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[title]“Dessert is truly the frosting of life.” Valerie Gordon is discussing the appeal of sweet treats—something she knows better than most. The chocolatier, baker, chef and entrepreneur behind Valerie Confections has been keeping L.A.’s sweet tooth satisfied for over 20 years now with her signature toffees, caramels and petit fours—plus her re-creation of the iconic Blum’s coffee crunch cake. And there’s just something about dessert—more so than other food groups—that’s joyful by nature.
“The glorious thing about dessert is that it’s entirely unnecessary,” Gordon explains. “It’s generally tied to celebration. And so we have a lot of emotional ties to dessert. ‘This cake reminds me of the one I used to get with my mom.’ It’s extremely tied to moments that are memorable. So, you think about when you always have dessert: It’s birthdays. It’s graduations. It’s anniversaries. It’s a special dinner. It’s that treat that you got with your new girlfriend who’s now your wife.”
There are lots of things about the holiday season that bring joy, but seasonal desserts are up there. After all, what’s Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie? And Gordon’s holiday treats are legendary in L.A., from her famous peppermint bark to evergreen- and menorah-printed truffles to an eggnog version of her petit fours that taste like a sip of the boozy beverage.
Even if you haven’t visited Gordon’s Echo Park cafe—where you can also get brunch—or her newer Glendale headquarters, you might have seen her sharing her expertise on Netflix or Food Network. But you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’ve yet to try her namesake confections. (If you’re not based in L.A., you can order the treats online—her coffee crunch cake is even available on Goldbelly.)
We chatted with Valerie at her company headquarters—a 5,000-square-foot space in Glendale comprising a chocolate shop, bakery, outdoor garden, kitchens and offices—to get her thoughts on the holidays, hosting tips, festive family traditions, her own favorite chocolates (See’s Nuts & Chews) and how she finds joy in hard times.
What seasonal treat do you look forward to all year long?
Oh God, I really look forward to pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I look forward to our peppermint bark for Christmas. I look forward to apple pie for Thanksgiving, too. I love baking pie.
Do you have any advice for someone hosting the holidays for the first time this year?
Ooh, I love hosting questions. Someone who is hosting for the first time ever? Number one, know that your guests are not arriving to judge you. Know that they are happy to receive the invitation. They feel complimented, and they’re looking forward to enjoying the time that you are hosting. Try to go easy. So, you don’t have to make everything. Say you’re a novice cook, and you have a little anxiety around baking or cooking, then don’t bake or cook. Just buy things, and you can do it really, really simply. Obviously, you can buy ready-made desserts from your favorite bakery. You could do something as easy as going to Beverly Hills Cheese, getting some guidance from them, or Surfas, or frankly even Gelson’s. Just choose two or three cheeses, a charcuterie, some accompaniments.
I wouldn’t feel too pressured about being a mixologist. You know, if you’ve got one cocktail, two wines and something nonalcoholic, you’re great. I really think that to set a fun feeling and a good feeling, you have to be having fun. You have to be relaxed and feel taken care of. So I always think it’s great to be dressed, ready to go, lipstick on an hour before people arrive.
When people do arrive, the second they walk in the door, give them something right away. People want something to do with their hands. I also always set up little snack stations. So that forces little conversational areas, even if you’ve got a small one-bedroom apartment. So then there’s the ability for people to move around the room a little bit. Make sure that your music is also playing. So that hour before is your warm-up for the event. I might be finishing a dish, I might be dealing with garnish or plating something during that time, but I’m physically ready. I have a beverage in my hand. Music is playing, so the party’s already good before people walk in the door.
Do you have any tablescape tips you can share?
I always tablescape with produce. It’s one of these really sustainable no-waste things, and it’s also gorgeous. Particularly with fall and winter holidays, it’s so easy to go to the farmers market and get branches of persimmons. Getting tons of quinces, draping grapes. All that kind of stuff is gorgeous on the table, and I always sort of line the center of the table with that and build it up a little bit, and then you’re intermingling with glasses and tableware. And what’s always super fun is when people are really getting relaxed, they’ll just start eating the fruit off the table, which I love.
I’ve spent my life giving away treats.
You put out your own curated gift guide last holiday season. How did you pick what items to include?
So what I really have completely embraced over the last few years is I buy almost exclusively from female- and minority-owned companies. And it’s highly intentional. Like, all the clothes that I wear are just female-owned companies. That’s it. Skin care, female-owned companies. So that’s my first barometer.
I like to choose things that have longevity in them. One of the brands that I wear all the time is Frank & Eileen.… I have pieces from Frank & Eileen that I’ve literally worn hundreds of times. I really think it’s fun to look for smaller makers of things. Purchasing at independently owned businesses that I might happen into and really enjoy. For instance, I love Botanica pantry items. Love. I also adore Heather [Sperling], who owns it. So having these relationships with people—I want to support that business, you know? Different jewelry makers that I just love: Kathryn Bentley is fantastic. Sarah Hendler is fantastic. And I think that all of their pieces are unique but have staying power. Yeah, so things that I really look for in a gift guide are things that have a perennial nature to them.
You have a new cookbook on the way—a guide to tea parties. What’s your favorite thing about tea parties?
This is my theme: They’re unnecessary. (Laughs) So tea parties, I love that it’s like the ultimate leisure. It’s mid-afternoon, right? It’s long. You never rush it. Like, when are you like, “I’ve just got 15 minutes for a tea party”? Hell, no. You have to wait for the tea to steep. I love that it’s built around a convivial situation. There has to be chatter. And then, you know, my entire life’s work is about creating small, delicious bites of food. So, having sweet and savory moments of little handheld bites is infinitely satisfying to me.
And I love tea. I love that, depending on where the tea is grown, where it’s dried, who the purveyor is of the tea, it will have a different personality. Tea is endless, and there’s so much history and culture in tea.… It’s just so fascinating to me. I love that tea has finally become so popular in the States. But afternoon tea and tea parties, in particular—it’s all joy. It’s all fun, and it’s people coming together to pause.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
We like to go big for Thanksgiving for sure. I love cooking Thanksgiving. We always have the same desserts—always, always. My home recipes of pumpkin pie and apple pie are what we sell at Valerie Confections, and I’ve been making those for well over 30 years, I would say. So those definitely feel like tradition to me.
I would say for Christmas, our biggest tradition is our cookie party. We host a massive cookie party every year. And this started when our son was two years old—he’s now a freshman in college—and our company was really young at that time. And I thought, let’s do a cookie party. Cookies are a very sentimental thing to me. It’s how I started baking. As I was growing up, I would always do a variety of cookies for people and give them away during the holidays. And that truly is what started Valerie Confections. Like, I’ve spent my life giving away treats. (Laughs)
Are there any festive things in L.A. you like to do in the fall or winter?
Yes, we always go ice skating in Pershing Square. We also do caroling. (Laughs) We’re so not normal. There are all these families [in our neighborhood], and many years ago we started doing this caroling thing, and it’s generally the Saturday before Christmas. And it’s five families that always go, and we have song books. And we, like, get dressed up and do a roving dinner party.… What’s funny is the first year we did it, people wouldn’t come to the door. Now people are like, “They’re here!” It’s like a thing. And we will carol to cars. Each year that we’ve done it, it’s definitely become better received. (Laughs) I love it, it’s so much fun.
And another holiday tradition is we always have Canter’s on Christmas Day. There’s a real vibe at Canter’s on Christmas Day, I gotta tell you, they are packed. And it’s clearly a tradition for hundreds and hundreds of Angelenos. My daughter was born on Christmas Eve, and we had been like insanely busy that holiday season.… And of course, I’m thinking, “I gotta get out of this hospital tomorrow. I’ve got a 4 1/2 year old at home, Santa’s gotta come.” And I was like, where are we gonna get food on Christmas? Because I wasn’t in a place to cook, and I was like, “the Jews! Canter’s will be open.” So that’s been our tradition every year.
It’s been a very tough year for a lot of people in L.A. Are there any things that have brought you joy this year?
Yeah, a couple things have brought me joy this year, for sure. I am ever-inspired by the food community of Los Angeles, and I would say that during times of distress, we all show up in the most incredible, selfless way. Right now, you know, SNAP is gone—a few million starving people. Who’s the first people to step up? People in the food community. Donating things when they’re barely making the money they need to stay afloat. But if you feed people, you feed people, right? You don’t stop if things are difficult. You know, during the fires—and still, if you lost your house in January, it’s not over for you—and with what’s going on with ICE, seeing the level of community and really incredible generosity and support that has happened has been pretty amazing.
The other thing personally about this year that has brought a lot of joy is I’ve really opted to sort of slow down a lot, because there is so much chaos and there’s so much upsetting stuff going on that I think we’re all a little fragile. I think it’s a hard time to be alive and believe in humanity, you know? And so really, particularly in the last six months. I’ve really reframed how I schedule my days. I’m definitely turning off media earlier at night. I’m enjoying very quiet, slow mornings. Because I really found myself—and I know so many people I talked to felt the same way, which is—I’m just completely overwhelmed every day. So I was, like, okay, I’ve got to figure out how to not feel overwhelmed every day. And those are choices that we just have to make for ourselves, of course. But that definitely feels good.
Do you get joy from eating your own chocolates?
I do get joy from eating my own chocolates. (Laughs) I get a lot of satisfaction. Like the first piece of chocolate that I decided would be in our launch collection in 2004 was our almond fleur de sel toffee. I love that I find it as satisfying today as I did when I developed it.