Piedmont Native Leaves Real Estate for Toffee

During the holidays, many of us head to the kitchen to prepare old family recipes. Catherine Hughes, a former commercial real estate executive, has turned a family tradition into a year-round vocation, parlaying her godmother's Christmas toffee into a new career.

A couple of years ago, Hughes asked her godmother, Piedmont resident Suzi Soper, to show her how to make the nutty, chocolate-topped toffee that Soper has given to family and friends every Christmas, as long as Hughes can remember.

"I always wanted to learn how to make it," says Hughes. "So I got in the kitchen with my godmother."

That holiday season, Hughes made batches of the toffee brittle as gifts for her own family and friends – and got an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

"People said, 'you've got to start making this toffee," says Hughes, a 1976 Piedmont High School graduate who now lives in San Francisco.

"I'd been working in commercial real estate for 30 years," says Hughes, who holds a degree in political science and economics from San Diego State University.  "But I was looking for something else. I decided it was time to put my passion into my profession and do something I love."

In the fall of 2009, she gathered "my village of friends and family" – including her "Fab 6" friends from Piedmont High days – and began her new venture, Toffee Talk. She says her Fab 6 have chipped in with everything from marketing to packaging to cutting up decorative ribbon.

Her cousin Ellin Purdom, also a '76 Piedmont High grad, became the unofficial "Director of Social Networking," texting and tweeting and helping Hughes at marketing events.

"I've always been a giver," says Hughes, who treasures the help from the Fab 6 and her family circle. "I've helped my friends raise their children over the years. This is my 'baby,' so now they're helping me!"

Hughes says she's changed her godmother's recipe only slightly, adding different kinds of nuts and more generous chocolate topping. The stated ingredients on the packaging are enticingly pure and simple: butter, sugar, nuts, chocolate and water.

Hughes said a turning point in her fledgling business came when she entered her toffee in the 2010 Marin County Fair and won Best of Show in the Best Convection category.

"That was a real validation for me," says Hughes. "It wasn't just my family and friends telling me how good the toffee is."

More kudos came her way when Toffee Talk was featured on the Daily Grommet, an online marketplace that introduces a new product every day.

"That was huge," says Hughes. "I continue to get orders from all over the U.S from that."

Toffee Talk sells four types of toffee – peanut, pecan, almond and red walnut – as well as Crumble Mumble, a mixture of toffee, chocolate and nuts to sprinkle over ice cream. Hughes buys the red walnuts from a farm in Gustine, California, owned by Piedmont residents Peter and Lenore Raffo.

"They have five red walnut trees in their orchard and I bought all their red walnuts this year," says Hughes, adding that the rich red color of the nuts makes them perfect for Christmas treats. "They keep their color and are very pretty."

Since she launched the Toffee Talk website, orders are flowing in. She says she had no idea that business would take off so quickly.

"I had 14 orders yesterday," says Hughes, who now spends 80 hours a week between the commercial kitchen she rents in San Rafael, and packaging the toffee for sale. She's also hired a part-time assistant, a lawyer friend that she used to work with.

But Hughes has no complaints about the workload. She's thrilled with her toffee enterprise.

"I don't get tired," she says.  "I'm energized; it's nice to have something that's mine."

One of her recent orders was for 70 tins of assorted toffees that a property management company in San Francisco will give to its tenants for Christmas, but Hughes says she fills orders big and small.

"It can be a 2-ounce bag for John Smith in Oakland, or a large order for corporate gifts."

Hughes says people ask her all the time if she plans to open a retail store.

"I don't intend to have a retail front at this point," says Hughes. "I will continue to leverage sales off the web, my connections and fund-raising events."

Piedmont residents can find Hughes' toffee at , which just started to carry the products.