Hi! My name is Stephanie Zonis, and welcome to the October, 2002 edition of “For Chocolate Lovers Only”. Each month, you’ll find recipes, tips, and recommendations on great chocolate specialties.

Chocolate Recommendation of the Month: Meet John Doyle and Kira Baker, social revolutionaries. In their own quiet way, this duo has started a business that simultaneously produces good chocolates in interesting flavors while supporting local farms, economic decentralization, and art-related field trips for students. Jubilee Handmade Chocolates, based in Philadelphia, is a very young business, but John and Kira have clear goals---and creative palates. The fillings of their chocolates range from coffee-whiskey to lavender honey to mint to raspberry to star anise (all ganache-based); new for fall is a pumpkin-spice praline covered in milk chocolate. Flavors for the centers incorporate ingredients from local farms and gardens, a wonderful and timely approach. Many ingredients are organic, too. The chocolates are available in simple, elegant squares or slightly fancier dome shapes. And Jubilee Handmade Chocolates has some of the prettiest wedding/special event “favor” packaging I’ve ever seen.

When you’re not munching on one of their vanilla-rum squares, you can read about The Chocolate Bus and John and Kira’s campaigns to help end child slavery in the chocolate industry (shamefully, this is a genuine problem in some areas of the world). Should you be searching for a memorable corporate gift, this would be a fine place to look. John and Kira do a lot of tasting demonstrations; otherwise, the best way to get acquainted with their convictions and their chocolates is to hop on over to their website, at www.jubileechocolates.com. Jubilee Handmade Chocolates can also be reached by phone at (215) 386-3860 or by fax at (215) 893-4915. What could be sweeter than good chocolates going hand-in-hand with good works?

Upcoming Chocolate Event: It’s baaaaack!! The Chocolate Show once more wends its merry way to The Big Apple, arriving on November 15th and continuing through the 17th . The location will again be The Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues. Exhibitors this year will include France’s famed Chocolat Weiss, Guittard Chocolate, Valrhona, New York City institution Li-Lac Chocolates, and Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur. In addition, there is an incredible roster of demonstrations, featuring the likes of Fauchon’s Florian Bellanger; Pershing Square’s Wayne Brachman; Nick Malgieri (from the Institute of Culinary Education); Luis Robledo-Richards (from Le Cirque 2000); and The Wizard of Confectionary Work, better known as Ewald Notter (I once saw him do a pulled-sugar demonstration that left me gasping in awe). Tickets are $15 per adult, with discounts for students (with ID’s), senior citizens, and children ages 6 to 14 (children under 6 are admitted free). There are also discounts for groups of 10 or more people by advance sale only. For more information, call (212) 865-6100; advance-sale tickets are available from this website or via www.chocolateshow.com. By the way, if you’ve ever wanted to meet me, here’s your chance! I’ll be at Fritz Knipschildt’s booth this year, ostensibly helping him (um, better hide those truffles, Fritz!), and I’d love to meet some of my readers. So drop by with your suggestions or questions or just to say hello. See ya there!

Upcoming Local Food Event: The First Annual Bucks County Culinary Competition will be held on Sunday, November 10th from 3 to 6 pm, at Hollyhedge Estate in Solebury, PA. Chefs from at least 13 leading restaurants in Bucks County will be preparing, plating, and serving their signature dishes in appetizer, entrée, or dessert categories (a restaurant may enter more than one category). For a mere $40.00 per person, you’ll be able to taste all the food; food plus unlimited wine tasting is available for $55.00. Part of the proceeds will go to the Salvation Army’s “Soup’s On”, a culinary training program for men and women living in shelters. Since this is a competition, there’ll be four gastronomically-knowledgeable judges, including Melissa Hamilton from Savoir magazine and Tom Macrena, president of the Philadelphia Restaurant Association. For more information and tickets, please call (215) 598-3301.

Do you have a comment, question, or suggestion? You can reach me at: sdziadwm@nac.net. Because I receive too much junk e-mail, please specify that you’re writing about something chocolate. Thank you!