What is Shokolaat?

Shokolaat in Palo Alto is Modern Bistro centered in the heart of Silicon Valley. The concept of Shokolaat is that of a neighborhood Restaurant, Patisserie, Chocolatier, and Lounge serving lunch and dinner with take out pastries. With it's elegant yet casual ambiance it is most certainly a place for an impromptu gathering of friends, a fun culinary evening with a business client, to a romantic dining experience for two. As our guests arrive and throughout your experience our service staff will treat you with genuine care.

Our culinary team is pleased to tempt your pallet with our seasonal small plate inspired menu stemming from mostly local, and sustainable ingredients.

Finish up your meal with our selection of European style chocolates and pastries made with organic sugar, flour, and dairy from St. Anthony's farm in Sonoma.

If a trip to Paris is out of the question. Our early morning pick me up of freshly baked croissants and danishes, of course made from organic ingredients, can be enjoyed with organic, fair trade coffees from the Barista.

We look forward to breaking bread and toasting wine with all and hope many of our good neighbors experiences will lead to many friendships for the Shokolaat family.

Biography of Shekoh Moossavi

Shekoh Moossavi is opening SHOKOLAAT in Palo Alto in Spring of 2007. This unique idea of serving European-inspired California food with fine pastries, artisan breads, and one-of-a-kind chocolates is a culinary collaboration of two professional chefs with individual passions.

Shekoh, who was born and raised in Iran, later moved to Brussels, Belgium. In 1986, she moved to the United States and achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Science. She worked in eye-research for many years and later changed her career from science to culinary. She graduated from the Florida Culinary Institute in Palm Beach, Florida.

She worked at many 5-STAR / 5-DIAMOND hotels and restaurants, including the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Florida. In 2002, she moved to San Francisco and worked at various well-known restaurants. In 2003, she recreated Restaurant Gervais under her ownership along with her husband, Mark Ainsworth, as the consulting Pastry Chef.

Shekoh is now realizing her dream of having a very unique destination for fine food and worldly wines in this special environment.


Biography of Mark Ainsworth

In the Spring of 2007 Chef Mark will take on the role of Chocolatier for SHOKOLAAT. This is a unique idea of serving European-inspired -California food with fine pastries, artisan breads, and one-of-a-kind chocolates. He will remain as President/COO and Director of Research and Development for PASTRY SMART LLC, which he founded in June of 2006. PASTRY SMART LLC is a company which focuses on the production of fine chocolates, artisan breads, and pastry products for a variety of foodservice applications using mostly organic raw materials. His years of experience in large volume production and 5-STAR / 5-DIAMOND hotels has led to the design of a production facility that produces high quality products with a boutique patisserie feel.

For the prior 2 years, Chef Mark Ainsworth was the Executive Pastry Chef at The Lodge and Courses at Pebble Beach, where he oversaw the development and direction of all the pastry for The Lodge, The Beach Club, Casa Palmero, The Spa, and the courses at Pebble Beach. He was able to stop the out-sourcing of pastry and train the bakery team to produce everything in-house. This level of organization and knowledge of modern pastry technology allowed him and his team to produce pastry products for the AT&T National Pro-Am, the Concours D’Elegance, and special events feeding up to 10,000 people daily.

During which time, he was also assisting his wife, Shekoh Moossavi, in opening and running the operations of their restaurant, GERVAIS, in Saratoga. While she focused on the creation of a seasonally inventive menu of the highest quality, he was focused on the dining room service and the memorable dessert creations.

In 1998, Chef Mark Ainsworth joined The Ritz-Carlton company, starting at Amelia Island as an Assistant Pastry Chef, being promoted to Executive Pastry Chef six months later at the age of 24, being the youngest Executive Pastry Chef in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel company, at that time. Through the recreation of traditional Southern classics into modern day masterpieces using contemporary techniques, he was able to be part of and help set the standards for the company and the vision for it’s culinary future. He then moved on to the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, voted the #1 City Hotel in the world by Investors Weekly magazine in 2002, rating 5-STAR, 5-DIAMOND. It was during this time that he assisted in doubling the size of the company being the opening trainer for Biscayne and Naples Golf Resort at Tiburon, Florida, and as the post-opening trainer at the Rose Hall Jamaica and Washington, D.C.