Beato Chocolates and the Legacy of Beatrice Wood
“I owe it all to art books, chocolates, and young men.”
—Beatrice “Beato” Wood
Beato Chocolates, a 2-year-old fair-trade certified chocolatier in Ojai, takes its name from Beatrice Wood’s nickname, the moniker she used to sign her work. Wood, who lived in Ojai for 50 years until her death at age 105 in 1998, is the town’s matriarch of the arts, famous for her luster-glaze pottery. Earlier in life she met Marcel Duchamp and became active in the New York Dada group— an art movement founded in response to the First World War—defending Duchamp’s iconic urinal installation in an essay in The Blind Man, a short-lived Dadaist journal.
Wood’s legacy as the “Mama of Dada” infuses the ethos of Beato Chocolates today. Its logo is modeled on a poster from a Dada exhibit, and its packaging bears the tagline “anti-established in Ojai, California.” The idea for the company came to its founders—gallerists Lisa Casoni and Heather Stobo and dietitian and school nutrition entrepreneur Emily Burson—during the Thomas Fire, with the trio taking a cue from Dada about being creative in the face of destruction.
“We had reports that Upper Ojai was gone and we were contemplating the loss of one of Ojai’s greatest legacies,” says Stobo.
Casoni adds, “This [tag] line is talking about us rejecting logic and reason—meaning, why would we start a company in the midst of this craziness and sadness?”
They created the Beato Chocolate Lounge in the rear of the Porch Gallery Ojai, run by Casoni and Stobo since 2013, but a visit to another gallery, the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Upper Ojai, is a good primer on what the chocolate company is all about. Here you can see Wood’s original molds in situ in her studio. They include an abstract horse and an elegant moon face, both licensed by Beato chocolates to make two of the staple dark chocolate sculptures in their artisanal product line. (A third, a wonky-shaped malted-milk ball called “Whoops,” evokes the Dadaist spirit—specifically their rejection of traditional aesthetics.)
Back at the Porch Gallery Ojai, Casoni explains how in 2018, having rented the gallery space for five years, she and Stobo bought the late-19th-century building in which it’s housed and began a major restoration project. The purchase gave them access to the rest of the rooms in the building, including the one that now serves as the Beato Chocolate Lounge. They also added an apartment and moved in. “It’s completely an integration of life and art now,” says Casoni.
For Ojai resident Burson, who is in charge of production and recipe development, the chocolate business also incorporated art into her life. “I love being creative and being in the kitchen. It uses a lot of my food science and food service background, but in a different way.”
During my visit to the Beato Chocolate Lounge, the synergy between the gallery and the chocolate business was literally on display. An exhibit of hand-colored etchings made by Wood when she was in her 90s was getting finishing touches in preparation for its opening that weekend in the Porch Gallery. To accompany the exhibit, Beato Chocolates produced limited-edition boxes that include a luster-glaze medallion from Wood’s molds by Nancy Martinez, a former studio assistant to the artist.
Wood had never made an etching until 18 months before she completed the collection in the exhibit, and her constant artistic evolution is another source of inspiration for the owners of Beato Chocolates. Once their planned commercial kitchen extension is complete, Burson says they intend to launch a series of chocolate “Beato Bars” that will feature artwork and flavors inspired by Wood’s life and travels. One such bar will be called Pinching Spaniards 62, featuring roasted Marcona almonds and Spanish spices. It’s an homage to Wood’s cheekily titled travel memoir, Pinching Spaniards, which she wrote after visiting Spain at the age of 62.
For now, the owners of Beato Chocolates are thrilled they’ve been able to bring more attention to Wood’s life and art with their existing product line. Casoni explains, “It’s so fun to watch new people discover these iconic women who often didn’t get credit that they deserve. Duchamp got a lot of credit for the Dada movement, but Beatrice Wood is called the ‘Mama of Dada’ for a reason.”
Kevin Wallace, director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, also recognizes pioneering women in Burson, Casoni and Stobo, praising them for providing “a wonderful opportunity to care for Beatrice Wood’s legacy by combining two of her favorite things—art and chocolate.”
Beato Chocolates are made with a proprietary blend of cacao beans from West Africa, South America and the South Pacific. They are working with a local start-up coffee roaster in Ojai to source beans for coffee-infused chocolates and plans are in the works to incorporate local honey and citrus in upcoming treats.
For visitors to Ojai, being a patron of the arts has never been more delicious.
The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
8585 Ojai–Santa Paula Rd., Ojai
The Beato Chocolate Lounge in the Ojai Porch Gallery
310 E. Matilija Ave., Ojai
BeatoChocolates.com
In addition to the Beato Chocolate Lounge, Beato Chocolates are sold at Salon Rise Ojai, DeKor & Co., Ojai Beverage Company, Tipple & Ramble, Topa Mountain Winery, Farmer and the Cook and the Ojai Valley Museum.
