See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Danielle Furfaro
Brooklyn Daily
This golden ticket will get you into a room of chocolate — and you won’t have to go searching through Wonka Bars to find one.
On Jan. 14, an assortment of fancy chocolatiers will host a bash to celebrate some of the most adventurous chocolate the city has to offer — and you can taste all of it with one $20 ticket.
“Brooklyn is so into chocolate and so receptive,” said Jean Francois Bonnet, head chef at Tumbador Chocolate, which is based in Sunset Park. “We will have so many things to try, because they want to try everything.”
“Chocolate Party!” is the first birthday party for Chocolate NYC, a blog dedicated to eating and reviewing all things chocolatey in the city. The celebration will take place at the Bell House in Gowanus, where Tumbador will be joined by a host of confection and bar producers from Brooklyn and the surrounding areas — including Nunu, Raaka, and the Chocolate Room — who will share their wares with sweet-toothed revelers.
“People say jokingly that chocolate is its own food group. Well, it’s true,” said Bonnet. “And it is its own culinary category too. We are a very specialized group.”
Party-goers will be able to gorge themselves on a range of sweet treats from all the chocolate makers in attendance, and the tasting promises to be as educational as it does delicious. Organizers will arrange the tables in order of chocolate percentages — ranging from milk chocolate to 100 percent cacao — as well as by bean origins, flavors, and types of truffles.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to try chocolate that has been made from scratch in Brooklyn, via Williamsburg’s Fine & Raw. The company is a part of the nascent “bean to bar” movement, in which chocolate makers create their product directly from the cacao bean itself, rather than relying on a middleman to provide chocolate couverture.
“It allows us to make flavor combinations that would not have been possible a few years ago,” said Daniel Sklaar, Fine & Raw’s owner.
“Chocolate Party! Chocolate NYC’s First Birthday Bash” at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. between Second and Third avenues in Gowanus, (718) 643–6510, www.thebellhouseny.com]. Jan. 14 at 7 pm. $20.