As a kid, Jessica Foster loved to make mud pies—with real mud—while playing in the dirt. That’s the only memory she can confidently label as foreshadowing her career path.
“I liked candy, but I didn’t love chocolate,” the professional chocolatier said. “I was like the fruity candy kid. I was more into Skittles, Starbursts, stuff like that.”
The Santa Barbara resident specializes in handmade, gourmet chocolate truffles and has operated her own business—Jessica Foster Confections—for nearly two decades. Her chocolates are available at several markets and wineries across the Central Coast, including locations in Buellton, Los Olivos, and Santa Ynez.
Born and raised in Santa Maria, Foster has lived in Santa Barbara County for most of her life, minus a one-year stint in Spain after she graduated from Ernest Righetti High School. Foster credits her time abroad as rebooting her taste buds.
“There were spices I had never heard of and I just got obsessed. I gained probably like 30 pounds in my little trip there,” said Foster, who moved to Santa Barbara after returning to the U.S.
During her college years at UCSB, Foster said she became engrossed in watching cooking shows on the Food Network, and would often try recipes out for herself in her free time. She enjoyed presenting her results at casual dinner parties.
“I would just invite friends over and experiment on them,” said Foster, who continues to embrace experimentation when it comes to chocolate making.
Foster’s first attempt to make chocolate truffles was inspired by a Martha Stewart article in the early 2000s. She gradually found herself making more and more DIY chocolates, but with less conventional recipes.
“I would just go and grab stuff and then take it back to my kitchen and try to mix things together,” said Foster, whose favorite store to buy spices and other ingredients from was, and continues to be, the Indo China Market in Goleta.
“I think that the fact that I’m not a big sweets person has ‘made my flavor.’ My inspirations are very savory. I like to use a lot of not traditionally sweet ingredients,” Foster added. “I just like putting in weird stuff because I don’t like super sweet things, so I think it maybe sets me aside.”
Foster held positions at a handful of restaurants before starting her confections business in 2003, which she operates in a commercial kitchen with a small staff of employees.
To date, Jessica Foster Confections offers about 30 different truffle flavors, which include dark chocolate chipotle, dark chocolate habanero, milk chocolate madras curry, and several more that use spices, herbs, and exotic teas.
While available at various storefronts, and through direct delivery options, Foster’s chocolates can also be found during local pop-up events. On Sunday, March 6, Foster will be one of the featured culinary guests at the Women Winemakers Celebration: A Toast to Women in Wine and Food, held at Roblar Farm in Santa Ynez.
This fundraiser reception showcases a large group of female winemakers, bakers, chefs, and other food crafters, and proceeds from the event will benefit the Community Health Centers of the Central Coast.
Foster is excited to mingle with her peers at the outdoor celebration and taste some new offerings, while trading her own. Many of the featured vintners are already well acquainted with Foster’s business, as “probably a good 30 percent of my wholesale customers are wineries,” she said.
When Foster sees her truffles paired with wines, one of her favorite reactions to watch from customers is after they’ve tried white chocolates with a white wine—one of her own preferred pairings, which she considers vastly underrated.
“Everyone assumes that red wine and dark chocolate is like the Holy Grail or something,” Foster said. “Dark chocolate is actually a lot more difficult to pair with red wine. Milk chocolate is easier.”
Send your favorite wine and chocolate pairings to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at [email protected].
