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PHOTO PROVIDED BY VOSGES
but rather than stand alone in the spotlight,
she pulls in friends and relatives to share the
glory with her.
In the Vosges catalogs, which offer a distinctly
personal voice and a forum for Markoff’s
views, she makes a point of showcasing her
staff and associates. There are pictures of her
fiancé, Jay Scher, modeling the leather jacket
(Scher, a building contractor, designed the
new Vosges stores in Las Vegas); there’s a flouncy
purple dress for sale, designed by her sister,
Natalie, who keeps the PR and marketing end
of Vosges New York afloat. Her staff is thanked,
effusively, by name and photo. She writes glowingly
about friends who create extraordinary
honey or marvelous red wine and tells the stories
of her collaborations with them to create
new and wonderful truffles.
But despite the glamour and glitz that
Vosges offers its founder, Markoff still prefers
the kitchen to the red carpet. In the homeoffice
kitchen, she watches as several women
cut the rind off the Taleggio cheese in preparation
for tomorrow’s making of the “rooster,”
an especially delicate operation that involves
melting cheese and chocolate together.
“Toda, toda” (“All, all”), she says to the
mostly Spanish-speaking women as she
observes some remaining pieces of rind. She
takes a knife and begins cutting off the rind to
show them how clean it needs to be. If even a
little is left on, it could get stuck in the extruder.
Markoff herself does all the cooking of
these complicated truffles, as well as preparing
most of the ganache centers. “You shock
the cheese if you melt it too fast,” she explains.
“The emulsion can break; it must be cooked
very slowly.”
Slow Food
Slowing things down is a priority on many
fronts for Markoff—getting people to think
about their food, eat it slowly, savor it.“People
don’t take time to smell, see, to taste food,”
she says.“It’s all about focusing on one piece
versus piles of chocolate.”
Her newest store in Las Vegas will include
interactive displays for awakening the senses
to different chocolate sensations—hanging
muslin bags for smells; headphones to hear
chanting; films depicting the area, the culture
or the people evoked by the product.
Markoff’s experience with yoga confirmed
the rightness of this approach and is very
much in keeping with the “Slow Foods” mentality
now prevalent among foodies and restaurateurs.
David Romanelli, BA’95, a good friend
from Vanderbilt, introduced her to yoga, and
she says that one day after yoga she popped
a naga truffle in her mouth: “Oh my god, it
was the best I ever had. I was so in the now.
Being present when you eat is so powerful.”
From then on, yoga became an important
part of her life, and it increasingly entered
her philosophy about food, especially chocolate.
She and Romanelli have recently offered
a “Yoga-Chocolate Retreat” to Oaxaca, Mexico,
where they guide a group through the
spice markets and kitchens of a city known
for its cuisine, including its hot chocolate and
its mole, a chocolate-based savory sauce used
in chicken and meat dishes. Romanelli, cofounder
of At One Yoga, has three yoga studios
in Arizona (one of his partners is another
Vanderbilt alum, Ian Lopatin, BA’95).
This will be the first of what they hope
will be many such chocolate-inspired yoga
retreats. Markoff says of Romanelli: “He’s my
best friend. He brought me to yoga.” Romanelli
seems equally as delighted that they’ve found
a way to work together. “We saw this intersection,
saw space where our careers could
intersect,” he says.
How these two forces—chocolate and yoga
—play out as partners could be seen at the end
of one day at the Vosges headquarters. Several
potential Oaxaca travelers were invited after
the work day ended to have a yoga session with
Romanelli and Markoff.
Markoff sets a beautiful stage for the event,
arranging chocolates on a tray and sprinkling
fresh rose petals on the floor of the yoga loft.
Just before the session begins, she arranges the
purple yoga mats and lights votive candles.
She and Romanelli decide to do a root
chakra with the group. A chakra signifies one
of the seven basic energy centers in the body,
Markoff says. “It is a sensory focus—from
color, smell, taste and feel.” The root chakra
is identified with the color red, hence rose
petals and rose water for a visual and aural
stimulus. As for the taste, Markoff says a root
chakra calls for “something hot.” She decides
on a truffle from the Aztec Collection that
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