Choc-a-lot
When I was approached by Nicole Thomas to become a judge in the first-ever Best in Show competition for Chocolate Decadence, it was hard to conceal my enthusiasm.
When I joined Louisa McCune-Elmore and Carol Smaglinski at the Hudson-Essex building for the annual Automobile Alley fundraiser, my enthusiasm was brimming like Gene Leiterman’s chocolate fountain at the CoCo Flow booth. However, that enthusiam flagged somewhere between samplings 15 and 20. I was, however, able to, umm, gut it out. No pain, no gain…took one for the team…insert your favorite cliche, you get the picture.
The Best of Show was not too difficult. While the tortellini with white chocolate sauce from the Skirvin, the chocolate tortelonni and white chocolate zuppa from Trattoria il Centro and the lamb chop with balsamic-chocolate reduction from Mickey Mantle’s were all sensational, CoCo Flow was king. With the aforementioned fountain as a dipping bowl for accompanying kabobs of fresh fruit and cakes, Gene also had as fine a bread pudding as I’ve ever tasted and a collection of bite-sized chocolates so that his booth examined the full potential of chocolate and its decadent nature.
Other contenders included the twin bites from Paseo Grill, the ultra-clever cotton candy from Nonna’s and accompanying carnival atmosphere and the bacon, chocolate and pistachio bites from Deep Fork. Thanks also to the Whiskey A-Cocoa from Sean and Cathy Cummings and to Iguana Mexican Grill for making chocolate sippable. Also shouts to Red Primesteak for the chile-ancho sauce and to La Luna for bringing mole to the table and making it work.
The best part of the evening was reconnecting with Nicole, who is a friend from a previous life. She’s planning events now, and based on the success of this one, I suspect she’ll be behind a lot more really cool events to come.
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Thank you Dave and Dave for the great video and write up! It was our honor and pleasure to have you be a part of Chocolate Decadence!!
Dave, so fantastic to reconnect with you too!!!
Cheers!
Nicole Thomas
Epic Events
Chocolate Decadence Event Coordinator