“A self-taught Willy Wonka is winning high profile customers with his wild flavored chocolates, like sweet potato, French bleu cheese, and bacon caramel shortbread. That’s just a sampler of what Phillip Ashley Rix has concocted for his eponymous, artisan chocolate company. Rix’s chocolates were doled out at the Oscars, a box sits on Morgan Freeman’s nightstand, and they’re consumed by some of America’s top CEOs. Each one has been lovingly named, starting with his signature, “Mama Jean,” a sweet potato-flavored dark chocolate ganache. They’re made by hand, and have been dreamt up, and produced by Rix, at his professional kitchen in Memphis, Tennessee.

'I wanted to manipulate chocolate and chemistry. I didn’t want to replicate anything that was out there. I wanted to know the science, and know the rules, so I could break them – mixing blue cheese and chocolate, to create a piece of art that’s almost a miniature dish; a flight of tastes in one thing, like fig jam and port,' says Rix."

Read more on Forbes.com.