Katrina Markoff finds success with combinations of sweet and salty flavors retailing high-end chocolate. A specialty niche Markoff’s company called Vosges Haut-Chocolat which is known for chocolate bars and truffles made with exotic, unexpected flavors like wasabi, curry and, yes, bacon!
The company’s best seller is a $7.50 milk-chocolate bar infused with applewood-smoked bacon. Markoff says, “People have a secret passion for bacon.”
Today, Vosges Haut-Chocolat is 10 years old and has evolved from a tiny start-up to a well-known high-end chocolate brand, which posted $12 million in revenue last year and has stores in New York City, Chicago and Las Vegas.
Retailers that sell the company’s truffles like Bergdorf Goodman prices range from $26 for a nine-piece box to over $300 for a gift box of truffles and champagne.
Ms. Markoff trained as a chef in France, dreams up the flavor combinations and has a hand in all the truffle-making in Vosges’s kitchen in Chicago, where the 80-employee company is based.