Lisa Casoni & Heather Stobo
Owners of Ojai’s Porch Gallery, Lisa Casoni and Heather Stobo combined their passion for the world of art and appreciation of one of Ojai’s most renowned residents, Beatrice Wood, with their love of chocolate by founding Beato Chocolates
Lisa Casoni (left) and Heather Stobo at their Porch Gallery in the heart of Ojai. Picture by Marc Alt
It has been five years since the Thomas Fire ravaged Ojai and as is so often the case with major disasters, creativity has flourished in its wake. Among the local businesses to have risen from the ashes of the blaze is Beato Chocolates, a fair-trade chocolate company founded by Porch Gallery owners Lisa Casoni and Heather Stobo, run in collaboration with chocolatier Fran Gealer, and inspired by artist and ceramicist Beatrice Wood. “The stress after the Thomas Fire was so intense,” Casoni recalls. “We had heard a rumor that the whole of Upper Ojai had been destroyed, including Wood’s studio, and so we started talking about creativity in the face of destruction. We wanted to do something to preserve her legacy and that’s how the idea came about because we’d known that she really adored chocolate.”
Using Wood’s nickname and the moniker she applied to sign her work, Beato Chocolates celebrates the life and work of Ojai’s most renowned artist, who lived here for half a century until her death aged 105 in 1998. Famed for her luster-glaze pottery, Wood had also been a major contributor in New York’s Dada movement in the 1920s, which, led by her close friend Marcel Duchamp, was founded as a reaction to the senselessness of World War I. Indeed, Wood’s legacy as the “Mama of Dada” permeates Beato Chocolates, with its logo modeled on a poster from a Dada exhibit, and its tagline pronouncing “anti-established in Ojai, California.” “It was very important for us to connect Beato Chocolates to Dadaism, what it meant then and what it means now,” Casoni explains. “It means that the Dadaists were reacting to what was happening at the time, both culturally and in the world. And it’s actually not unlike what is happening in the world now, what with the rise of fascism, wars, and economic disparity. None of that is lost on us.”
Beatrice Wood credited her longevity to her love of chocolate and young men.
Casoni says when the business first launched, it was a slow and considered process as the couple wanted to do things right both by Wood and her legacy, and the larger Ojai community of which she was such a prominent member. “We didn’t want to go in guns blazing but wanted to see what the community thought about it,” she says. “Because when you do something like this with such a historic and legendary figure, you have to be thoughtful about how you go about it. So we approached the Beatrice Wood Center and acquired the rights to use her artworks right at the beginning and are using her actual drawings, writings, and molds.” The latter include the company’s initial chocolate sculptures shaped in the form of an abstract horse and a moon face, which was created by the artist in a nod to Ojai, which she described as “one of the most beautiful valleys of the world.”
As far as Beato Chocolates’ products are concerned, the company sources a 72% dark chocolate that is fair-trade and used as the base for all of its products except for its milk chocolate bar. But Casoni insists that the business is not a “bean to bar chocolate company” but rather a chocolatier. “First and foremost it’s about the art and that’s what drives everything, including the flavors,” she explains.
Since its inception in 2018, Beato Chocolates has slowly expanded its product range, which in addition to the chocolate sculptures now also includes nine different “Beato Bars” that feature original artwork, irreverent titles, and sophisticated flavors that draw on Wood’s work, life, and travels. The inaugural bar was the Happy Valley Bar, which showcases dark chocolate flavored with orange oil and Ojai pixie dust. “For this we’re working directly with the pixie farmers, which is a challenge because it’s such a seasonal product,” Casoni says. “But then everything to do with making chocolate is a challenge: you’re always troubleshooting because you’re dealing with heat and temperamental machines and at any given time anything can go off the rails. In many ways that’s what’s so fun about it.”
Other bars include The Pussy Between Us, a milk chocolate bar inspired by Wood’s love for her cat; the Ménage à Trois bar made with toffee and sea salt named after Wood’s romantic involvement with Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché; and the Nut Suite comprising two bars, one titled Sometimes You Fancy a Nut – with coconut and almond – and the other Sometimes You Don’t (Fancy a Nut) – with coconut only. Then there’s the I Shock Myself bar, named after Wood’s autobiography of the same title, which is a blend of dark chocolate, coffee and cacao nibs. Featuring an illustration from the cookbook California Herb Cookery, a collaboration between Wood and Ranch House founder Alan Hooker published in 1966, the bar is a collaboration with Ojai coffee roaster Bonito Coffee. “We love collaborating with local businesses,” Casoni enthuses.
Beato Chocolates’ moon face chocolate sculpture is based on Wood’s mold.
Moving forward, Beato Chocolates’ expansion will be focused on health and wellbeing as the company is working on a new line of wellness bars that will launch in the new year. “The three things we’re going to continually talk about going forward are creativity, pleasure and wellness,” explains Stobo. “We have the creativity and pleasure with the chocolates and the artwork already but now we also want to focus on wellness and longevity – after all Beatrice Wood lived until 105.” The first flavor will be a Menopause Bar featuring 84% dark chocolate with walnuts and hemp seeds, and artwork based on one of Wood’s famous sculptures. “The wellness bars will still be Beato bars; they’ll still have the artwork and they’ll still be fun,” insists Stobo.
Yet proceeding the wellness launch will be a 10th Beato bar. Called the Titanic bar and featuring flavors of rose petals and sea salt, it is based on Wood having partially inspired the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic after director James Cameron had read her autobiography. “The creativity around Beatrice Wood is just endless because she was just such an incredibly inspirational character,” says Casoni. With Beato Chocolates she and Stobo are giving it a delicious twist.
