Sweet things are afoot in Bolinas, thanks to pastry chef Emily Luchetti.
Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s more than likely her sublime, next level desserts are lodged in the memory banks of countless diners who have enjoyed her pastry genius in Bay Area restaurants over the years.
The pastry chef, cookbook author and educator has been wowing local diners with her impressive pastry chops from as early as 1987, when she began her West Coast culinary journey with an eight-year tenure at Jeremiah Tower’s Stars Restaurant in San Francisco. She went on to work with Nick’s Cove, Waterbar, Farallon, Marlowe and others.
Luchetti’s culinary career began at the New York Restaurant School in New York City. She would go on to work the line in restaurants in both New York and France before landing in Northern California.
The longtime Sausalito resident (30 years) and her husband recently moved further west to Bolinas, where they now have space for chickens, lambs and llamas. And though she is no longer working in restaurants, the James Beard Award-winning pastry chef has not stopped cooking.
“I call these my bootleg years,” jokes Luchetti, referring to her time experimenting, testing, tasting and developing her brand-new line of fruit spreads and caramels that she literally launched just three months ago, in September.
“Designed to be Devoured,” reads the label on every one of the 5,200 10-ounce jars she produced just in time for the holidays with the help of two co-packers. The new company is called Sweet Queen LLC.
There are three caramel options, including an espresso, blood orange and ginger. “Many caramel sauces overpower, and just the flavor of caramel is present. But with these—the fruit is strong up front, and the finish is caramel,” explains the chef.
Along with the caramel creations, Luchetti also makes three fruit spreads—an apricot, strawberry and raspberry. When asked why she doesn’t refer to them as jam, she notes, “Per the FDA, to be called jam, it has to have 55% sugar. Mine has about 45%, so it must be called a fruit spread.” The labels denote the ingredients on the jars, along with a tagline, Pastry Chef Magic in a Jar.
With Luchetti’s reputation for creating sterling desserts, it’s not at all surprising that she is down to only 600 jars from her 5,000 plus production a short three months ago. While she plans to stick with these tried-and-true flavors, she hasn’t ruled out the possibility of adding passion fruit and even kaffir lime to the mix.
For now—the best way to scoop up these specialty jars of goodness is to order them on her website, or find them at Parkside in Stinson Beach, Emily Joubert at the Marin Country Mart in Larkspur Landing and Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. in West Marin.
Learn more at sweetqueenllc.com.
