Fran's Chocolates, or Fran's, is a chocolate company founded by Fran Bigelow and based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. The company is best known for their salted chocolate-covered caramels. Fran's Chocolates has locations in the

Seattle metropolitan area The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state—King, Snohomish, and Pierce� ...

and throughout

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

History

Fran Bigelow was born and raised in Seattle and trained as an accountant. She graduated from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1965 with a degree in business administration and travelled to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

with her husband about five years later. Her husband was a hospital administrator, and his career required them to move to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Bigelow enrolled in professional cooking classes at

California Culinary Academy The California Culinary Academy (CCA) was a for-profit school, and an affiliate of Le Cordon Bleu located in San Francisco, California. Danielle Carlisle established the school in 1977 to train chefs using the European education model. The origina ...

, where she apprenticed with a Swiss pastry chef. In 1980, they returned to Seattle, and in 1982 she began selling

chocolate truffles A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped and toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts or almonds), usually in a spherical, conica ...

and desserts from a small shop in Seattle’s Madison Park neighborhood. There were two employees at the original shop and the truffles were originally priced at 35 cents each. Eventually, she developed the store's signature Gold Bars because she wanted a candy that was not as perishable as the truffles. The Gold Bars quickly became a customer favorite, and by 1996 she was selling nearly 500,000 Gold Bars a year. In 1986, Bigelow began making

caramels Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of caramelizatio ...

. In 1998, she began adding gray salt to the caramels. By 2006, the caramels made up seventy-five percent of the company's sales, and by 2008 the caramels were the bestseller, partly due to publicity from former

President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

and First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

. In 2006, Fran's was featured in ''

O, The Oprah Magazine ''O, The Oprah Magazine'', also known simply as ''O'', is an American monthly magazine founded by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Communications. Overview It was first published on April 19, 2000. , its average paid circulation was ...

'' and the company consequently reached a record $4.5 million sales for the year. By 2007, Fran's had forty employees, and Bigelow's daughter, Andrina, joined the company. In 2008, Fran's opened a location in

Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...

in the Four Seasons hotel. The Downtown location would take over as the flagship store. In 2014, the company moved its headquarters from the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood to the historic

Rainier Brewing Company The Rainier Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Seattle, Washington. It brewed Rainier Beer, a popular brand in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Although Rainier was founded in 1884, the Seattle site had been brewing beer s ...

building in the Georgetown neighborhood. At the time, the company had 67 employees and was making 30,000 pieces of chocolate per day and shipping regularly across the United States and to

. In 2018, she was inducted into the

Specialty Food Association The Specialty Food Association, Inc. (SFA) is membership-based trade association in the United States representing 3,000+ member companies. The SFA was established in 1952 to foster trade, commerce and interest in the specialty food industry in the ...

Hall of Fame for "sparking the artisan chocolate renaissance in the United States". In 2021,

Food & Wine ''Food & Wine'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and season ...

named Fran's one of the top 50 chocolate shops in the United States.

Book

In 2004, Bigelow published a book, ''Pure Chocolate: Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran’s Chocolates'', which she co-authored with Helene Siegel. The book contains chocolate recipes that are not "too difficult" to make. It was nominated for 2005

James Beard Foundation Award The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media award ...

in the Baking and Desserts category.

Awards

*2003 Confection of the Year,

National Association for the Specialty Food Trade The Specialty Food Association, Inc. (SFA) is membership-based trade association in the United States representing 3,000+ member companies. The SFA was established in 1952 to foster trade, commerce and interest in the specialty food industry in the ...

, gray salt caramels *2005 NASFT Award, Smoked Salt Caramels *2007 Sofi Award Finalist: Outstanding Chocolate, Hazelnut Diamonds *2007 Sofi Award: Outstanding Hot Beverage, Fran’s Premium Hot Chocolate *2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, Northwest Chocolate Festival *2014 Sofi Award, Gray Salt Caramel *2016 Mott Green Sustainability Award *2017 Sofi Award, Almond Gold Bar *2017 Good Food Award, Almond Gold Bar *2017 Northwest Chocolate Festival Award Winner, Fran's Park Bar *2018 Good Food Award, Dark Chocolate Sauce *2018 Good Food Award, Caramel Sauce *"The country's best overall chocolatier in the United States" by ''The Book of Chocolate''

In popular culture

Fran's was featured in Season 1, Episode 22 of ''Food Finds'', which aired on the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

in May 2002. The company was also featured on Food Network's ''The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Season's Eatings''. Former

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

and

occasionally had the chocolates shipped to the White House. Bigelow donated to Obama's campaign and was able to meet Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama sent Fran's caramels to

Barbara Walters Barbara Jill Walters (born September 25, 1929) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, Walters appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including ...

and the cast of '' The View'' as a thank you for her recent appearance.

References

{{reflist Brand name chocolate Confectionery companies of the United States Companies based in Seattle 1982 establishments in Washington (state) Food and drink companies established in 1982