Keep it simple. Make it sweet.
Kristin Kuhlke Cobb, founder of Greenville's The Chocolate Moose (right), is all about keeping it simple: baking fresh desserts every day using simple ingredients that are organic whenever possible.
Keeping it simple, though, didn't mean sitting back on her South Carolina porch! In her quest for authentic, wholesome recipes to serve at The Chocolate Moose, Kristin returned to a village just outside Arezzo in Italy's historic Tuscany region.
There, Carla Veneri (left) runs a family-owned inn while her mother Rosy (center) bakes fresh bread and cakes every day in a traditional oven.
On her original visit, Kristin had enjoyed the family's delicious tiramisu so much she planned a trip back to ask if they would teach her their secret recipe. They agreed! Together, Carla and Rosy taught her the family tiramisu recipe and four other family dessert recipes... even though Rosy speaks no English. They served every one of the desserts that night at one of their regular Tuscan feasts for their guests. "It was fabulous," Kristin remembers.
(To see the inn and its setting in the Italian countryside, visit Il Pozzo online. Much of the website is available in English, and Kristin highly recommends the inn's cooking lessons, the village's wonderful, welcoming people, and the beautiful vacation setting.)
Kristin founded The Chocolate Moose as a "real life" company: a bakery run by real people who keep costs down and delight sky-high for customers of all ages by doing what they do simply and very well... while giving back to their local community every day.
There's very little Kristin or her team won't do for customers of The Chocolate Moose... even it means traveling to Italy for a secret recipe to share with Greenville, South Carolina.