Two kettles, one marble slab, and a very tolerant landlord

The room

It was a one-car garage with a stubborn concrete floor. We poured a level subfloor, ran a second circuit for the kettles, and installed a nine-foot marble offcut that was originally destined for a hotel lobby in Charlotte. The marble matters more than anything else in the room: it holds temperature evenly, which is the difference between candy that sets clear and candy that sets with a cloudy skin.

Two copper kettles sit under the north window. One is used for clear batches, one for anything with caramelised sugar, and they are never swapped. Above the workbench, a shelf of labelled jars holds the botanicals — hibiscus, marigold, sumac, lime leaf, vanilla pods split and scraped — that give the cabinet its character.

Who cooks here

The atelier is small by design. Nell Marchetti founded it in 2019 after a decade in pastry kitchens, and still cooks most of the hard-candy batches herself. Ivo Brandt runs the wrapping bench and the window, and is responsible for the fact that our boxes are tied better than they need to be. A rotating cast of two or three part-time helpers appears on production days, and one of them always ends up writing the batch log.

Nobody here has ever described the work as relaxing. It is precise, hot and oddly meditative, and we like it that way.

Open-counter days

Once a month, usually on a Saturday morning, the kettle stays off and the workbench becomes a demonstration table. It is informal, free, and aimed at curious neighbours rather than professionals. Expect to handle cold candy, smell a lot of jars, and leave with sugar on your sleeve.

• What happens: a short walk-through of sugar stages, a botanical smelling session, and a pulled-candy demonstration.
• How long: roughly an hour, occasionally longer if the questions are good.
• Who it suits: home cooks, students, writers, and anyone who has ever wondered why a lollipop looks like glass.
• Group size: the room holds twelve comfortably; the marble holds more, but the floor does not.

Dates are posted by email only — there is no booking system on this site and no form to fill in. Write to the desk and we will add you to the open-counter note list, which is a plain email and nothing more.

About this journal

The site you are reading is the atelier's editorial side: craft notes, seasonal menus, flavour studies and the occasional argument about whether burnt sugar is a flavour or a failure. It exists because people kept asking questions at the counter and we kept answering them twice.

There is nothing for sale here. If you want to understand how we work, start with the craft notes and then open the flavour cabinet.

Write to the desk

Email is the only way in. We read everything and answer most things, usually within a few days — longer during a production week, when the kettle wins.