Good luck keeping the pages pristine in Phillip Ashley Rix’s debut cookbook, For the Love of Chocolate, which hit shelves in September. We bet it’s just a question of time ‘til the pages of every chapter are cocoa-stained. After all, who can resist the temptations of a real-life Willy Wonka such as chocolatier Ashley Rix, who launched his Phillip Ashley chocolate boutique in Memphis in 2012 and landed on Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list in 2020 with his chocolate candy turtles.
Known for bonbons inspired by his grandmother’s recipes—fried chicken truffles, anyone?—and for innovative chocolate-based mashups such as saffron banana, coffee cookies and cream and bourbon pecan praline, Ashley Rix, a James Beard Award nominee, has prepared “bespoke bites” for Hollywood award shows, Fortune 500 companies and culinary festivals. At his Memphis-based production atelier, he designs whimsical, gemlike confections infused with unexpected delicacies such as French blue cheese, sweet potato and bourbon and fig.
But as an author, he stocks the pages of his colorful cookbook with tales of his hometown, as well as accessible recipes for desserts and sweet confections that anyone can make at home. The Chocolate Basque Cheesecake contains ingredients most of us have on hand. Same with “Billionaire” Chocolate Praline Shortbread, to name just a couple of his 80 recipes for home cooks.
Now we have some pages to dirty up.
Phillip Ashley Rix will be at Southern Festival of Books, Saturday, Oct. 18 at noon, Tennessee State Library, Conasauga Room.
phillipashley.com
@phillipashleychocolates
Recipes and photos excerpted from: For the Love of Chocolate by Phillip Ashley Rix
Foreword by Jacques Torres
Harper Celebrate
Release Date: Sept. 9, 2025