Greetings from the International Sweets & Biscuits Fair (ISM) in Cologne, Germany. We had a dusting of snow last night, a symbolic sign of solidarity for all those in the Midwest and other areas who are enduring a Groundhog Day Blizzard.
Eating “right” is often harder than parallel parking, finding a pair of jeans that fit right, and remembering which their/there/they’re to use combined. Lucky for us corporations are trying to lend a healthy hand.
To paraphrase Art Linkletter’s television show, newspapers print some of the darndest things. The other day my associate editor, Crystal Lindell, passed me an article from the News Journal in Delaware regarding the infamous “candy cane civil suit,” an event that happened several years ago involving the origins of candy canes and religious intolerance.
Hello candy world! My name is Crystal Lindell and I’m the new associate
editor for Candy Industry magazine. I’ll
be overseeing the Retail Confectioner
section, while also contributing to the weekly e-newsletter.
My first
impression is that this job is going to be pretty sweet.
Yesterday, I received a “screener” copy of the DVD, “Kings of Pastry,” a documentary that focuses on Jacquy Pfeiffer’s quest to capture the Meillerus Ouvriers de France (MOF), that country’s most prestigious award for food professionals.The timing couldn’t have been better since this morning I went to visit Cacao Barry L’art du Chocalatier Challenge competition, which was being sponsored by Barry Callebaut and held at its Chocolate Academy right here in Chicago.
Chances are many readers of this newsletter won’t recognize the name Gbagbo. After all, it’s not as if the Ivory Coast’s former president is a household name, even amongst chocolate makers and chocolatiers.
I have to admit, upon walking into Miroljub Aleksic’s office, I was immediately impressed. Now mind you, I’m not one to be that easily wowed by trappings of power. But not only was the size of the oval office (and yes, that’s not a coincidence) overwhelming, but the art that was hanging on the wall proved even more spectacular.
Will chocolate be worth its weight in gold? Will this
wonderful food of the gods become a luxury only the high priests of finance can
afford, something akin to caviar?
A recent article in the British newspaper, The Independent, recently speculated on
the possibility of such a scenario 20 years from now.
For those of you who follow the global political scene, you
might be thinking that my headline refers to the latest presidential elections
in Brazil, where former Marxist guerrilla Dilma Rousseff is in a runoff against
her closest rival, Jose Serra, a former mayor of Sao Paulo and one of the
county’s most experienced politicians.
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