Foodtrepreneur Festival: Get to Know Your Foodtrepreneur

Chocolot Artisan Confections

Ruth Kendrick is the proprietor of Chocolot Artisan Confections, beautiful gift-worthy European chocolates that are made by hand. This will be her second year participating in the Foodtrepreneur Festival.

SLUG: Tell us about your chocolates.
Ruth Kendrick: I make European style chocolates using ganache and a thin chocolate shell. My chocolates are rich with an unctuous center. Eating just one chocolate is satisfying, rather than wanting to eat the whole box.

SLUG: What motivated you to become a foodtrepreneur?
Kendrick: My mother made candy, so I’ve always had my hand in chocolate. We wrote a book together 30 years ago on candy making, and I’ve taught classes about making candy. Once I taught everyone how to make candy, I realized I’m not special anymore. I had to up my game so I went to up to Montreal and took a class on making molded chocolate, the real high-end style. Because of Utah’s Cottage Food law, I can make chocolates at home. I started doing it for fun, but when everyone started wanting my chocolates, I became official. My son-in-law designed the packaging, and my son does the social media. Between the three of us, it became a business. It’s been eight years now. There are some days it drives me crazy, but I tell people, “When it’s not fun, I’m gonna quit,” but I haven’t got to that point yet

SLUG: What challenges have you overcome as a foodtrepreneur?
Kendrick: Watching the shelf life is a problem for me. I can’t have my chocolates sitting on a shelf. It needs personal touch—someone to say, “You’ve got to try these.”

SLUG: What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting a food business?
Kendrick: Knowing how to make a food product isn’t enough to go into business. You have to have business sense. You need to be a little tough at times, especially when it comes to people paying you.

SLUG: How important are events like this festival to your business?
Kendrick: They’re fun! Since I’m not a big name, I can get my name out to people that are like-minded. Events like this are a great way to network.

SLUG: How does social media and word-of-mouth advertising affect your business?
Kendrick: It’s all the advertising that we do! We don’t pay to advertise.

SLUG: Where can people buy Chocolot?
Kendrick: In Salt Lake, you can find my chocolates at Les Madeleines, Paletti, seasonally at Liberty Heights Fresh and at Native Flower Company. In Park City, you can find them at Deer Valley Grocery Cafe, Southwestern Expressions, and High West Distillery. In Ogden, Beehive Cheese Co., Simply Eden and you can buy Chocolot by the piece as well as the package at The Queen Bee.