The Berkeley Kitchens — a collection of commercial kitchens in a historic building at the corner of 8th and Carleton Street — has welcomed two new chocolate and confectionery businesses, EC Confections and Petite LaFleur.
For readers unfamiliar with the concepts, EC Confections is owned by Chef Elle Cowan, a seasoned pastry chef and chocolatier who plans to also utilize the kitchen space for her company SoDo Donuts.
Cowan describes the concept on her website as “a chocolates and confections company that has expanded from bonbons to other tasty confections including caramel popcorn and brandied ganache dipped figs” — and SoDo donuts as “a pop-up project that involves very seasonal donut fillings using an all sourdough approach to donuts.”
Across the kitchen, Suzanne LaFleur’s confectionery Petite LaFleur, will continue cooking up creations such as salted chocolate honeycomb, golden popcorn bark, and furikake snack mix — offering her “new take on old classics.”
While LaFleur shares that she intends to shift her attention toward wholesale — her products are already available at Bi-Rite Markets, Oaktown Spice Shop, and Market Hall Foods, to name just a few spots — Cowan sees a brick-and-mortar in the future, sharing that she has her eyes on Albany. In the meantime, however, she plans to focus on streamlining production and introducing some new menu items — including sourdough English muffins — that can be purchased for pickup or delivery, or found at pop-ups across the Bay Area.
Stay tuned for updates.
