“Joan Coukos, Chocolatier & CEO of CHOCOLAT
MODERNE, is a Native New Yorker. She graduated magna cum laude from Duke University
with a degree in French and Russian, and received an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill
before entering the New York
banking scene. Her extensive career included six years in Moscow
during the rough and tumble days of Russia’s
transition to a market economy, after which she returned to New York and Wall Street in 1999. Open to
new inspiration and challenge, in December 2000, on a trip to Brussels,
she fell under the spell of old world, hand made chocolates and began creating
recipes back in her tiny Manhattan
kitchen. Her co-workers became the first enthusiastic guinea pigs, and upon
receiving repeated accolades, she began taking formal steps to becoming a
chocolatier. Since that memorable day on the Place du Grand Sablon, she has
studied chocolate and confectionery arts with a coterie of world-class French,
Belgian, American and Swiss chocolatiers in NY and at The World Pastry Forum in
Las Vegas. She
is also a member of the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance. Now, after five
years of honing her craft, Joan is creating sumptuous assortments of luxury
gift boxed chocolates in her own chocolate laboratory on West 20th Street.”.
