share with us).

Next up was Shawn Williams from Feve Artisan Chocolatier, whose chocolate-covered almonds and nibs you may recognize from our shop.

Shawn also did a s’more, but in hazelnut cookie form:

And after Shawn was the Three Babes…

… whose pies, pies in a jar, and cookies delighted all of Valencia street:

And finally, you’ve got just another day or two to see all of Jewel Zimmer from {COCOA}‘s creations, including her amazing chocolate toffee brittle:

And we’ve got a bunch more amazing San Francisco pastry chefs lined up for the next few weeks, so come by and check them out!

If you’ve stopped by the factory in the last week, you’ve probably heard that we recently parted ways with our pastry chef, Phil. Phil was amazing and we’re grateful for the time we got to spend together. He spent six months perfecting our hot chocolate recipes which will always remain on the menu. Since we have a chance to do something new with our pastries, we’ve come up with a crazy idea: pop-ups!

For the next 6-8 weeks, we are inviting our pastry chef friends to take over our kitchen for a week at a time. We’re asking that they funnel their creativity and passion to work magic on our chocolate. It’s exciting thinking about all the great treats our chocolate can be transformed into.

We’ve just finished a pop-up with the awesome Amy and Joe from Marla Bakery:

They made many delicious tarts and cookies and we were especially wowed by their pain au chocolat — something we’ve dreamed of snacking on since before we opened. Hopefully they will teach us a few of their tricks!

If you missed them at our shop, they are taking their amazing pastries on the road and popping up for brunch at State Bird Provisions starting in May.

Next up, Kika’s Treats! You’ve probably tried Cristina Arantes’ chocolate-covered graham crackers, but for the next two weeks you’ll get a chance to try her fresh baked treats. Cristina was born and raised in Brazil, one of the tropical lands of cacao, where she spent her days baking and eating all things chocolate. In 1999 she moved to San Francisco and worked at a variety of wonderful restaurants and bakeries before starting her own company.

I’m hoping she makes us some of her famous s’mores!

Thank you to all the chefs coming into our space and showing us their talents!