The Chocolate Festival was really amazing if you like wandering around an empty arena having tiny samples doled out to you by stingy vendors. At ten bucks a ticket, that works out to almost a dollar per sample--a sample of say, a quarter of a chocolate chip cookie or one single chocolate truffle from places like Kroger or the Hermitage High School Technical Center.
I expected the pastry chefs of restaurants like Lemaire or maybe Can Can (where truly memorable desserts can be found) to be out in full force, showing their stuff, wowing all comers. I was very, very wrong. There were a lot of bakeries I'd never heard of (where was the Metro Bakery?), a clutch of culinary and technical school students, a couple of home-grown specialty chocolate makers, the two major grocery chains, Kroger and Ukrops, and, of course, For the Love of Chocolate. Except for the later, all seemed to be channeling their inner Mom ("only one piece or you'll ruin your dinner, young lady!") and the festive part of the word "festival" was conspicuously absent. As I made the rounds, I could feel the excitement just the poster conjured in me prior to my arrival drain away, only to be replaced by disillusionment and dismay.
The guys at For the Love of Chocolate were the only ones who seemed to understand that people coming to a chocolate festival are ready to indulge and want a lot of different things to try--without being made to feel like bad children for wanting more than one piece. If you were offered say, a cabernet truffle, a chocolate-dipped butter cookie, a chocolate ganache-topped petit four, a white chocolate-coated mocha cream, or a chocolate-dipped piece of crystallized ginger, would you really want to have to choose just one? Can anyone limit themselves to just a single, little bitty orange rind when confronted with an entire fountain of chocolate? That would be insane! Everyone else there, however, thought it was perfectly reasonable, and if there had been crowds thronging the Robins Center, I would have understood. Instead, only a handful of polite samplers peppered the arena, and most of them were watching some sort of a demonstration I could hear droning away in the background.
The welcome bounty of For the Love of Chocolate's table couldn't make up for the rest, however, and I'd really recommend that those guys give the whole thing a miss next year if no one else is willing to follow their example. The festival needs to be transferred to a smaller, more attractive venue, with maybe some music--imagine--and, obviously, a better quality of vendors actually willing to give some stuff away to justify the high ticket price. I couldn't really figure out who the festival was trying to attract--professionals or the general public? It seemed to be marketed to the general public but it had the feel of a trade show. Trade shows, for those of you who haven't been to one, aren't really that fun (unless they're in Las Vegas and your company is paying for the trip); festivals, at least in this town of festivals, are--generally.
Don't expect the Food Network to show up in Richmond to cover this wimpy, little event any time soon and frankly, don't expect me there next year either. I'd rather get my kicks at any number of restaurants around town, and when I really, really need a hardcore chocolate fix, I know the guys at For the Love of Chocolate have got me covered. I'd rather just stick with what I pay for, instead of relying upon the kindness of strangers.
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