Food News and Views February 14, 2008 - Dylan Lauren Sweet Treats
Food and Dining Radio Show – 12.14.08
Linda Gassenheimer (LG)
Joseph Cooper (JC)
Fred Tasker (FT)
Dylan Lauren (DL)
LG: Let me ask you a question, what’s on your wish list for Valentine’s Day? Romantic Dinner? Maybe some bling?
JC: Bling? You’re getting hip hop on us!
LG: Yes [laughing]. Or how about everybody’s favorite – chocolate?! Our guest is an expert in this field. Dylan Lauren is the CEO of Dylan’s
DL: Thank you! Happy Valentine’s Day!
LG: Also here is Fred Tasker in his usual seat. You can read his wine suggestions on my website dinnerinminutes.com. What are we drinking today? Is it sparkling?
FT: Not altogether. I have to figure out what goes with candy.
DL: Anything goes with candy…wine, milk, water. Candy alone is good too.
FT: Well I have some news to share. On Sunday I’m starting a Web Blog about wine in the Miami Herald. It’s called “Wine Beneath the Palms” because it’s a Miami Wine Blog. You can find it at miamiherald.com/wine. Also starting Sunday we’re going to pod-cast this radio program. You’ll be able to download us into your MP3 player and listen to us all day. That starts Sunday and you can also find it at miamiherald.com/wine. And by next week you can also access it from Linda’s website.
LG: We’d love to hear from our listeners. What sweets do you like on Valentine’s Day? Or maybe you have a question for our guest. Dylan Lauren.
DL: It’s a fun, interactive candy store. It’s basically anywhere between 5,000-50,000 square feet depending on the store. We have a store near you in Orlando, one in
LG: When you’re reading about it, it sounds like the designer made it into a candy wonderland.
DL: It’s like Willy Wanka and
LG: You come from an entrepreneurial family. What made you leave fashion and turn toward sweets?
DL: Well I see candy as a combination between fashion, art and pop culture. It’s sort of a compilation where fashion is very involved in that there’s candy fashions like pajamas, t-shirts and trendy apparel. It’s a very hip store with fashionable customers. It’s a combination.
LG: I wasn’t surprised to learn that you had fashion in the store, but a $500 candy-inspired pocket book?!
DL: Yes, we have bags from great designers who make these candy beaded bags. They range from $25 to $200. The store has something for everyone in different price points.
JC: Does business really pick up before Valentine’s Day?
DL: Yes, Valentines Day is very popular for us…anything with chocolate and anything with the heart motif is very popular this time of year. So it starts now and then there’s Mother’s Day and Father’s Day coming up.
JC: Do you have anything kinky for Valentine’s Day?
LG: Joe!
DL: There’s chocolate body paint, gummy bras and candy necklaces.
FT: That could be a sticky situation. [laughing]
DL: There are a lot of fun things and then we also have the classic basics like dark chocolate bars and gift baskets.
LG: You sent us a wonderful basket of sweets. There’s a big red heart that says “Be Mine.”
JC: Why not the chocolate body paint?
FT: Behave!
DL: Well…we also do packaging that’s special and reusable afterward.
LG: You also sent us some 90% cocoa chocolate.
DL: That’s very popular right now. People feel there’s less fat and it’s good for the heart. It’s also rainforest certified. It’s very bitter if you like that. But we also have tons of milk chocolate, hazelnut, and peanut butter and jelly flavored chocolates.
LG: There’s also milk chocolate and dark chocolate covered gram crackers.
DL: That’s a traditional favorite around this time. Those are addictive – be careful!
LG: You have a “Party-On-The-Go” package. How does that work?
DL: In the stores we do birthday parties for people of any age. We do a chocolate water fountain; we have cotton candy machines and lollipop trees… So we take those things to any party across the nation and we set up a Dylan’s
LG: Do you send this in a package?
DL: We staff it; it’s an interactive party. So we’d come with our staff of Candy Girls with trays, chocolates we pass around, set up the décor…we work with you to make sure it’s fun and festive.
LG: One of my favorites in our gift box was a basket with Twizzlers and Snow Caps.
DL: That’s one of our best selling baskets. It’s great for Oscar weekend. It’s a giant popcorn themed box and it has all the movie concession candies. We have tons of gift baskets for Valentine’s Day, like our Lover’s Basket. There are a bunch of themed heart-shaped things. They’re all on our website.
LG: We’re talking about sweet treats for Valentine’s Day with Dylan Lauren. We’ll take a break and be back.
[break]
JC: I’m dedicating that song to Linda Gassenheimer.
LG: How wonderful. Thank you so much Joseph Cooper. We’ve been talking with Dylan Lauren who is the CEO of Dylan’s
DL: We’re doing s’mores in five different flavors like vanilla and mint patties. They’re all twists with candy and the s’more.
LG: I’m drooling! You’re also going to be at the Kids’ Kitchen on Sunday.
DL: That’s an interactive seminar where the kids actually participate. They will be making s’mores with lots of different ingredients. They have these jelly candies which will be in the candy bar bag that they’ll all get. We’re also having a bubble gum blowing contest.
LG: Can we big kids come?
DL: Yes. And there may be a licorice limbo…
LG: That sounds fun. Alright well let’s leave the sweets for a moment for dinner in minutes. Today is a special Valentine’s Day dinner. It’s Walnut-Crusted Steak with Fennel and Beans Salad. You can see the recipe on my website dinnerinminutes.com. Fred, what are we drinking?
FT: Well when you’re talking about chocolate there are many possibilities. For the 90% chocolate a lot of people would drink a dry red wine like a Malbec. Malbec can have some of the same chocolaty flavors in it. If you have a sweeter chocolate like milk chocolate, a perfect match would be red port. You can use an expensive one, but I think a cheap ruby port would work well. If it’s a chocolate dessert there’s a delightful Italian sweet red sparkling wine called Brachetto d’aqui. It’s only $15 and it’s got a raspberry flavor to it. Don’t forget about the wine blog and pod-cast that start Sunday at miamiherald.com/wine.
LG: This Sunday you’re going to be at the Coconut Grove Arts festival, right?
FT: Yes, I’m following your act.
LG: I’m going to be at the Culinary Tent at 1:30pm on Saturday and 12:30pm on Sunday. Let’s go back to Dylan and talking about her Candy Store. Dylan, tell me some of your other favorite things at the store.
DL: We just launched candy apparel and pajamas. The pajamas are soft for kids and we also have adult sizes. We have candy rain boots coming up for April showers. They’re very fun. We have a line of kaleidoscope collection, which are our chocolate cordials, malt balls or coffee beans. We have a vacation mix which has cosmo flavored cordials…we also have margarita and daiquiri flavors.
LG: So a lot of it is retro?
DL: Yes, we have the largest collection of hardest to find candies. In the
LG: Wow. Well we’re all out of time. Thank you so much for joining us.
DL: Thank you. Happy Valentine’s Day!
LG: Dylan is going to be here at the South Beach Food and Wine festival February 21-24. Join us next week on our extended one hour program for the South Beach Food and Wine Festival including Oprah Winfrey’s Chef Art Smith.