Sunday, November 9, 2008

Have Chocolate Will Travel

I'm working on a post for the NYC Chocolate show. In the meantime, i've just entered this as my "obsession" on the Recchiuti chocolate website. If they select your entry for the newsletter, they send you a box of chocolate!

The Ultimate Obsession


It was my turn to make the drive from the beautiful rolling Blackstone Valley hills in Massachusetts to the suburbial outskirts of Stamford, Connecticut where I spent the night at my boyfriend’s. We only see each other on weekends. Usually, the five days in between our time together has me surging with anticipation of the weekend ahead, and this weekend held an extra morsel of excitement: The New York City Chocolate Show in Manhattan! After a restful 8-hour sleep I was off early to the Stamford train station where I made my way into the city – sans boyfriend.

I walked every misty-and-gray-skied block from Grand Central Terminal to Pier 94, thankful that I had purchased my ticket online and could make my way to the front of the line to collect my ticket. Upon entering the show I started to make my way through the rows of chocolate vendors, artful and aromatic edibles, and hordes of chocolate-loving fans, all waiting like begging dogs for their chance to sample the most beautiful and palate-pleasing confections I have ever laid eyes – and taste buds – on!

I found the bookseller and hugged my copy of Chocolate Obsession as I stood there, a chocolate groupie, waiting for the book’s author to appear… I imagined his chef’s coat with spatters of chocolate drizzle – dark, milk, white….His hair streaked with ganache like artful lowlights just pulled through at the salon….His shoes dusted with cocoa powder and vanilla stains. Like a mechanic’s greasy fingers, I envisioned bits of chocolate stuck under his fingernails and staining his cuticles….and then he arrived. Michael Recchiuti himself, in the flesh – covered from head to toe in his pristine attire. Not a drop of chocolate anywhere. (Not even one stinkin’ burnt caramel in sight.)

He sat behind the table to sign books and I began to drill him on his chocolate adventure and shared with him details of my own chocolate dreams. Our chocolate obsessions were now intertwined as he signed my book and sent me on my way to drivel over the tables of samples from other chocolatiers. It’s now weeks since our meeting, and I’m still reeling with inspiration and thoughts of making my own chocolate dreams come true.

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