Star Kitchen: Katrina Markoff

Katrina Markoff loves chocolate so much, she puts it in everything — and we mean everything. Here in her Chicago home kitchen, the owner of Vosges Haut-Chocolat uses cocoa in spaghetti sauce, seafood cassoulet and whatever else she's making for her husband, Jason, and their 2-year-old son, Rohan.

Katrina has four spice drawers hidden in the paneling around her stove. Wherever she goes, she samples spices. "I'm smell-focused," she says. "I create recipes through my nose."

Katrina's stove is her favorite part of the kitchen: The burners can be set to stay on for nine seconds, go off and then turn back on again — perfect for melting chocolate.

Glass beakers and a digital scale are key for chocolate making — they're much more precise for measuring ingredients than cups and tablespoons. "I was trained in Paris and we measured everything by scale," she says. She even weighs her eggs.

When Katrina moved in, the kitchen had a giant overhead light fixture that she didn't like. "I wanted to replace it, but I couldn't add even more fuss to this room," she says. "So I found these antique lamps and they worked perfectly."