D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2008
Death by Chocolate
Chocolatiers compete for pride and prizes at Silver City's 9th annual Chocolate Fantasia — and to support the arts.
Sue Schiowitz is laboring to keep a sweet, dark secret.
"Oh, Regina would kill me if I leaked it! I can't even tell you the name, really, because that would give it away," Schiowitz says with a good-natured laugh. "But I can tell you that it's going to be totally different from last year and that I am very excited about it."
 |
Proud chocolatiers show off their
wares at a previous Chocolate Fantasia. (Photo by Alison Trombly) |
Schiowitz and Regina Vinson teamed up to win first place last February in the Mimbres Region Arts Council's (MRAC) Chocolate Fantasia fundraising event. Their winning entry: Spicy Mexican Love Turtles.
Always the Saturday before Valentine's Day — this year's ninth annual Chocolate Fantasia will be Feb. 9 — the fundraiser employs the creative talents of about three-dozen volunteer "chocolate chefs." Each chocolatier crafts more than 200 identical chocolate treats. These are served up from 30 different downtown Silver City galleries and retail businesses to no more than 400 ticket holders. Many of the chocolatiers return year after year, trying to best their previous attempts and their competitors.
Schiowitz, a former professional cook and currently a retail manager at Morning Star, a clothier and screen-printing company in Silver City, is competing for the fifth time. She took first place once before, several years ago, before teaming up with Vinson last year for their winning entry.
Chocolate Fantasia was proposed to the Mimbres Region Arts Council as a fundraising idea by Zelda McCrossen, a member of the MRAC's board of directors at the time. McCrossen had worked on a similar event in Colorado before moving to Silver City.
If You Go: The Mimbres Region Arts Council's 9th annual Chocolate Fantasia Feb. 9, 12-4 p.m. $20 ticket buys 20 chocolate treats Advance ticket sales only: MRAC office in the Wells Fargo Bank Building, Gila Hike & Bike, Alotta Gelato, Leyba & Ingalls Arts, 1st New Mexico Bank of Silver City (Wal-Mart branch) Bring your own container or purchase one for $2 at the event. A map of the chocolate sites is given out with tickets. For more information, call the MRAC, 538-2505. Proceeds support MRAC programs. |
The event proved to be a successful fundraiser and took off. It runs as smooth as a fine chocolate mousse these days, with an experienced committee, downtown shops and galleries participating as event sites year after year, block captains who help direct the sugar-crazed ticket holders and judges. Adding to the festive atmosphere, local musicians perform at many of the locations.
The competition has become a fun aspect of the event and has risen to a fevered pitch over the years, with repeat winners like Schiowitz duking it out, all in good fun. A panel of "tasting judges" samples a small portion of each confection, rating them according to taste, texture and presentation. The top three winners receive an award at a special reception immediately following the event, this year at Isaac's Bar & Grill on the corner of Bullard and Broadway in downtown Silver City. Awards and recognition also are given to the venues that went out of their way to creatively decorate their sites for the event.
This year's top chocolatier walks away with boasting rights and a $100 cash prize.
"Chocolate Fantasia is really fun to do," Schiowitz says. "And since you're competing, you want your creation to be outstanding — delicious and interesting and unique. The hardest part is trying to find something that you can make 210 pieces of. You know, it has to be really, really good from piece number one to number 210." That's how many identical confections the chocolatiers must produce to serve the ticket holders who come to their site and to submit for judging.
"Ours is always a multi-faceted piece; that's just what we like to do," Schiowitz says. "Our Mexican Love Turtles, for example, had a graham-cracker layer with some spice, and a chocolate fudge-y layer, a caramel layer." She gives a humorous groan at recalling the sweet but back-breaking work on the Spicy Mexican Love Turtle assembly line. "Oh, but they were so good!" she exclaims. "After all that work, even we thought they were good!"
For the truly disciplined — folks who don't eat each and every piece of chocolate as soon as it is handed to them — there are boxes available for purchase ($2) on the day of the event, pretty enough for gift-giving. After all, Valentine's Day is just five days later.
Tickets for the event are $20 for 20 pieces of handmade gourmet chocolate, with the bearers choosing their pieces from among the 30 different sites. That's right — 20 pieces chosen from 30 different options. You'd have to buy two tickets and overlap some to sample each and every entry. A sweet dilemma.
— Donna Clayton Lawder