November 9-11, 2007
Metropolitan Pavilion & Altman Building
125 West 18th Street (bet. 6th & 7th Avenues)
http://www.chocolateshow.com/
I went to the annual Chocolate Show New York this afternoon. Bill declined my invitation; apparently he was the wiser.
The show opened at 11 AM; I got there at 1:30PM. Admission was $28 (cash only) and it was quite packed. And as crowded and uncomfortable as it was for me today, I expect it will only be more so over the weekend.
There were more than 60 booths hosted by companies from all over the country and some importers as well. Only a handful of well known New York City chocolatiers set up camp: Jacques Torres, Payard, and Christopher Norman, and only Jacques Torres was offering samples. The other two had “run out.”
A few things were of interest. Mary’s Chocolatier of Tokyo (http://www.mary.co.jp/) was quite good and had a team of artists demonstrating their “seasonal flower” decorating techniques. Theo Chocolate (http://www.theochocolate/) from Seattle offered a generous array of tastings of their fine fair trade certified chocolate bars. But beyond that, there wasn’t much I could get too excited about.
Here are other things I did see: an artist selling a collage of wrappers from chocolate that she had eaten ($6,000—I am not making this up); a “fashion show” of mannequins all of whom had some component of their costume made in chocolate; Capital One trying to get attendees to sign up for a credit card in exchange for a free fleece blanket; and an adult walking around in a monkey costume (a tie-in to a peanut butter product).
Coincidentally and by contrast, we were walking around SoHo yesterday afternoon and stopped in at three charming and different chocolate shops within a 10-minute radius of each other: Kee’s, MarieBelle, and Vosges. The latter two graciously offered samples of their confections, and MarieBelle even gave us small cups of hot chocolate. At Kee’s we bought two exquisite chocolates ($2.16 each) that were freshly made that day. It was a delightful and rewarding mini-chocolate tour for a New York chocolate lover.
We’ll return to a Spanish theme with our next report on Monday.
--PMM
Metropolitan Pavilion & Altman Building
125 West 18th Street (bet. 6th & 7th Avenues)
http://www.chocolateshow.com/
I went to the annual Chocolate Show New York this afternoon. Bill declined my invitation; apparently he was the wiser.
The show opened at 11 AM; I got there at 1:30PM. Admission was $28 (cash only) and it was quite packed. And as crowded and uncomfortable as it was for me today, I expect it will only be more so over the weekend.
There were more than 60 booths hosted by companies from all over the country and some importers as well. Only a handful of well known New York City chocolatiers set up camp: Jacques Torres, Payard, and Christopher Norman, and only Jacques Torres was offering samples. The other two had “run out.”
A few things were of interest. Mary’s Chocolatier of Tokyo (http://www.mary.co.jp/) was quite good and had a team of artists demonstrating their “seasonal flower” decorating techniques. Theo Chocolate (http://www.theochocolate/) from Seattle offered a generous array of tastings of their fine fair trade certified chocolate bars. But beyond that, there wasn’t much I could get too excited about.
Here are other things I did see: an artist selling a collage of wrappers from chocolate that she had eaten ($6,000—I am not making this up); a “fashion show” of mannequins all of whom had some component of their costume made in chocolate; Capital One trying to get attendees to sign up for a credit card in exchange for a free fleece blanket; and an adult walking around in a monkey costume (a tie-in to a peanut butter product).
Coincidentally and by contrast, we were walking around SoHo yesterday afternoon and stopped in at three charming and different chocolate shops within a 10-minute radius of each other: Kee’s, MarieBelle, and Vosges. The latter two graciously offered samples of their confections, and MarieBelle even gave us small cups of hot chocolate. At Kee’s we bought two exquisite chocolates ($2.16 each) that were freshly made that day. It was a delightful and rewarding mini-chocolate tour for a New York chocolate lover.
We’ll return to a Spanish theme with our next report on Monday.
--PMM
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