Inside the Sweet Life of a Chocolatier with @compartes
For more photos of Jonathan’s craft chocolate creations, follow @compartes on Instagram.
For Los Angeles chocolatier Jonathan Grahm (@compartes), the art of crafting sweets has been a lifelong project. As he explains, “I love chocolate. I think up recipes in my dreams and have a little book next to my bed where I write down flavor combinations.”
Jonathan first started making chocolate at the age of 15 and, driven by his passion, purchased a chocolate shop nine years later. Despite having no formal training, he has grown Compartes into an international brand producing small batches of over 200 different—and often unexpected—flavors.
In creating recipes ranging from blackberry sage to “Old Hollywood” (dark chocolate with smoked sea salt), inspiration often comes from Los Angeles itself: its traditions, its people and especially its farmers markets, where Jonathan finds and shares photos of the freshest ingredients. “I go to the Farmers Market on a Sunday, and on Monday morning at 10 AM when we open, there are people waiting to get the flavor of chocolate that I made with the ingredients that I was picking up.”
Channeling his upbringing and experiences in the city, Jonathan has ultimately molded Compartes into a reflection of himself: “It’s my world, likes, loves, passions and ideas spread out onto chocolate. The future only gets bigger and brighter—and more delicious—from here.”