As a Marine Room chef, working under famed Bernard Guillas\u2019 tutelage, it is fitting that Robin Katz has struck out on her own \u2013 setting up shop on Girard Avenue. Katz\u2019s new venture? A specialty line of gourmet customizable chocolates called Nola Rose.
\n“These are the highest-quality chocolates you can get in San Diego,” said Katz, whose specialty at the Marine Room leaned toward the savory. “I think with my background, combined with chocolate, comes together in a real special way.”
\nThe Los Angeles native has lived in New York City, Northampton, Mass., and has a degree in engineering from Smith College. Katz, who is “from a big culinary family,” was largely self-taught prior to attending culinary school. “Having grown up in LA, I\u2019ve always been into cooking,” she said. “There\u2019s just such a wide diversity of flavor profiles, and great specialty markets. I can still remember the first rabbit I ever cooked \u2013 when I bought it, there was still fur on it.”
\nKatz met her husband, Dan, while working at the Marine Room. As often happens in a restaurant, Dan was working the front-of-the-house, while Katz was in the back. The two now have a child, who is the namesake of their burgeoning business. Being a culinary family, they have a particular affinity for New Orleans (hence, Nola). Nola did much more for the business than provide the namesake, however. Katz\u2019s pregnancy was the main impetus to start the business from scratch. “I was very pregnant and had a crazy craving for chocolate,” she said. “I didn\u2019t just want to eat some junk, so I started to experiment with a few flavors. My friends and family tried them, and kept pushing me to form what is now Nola Rose.”
\nKatz adds that two of her main staples are truffles and bonbons because “There\u2019s so much you can do with them. They\u2019re both based on this ganache-y cream, butter, and high-quality chocolate.”
\nThe Point Loma resident has been working out of a commercial kitchen in El Cajon, but will be sharing space with Bibi Kasrai at her Harvard Cookin’ Girl location on Girard Avenue. On Jan. 1, she will be taking on events and parties, eventually adding a cooking curriculum to that space.
\n“This is doing well and is my passion \u2013 building a solid customer base of people who like these chocolates,” said Katz. “I will be at the Marine Room, albeit less time than in the past. Bernard (Guillas) has been a great mentor.”
\nDespite having a small staff of predominantly independent contractors, Katz can produce a few thousand chocolates a day, without including packaging. She is now looking forward to her new headquarters, for she believes it to be the only location in La Jolla to purchase artisan chocolates.
\nNola Rose Chocolate will be hosting a pop-up sale on Dec. 17 at their new location, 7441 Girard Ave. They are now offering a “holiday box” of 8 pieces of chocolate for $20.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a Marine Room chef, working under famed Bernard Guillas\u2019 tutelage, it is fitting that Robin Katz has struck out on her own \u2013 setting up shop on Girard Avenue. Katz\u2019s new venture? A specialty line of gourmet customizable chocolates called Nola Rose. “These are the highest-quality chocolates you can get in San Diego,” said […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":271048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Nola Rose Chocolate sets up shop in the Village","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}