Julia Zotter speaks in an interview with 5komma5sinne about her childhood ambition, her collaboration with her parents and siblings in the family business, and her time in China. Published in October 2024. Text: Ulrich Dunst / Photos: René Strasser.
In this family, many ideas are inspired by cocoa. Julia Zotter discusses the sweet aspects of her profession and the downsides of meat consumption. A conversation about dreams, aspiring astronauts, and how the unpopular “Grammel-Schoko” gave rise to the Zotter chocolate and animal world in Riegersburg.
5komma5sinne: Julia, calling you the daughter of the country’s most famous chocolatier is actually an insult to your accomplishments. What role do you play in the Zotter universe?
Julia Zotter: Should I say: daughter? (laughs) We are a family business, and I believe my brother and I have been involved the longest. We participated as children.
The parents have a chocolate factory. Is it a paradise for kids?
We definitely thought it was super cool. The old cow barn up there was turned into a chocolate theater. We officially ate one bar of chocolate a day and unofficially three. The two we weren’t supposed to have were, of course, the best.
Did you realize back then that your career path would lead you to the chocolate side?
Until I was 15, I wanted to become an astronaut. But in our company, we started early trips to our cocoa farmers due to the shift to organic and fair trade. We wondered: What happens to the environment around us, how can we operate more sustainably? That was very fascinating to me. As a company, we’ve always lived this way: If we think of something, we do it. I wouldn’t have that level of creative freedom anywhere else. Of course, if NASA called tomorrow and asked if I wanted to fly to the moon: I would still do it.
Do you take your parents’ advice in the family business, or does it evoke rebellious reactions?
It used to be like this: Dad has the ideas, Mom has the money. Now there are four of us. My father and I are quite similar; we work together on most things. My mother and I share an office, and my brother has brought the company into a new era. He is our head of IT and technology. He takes care of all the things that don’t relate to chocolate but need to run. We are not a family business where the old generation has to leave when the next comes in. If I want to change something, I change it now.
Long before you opened the Chocolate Theater in Shanghai, you lived in China. What brought you to the Middle Kingdom?
A student exchange program when I was 16. I saw China on the list and thought: Bruce Lee and the land of the great red star. I didn’t really know much about China. It turned out to be a unique experience.
Was the establishment of the Chocolate Theater in China also unique?
We originally wanted to set up an online shop in China. Then we brainstormed shop and tasting concepts, and as we tend to do, it grew larger. We thought at the time that everything would be ready in a year. In the end, I was over there for six years.
You once said the coolest moment is when you pitch a crazy idea for new chocolate and the response is: Who’s going to eat that?
We have 100 new recipe ideas on the list every year, and we could never roll them all out at once. So, we consider what would fit into the collection this year, if we can get the ingredients for it. Then, we try it out and decide what gets included and what gets dropped from the collection. The idea for my favorite chocolate, seaweed caramel, was one of those ideas where many of us said, who’s going to eat that?
How do you develop the right instinct for success and for what people want to eat?
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Read the full article online at 5komma5sinne.at (in German, but you can easily translate for example, with Google Translator) or in the print magazine.
photo credit: René Strasser
