Speaker Spotlight – Jael Rattigan
Co-Founder and CEO, French Broad Chocolate

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Theme: Water  |  March 2019

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice.

Dan and I founded French Broad Chocolate in 2006. We have experienced so much change, growth and evolution since then!  We, and our talented team of 90 Asheville folks, are now crafting all the chocolate that we use in the pastries and desserts at our retail locations, of which there will be three by the end of April. We have developed strong values for sourcing with integrity and making chocolate with a craftsman’s mentality. As far as my practice, at this point, it’s all about people and relationships. We create relationships to the source of our food, and we share that connection with our guests.

Can you remember when you first learned about your field of work? How did you discover what it was, and how did you know it was what you wanted to do?

I discovered my affinity for working with chocolate in 2003. I was making truffles and confections as a passion, and to share with family and friends. The chocolate maker was called Scharffenberger (which has since been purchased by Hershey’s), and was really the founder of the American “bean-to-bar” chocolate movement. Paired with a chocolate cookbook called Bittersweet by Alice Medrich, I was falling in love with simple recipes that really highlighted the unique flavors of cacao.

On one particular day, I was rolling truffles in dark chocolate in my kitchen in Minneapolis, my hands entirely covered in chocolate. My hands literally began to tingle, and I looked down at my open palms. I said out loud, “Chocolate is the thing that will make me happy.” It was a clarity I had never experienced in my life.  I’ve been on the chocolate path ever since.

What is the best part and hardest part of your job?

Working with people is both the best part and the hardest part of the job! I aspire to be a connected, authentic and inspiring leader. Sometimes I feel successful in this endeavor, and just as often, I am disappointed in myself and know I could do better! Our stated business values are almost all about people - serving one another, operating from a place of trust and honesty, giving the benefit of the doubt, and working cooperatively towards shared goals. Our goals are lofty, but we want to create a company that has a positive impact on people, and uses business as a force for good.

What on-the-job tools do you use every day?

Macbook, iphone and my backpack are the tools I use most, as a mobile CEO moving between three locations and all around Asheville.

What about your community inspires you?

I am constantly awed by the collaboration in our community. Asheville is a place where “collaboration over competition” is real, and we have established deep relationships and friendships with other businesses in town.

What is the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?

To grow with purpose. Early on, when we were faced with the need to scale our business to better serve our customers, we struggled with what that meant. Was growth bad? Were we becoming “corporate”? Were we being greedy, or growing for growth’s sake? What we realized through guidance from a mentor, was that we truly believed in what we were doing as business leaders. We make awesome products and our business decisions are guided by a set of values that we believe are worth sharing with other communities. And by increasing our production, we can buy more ingredients from our awesome farmers and makers, both locally in WNC as well as in the tropics where we source our cacao, which makes us better business partners.
Can you name a moment of failure in your business experience that you learned from or that helped you improve your business or the way you work?We experienced failure early on in our business, when we were still operating as a farmers market business. We actually called it quits. The chocolate business was not supporting our family financially, with a toddler and another on the way, and we were scared. But we had a timely visit from a dear friend who emphatically pronounced that “the world needs your chocolate!”. This gave us the grit and fire we needed to persevere in realizing our vision. We enrolled in Mountain Bizworks, writing a business plan for the Chocolate Lounge, as a beautiful space where the community could come together over chocolate. Without the farmers market fail, I don’t know that we would have been able to envision and create the Chocolate Lounge, or achieve all we have at this point.

If you were magically given three more hours per day, what would you do with them?Write. I have a goal to write a book about chocolate and our experience, and I would devote the time to working more actively on that pursuit.

Who are your favorite creators and makers, local and beyond?

I’m a big fan of East Fork, of course. I love their values-led business model, and their focus on simple and functional beauty. I adore the artwork of Andy Farkas, who does stunning wood engravings and moku hanga printmaking.