Dude, Sweet Chocolate

Specialties

At Dude, Sweet Chocolate we concoct, manufacture, distribute, and retail dark chocolate inspired creations as our core business. Our product line is very fluid and seasonal, but usually contains fudges, truffles, toffees, nuts, artisan chocolates, and basically anything else our chef decides to improve by introducing it to cacao.

History

Established in 2009.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate traces its roots to a dive bar just south of downtown Dallas, Lee Harvey’s, where co-​founders Chef Katherine Clapner and Redding May were regulars. Heading towards the holidays in 2008, he partnered with her to send unique artisan chocolates as client gifts while working with Merrill Lynch. After that, she ran with the idea — pushing her chocolate creations in summer heat at farmers markets and the like. Mid-​year 2009, she brought up the idea of opening a store, and the first small kitchen/​store was built-​out and opened in early December that year.

Meet the Business Owner

Katherine C.

Business Owner

Having over twenty years of experience as a pastry chef, Katherine is a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.

Prior to founding Dude, Sweet, Katherine served for many years as Executive Pastry Chef at Stephan Pyles restaurant, working directly with Chef/​Owner Stephan Pyles, a pioneer of New American Cuisine and legendary founding father of Southwestern Cuisine. The rest of Katherine’s story is no less impressive.

Coming out of the Culinary Institute of America in New York with an associate’s degree in baking and pastry, Katherine headed overseas and got to work. Her first stop in Europe was the Savoy in London, followed a few years later by Hotel Cipriani in Venice.

Once back stateside, she worked under the instruction of recognized names such as Chef Charlie Trotter and Chef Kevin Graham. She trained and held Pastry Chef positions at Charlie Trotter’s (Chicago), The Windsor Court Hotel (New Orleans), and many other renowned restaurants.