Good Taste is a menu for eating well in the Bay Area. This edition focuses on Shekoh Confections, a fine candy company that recently relocated from Palo Alto to San Francisco, bringing tastes of France and Iran along for the ride.
With the help of a small team, Shekoh Moossavi has been making beautiful bonbons in San Francisco for a few months now. They work in a building in Dogpatch on the same floor as Moossavi’s friend and confectionery colleague Michael Recchiuti, whose ever-wondrous Recchiuti retail shop is in the Ferry Building. You can imagine how amazing this wing of the floor smells, or experience it for yourself by taking a workshop in the kitchen.
After being invited to try the full current lineup at an open house this week (as well as buying a box at one of her former Palo Alto cafés), my favorite pieces are ones close to her heritage: Persian rose and saffron, as well as her sour orange and rose petal marmalades.
Shekoh uses Valrhona brand chocolate and couvertures, which are innovative, luscious, and luxurious. She knows it well; the French company is over 100-years-old and Moossavi studied at the Valrhona École du Grand Chocolat in Tain-l’Hermitage, France. All caramels, pralines, and fillings are made in the Shekoh kitchen.
Moossavi has made confections for The Ritz-Carlton hotels in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, and Lake Tahoe, and has been an in-demand consultant for tightening up other companies’ products.
She also offers a lot of considered thought for food on her blog. Feature stories include “The Impact of Chocolate on Cognitive Function and Brain Health Insights from Recent Research” and “The Complex Interplay of Chocolate Pleasure Ethics and Cultural Significance.”
Shekoh Confections doesn’t currently have a retail store, but all products are available online and soon in select shops. Now that she’s based in San Francisco, Moossavi envisions growing the company, collaborating with local restaurants, and giving more chefs the opportunity to learn this art.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she asserts.
Tamara publishes the California Eating newsletter, and has just launched the Food Book Club.
