Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeleine Vedel.
Hi Madeleine, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I start my chocolate making day by turning on my tempering machine to melt my chocolate. This takes a couple of hours, during which I can prepare the ingredients and the recipes for the batches of ganache centers I’ll be making. During holiday season, I am also updating my web site, sending out an email missive to announce the flavors and gift package options, and checking in on my Provence Tours and the colleagues I work with when in France.
I have a very small chocolate business, and make batches of 35 to 70 pieces (1-2 pound) sheets of the needed flavors. For this I prepare fruit purées, nut pralines, & caramels. I weigh out the needed ingredients and process out of my home kitchen (I hope to build an addition in the next couple of years with a proper pastry kitchen).
Once my couverture chocolate has been tempered (heated to 50C, reduced to 25C and then brought back up to 31-33C) I measure out and cut my sheets, set up my trays to receive the dipped chocolates, as well as the toppings (sea salt, roasted nuts, candied fruit). I individually fork dip my chocolate centers into the tempered chocolate, sprinkle on the topping, and let them set at cool room temperature. I can do about 200 pieces in a day, depending.
As needed throughout the year I type set each season’s updated menus and hand print them along with my gift cards and boxes in the printing studio of my companion Chad Pastotnik, master letter press printer and founder of Deep Wood Press (recently celebrated his 34th year in business). He has helped me with my packaging and presentation.
With the holidays upon us, I’ve corporate gifts to pack up and ship out, as well as individual orders to ship around the country. Usually I do all the packing of chocolate boxes and shipping myself, but this year a couple of friends will be contributing their efforts to the cause.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a road with dips and turns. I started making chocolates during the Pandemic, and quickly people were interested. I am making use of skills I acquired while running a Provence based cooking school and bed & breakfast for 15 years while I was married to a French chef. However, chocolate making is something that requires precision, patience and perfecting. And then there’s the complications of making a product that can only be shipped during cool weather, and that is a hard sell on a hot summer’s day.
I relish the clients who come back again and again. I also enjoy cross pollinating my two businesses – that chocolate clients become tourism clients, and that my Provence guests become chocolate purchasers. It’s a privilege to juggle these two activities and to continually explore and create. Right now the price hikes on so many of my primary ingredients have reduced my profit margin. And, indulgences such as high end chocolate and trips to Provence are a harder sell when people feel squeezed financially and uncertain about the economy. I’ve lived through international economic downturns before (2002, 2008), so I just try to roll with the punches and keep improving what I do and how I do it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Provence Cooks & Madeleine’s Chocolates?
I run two small businesses: during the summer and winter seasons I make and sell chocolates. I attend the local farmers’ markets in Bellaire and Boyne City, Michigan in the summer, and in the winter I take mail orders and ship throughout the continental United States. In the spring and fall I offer themed small group (6 people) tours to Provence where I lived for 20 years and where I’ve maintained many connections in the food, wine and artisan worlds. Some of the themes of my tours : Truffles, Châteauneuf-du-Pape & Foie Gras; Fiber Arts and producers; Cooking with my food artisans; Small museums & villages of the Riviera; Exploring the dynamic city of Marseille.
I specialize in designing and adapting my Provence tours to the needs and delights of my guests. I also offer the chance to truly be in Provence, to spend time with individuals and to explore as a local.
As for my chocolates, I work with top quality ingredients, organic where possible, in small batches and offer a selection of dairy free flavors. Every year I work to improve the texture and flavor of my chocolates. I consistently make the flavors that are most popular (Caramel Sea Salt, Raspberry, Cherry Stout, Cardamom) and I have fun exploring new flavors as they come to me : pumpkin seed praline & coconut caramel, Lemon Ginger, Massala Spice…
How do you think about luck?
Luck is always a player and hopefully a graceful dance partner. I am lucky to be with someone who has offered his skills to my packaging and presentation, Chad Pastotnik has upped the quality of my menus, my boxes, and even my business cards. I am lucky to have lived in Provence and been thrust into a world of masterful food artisans, wineries and farmers. I am lucky to live in a place (Northern Michigan) where local produce and products (raspberries, blueberries, honey, maple syrup….) are abundant and delicious.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.cuisineprovencale.com
- Instagram: @madeleineschocolatesplus
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madeleine.h.vedel
