CuisineScene News  CuisineScene News Member News Oregon’s specialty chocolatiers converge on Ashland for a raft of delectable cocoa-themed events
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Mar
29
2006
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Oregon’s specialty chocolatiers converge on Ashland for a raft of delectable cocoa-themed events |
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Written by ICTA Admin
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Wednesday, 29 March 2006 |
Think microbrews, and Oregon comes to mind. Think pinot noir, same thing. Think chocolate, though, and it's Belgium or Switzerland. Not anymore. Ashland just hosted Oregon's latest food sensation: chocolate. Chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, chocolate molds, chocolate-covered fruits, chocolate stout and even chocolate-infused cheese.
The second Oregon Chocolate Festival celebrated Oregon's expanding chocolate industry, and its culinary companions, including Oregon wine, beer, coffee, cheese and fruit. The Ashland Springs Hotel is home base. Attendees can indulge in chocolates created by 15 of Oregon's top chocolatiers, including Moonstruck Chocolate, Lillie Belle Farms and Dagoba Organic Chocolate. The chocolate festival is the brainchild of Karolina Wyszynska, publicity manager at the hotel, who wanted to capitalize on growth of specialty chocolatiers in Ashland and the fertile Rogue Valley. She's also active in the city's "culinary tourism" effort. Reasons for the abundance of fine chocolates in Southern Oregon range from inexpensive warehouse space to the area's promotion of locally grown products, though the mild weather doesn't hurt, either.
"You don't locate a chocolate factory in Arizona," said Melissa Schweisguth of Ashland's Dagoba Organic Chocolate. The festival started with a screening of "Chocolat," starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, at the Varsity Theatre, along with dining specials at a number of Ashland's restaurants and a chocolate-themed art walk at the city's galleries. Chocolatiers from all over Oregon were on hand to discuss their craft -- or is it obsession? -- at seminars and at the Chocolate Faire in the hotel's Grand Ballroom.
If it sounds like a grown-up's visit to Willie Wonka's, that's the idea. The Oregon Chocolate Festival highlighted what foodies around the United States and the world have known for a while: that Oregon has quietly become an innovative chocolate hotbed. "People really care what they are putting in their mouths," Dagoba's Schweisguth says about the rise of interest in Oregon's organic and specialty chocolates. Chocolate tasting, done in the same manner as wine tasting, is a main draw for the Chocolate Festival and allows chocolatiers to assist choco-newbies to refine their palates. Especially popular are Dagoba's "single-origin" chocolates made of cocoa from a single growing region.
"People want to see how different chocolates taste from different countries, regions and different soils," Schweisguth says. A rising-star chocolatier, Jeff Shepard of Lillie Belle Farms, will be on hand to sample his array of artisan chocolates using organic fruit grown on his two-acre farm in Jacksonville. Shepard also creates edible artwork using chocolate and cocoa, including a new four-foot-tall chocolate sculpture that promises to be a show-stopper. Speaking of show-stoppers, there's also the one-woman comedy show, "Chocolate Confessions.”
And say the magic word -- could it be . . . "chocolate?" -- at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and get 50 percent off tickets to the weekend's performances. |
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