Choctoberfest at Fox & Obel

CHOCTOBERFEST
Saturday, October 22nd, 10 am– 4 pm FREE

Taste the sweeter side of Fox & Obel.

Take a dip in our chocolate fountain (with strawberries, of course), sip chocolate beer (if you're 21 or over), and sample chocolate goodies galore throughout the store.

There will be free classes throughout the day taught by chocolate experts. Come for ideas you can use to create your very own chocolate coated holiday season.

10 am Comparative Tasting, Chocolates of Different Origins
with Allyson Brown

11 am Chocolate 101: How to Taste Chocolate with Beth Bitzegaio

12:15 pm Tempering Tips to Use at Home for Professional Results
with Brian McElrath

1:30 pm Sipping Chocolates: the Hot New Trend with Johan De Greef

2:45 pm Make the World's Best Brownie & Flourless Chocolate Torte
with Pamela Fiztpatrick


All Choctoberfest events and tastings are free - no reservations necessary.

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This seems like a pretty sweet deal to me, and I plan on going. I've got a card somewhere I can't locate right now, promising free samples of at least 10 different chocolatiers, including my preferred Christopher Norman.

Cheers,

Aaron

I have to say that I was very impressed with Fox & Obel's Choctoberfest -- quite the event!

Overall, there were more than 10 chocoate makers, each offering a great variety of flavors. There were some very interesting (and good) toffees from Terry's Toffee, including lemon, white chocolate & macadamia nut and also peanut butter and chocolate. Of the offerings from Vosges, I particularly enjoyed the white chocolate-olive oil (topped w/ dried olive) truffle. I also loved the chai-spiced dark chocolate truffle from B.T. McElrath Chocolatier. My favorite chocolate of all though was a choclate w/ grapefruit center (not too tart and not too sweet) which was from Christopher Norman Chocolates.

Fox & Obel prepared a lamb loin rare with a cocoa-mole rub which was fantastic -- luckily, they were handing out the recipe for the rub. I can't wait to try it out on friends. There was also a tasty salmon with a chocolate barbecue sauce. There was parmesan cheese that you dipped into a chocolate/balsamic fondue; chocolate stout, ports, hot chocolates, and on and on. Of course, there was also the obligatory chocolate fountain (unfortunately milk and not dark) with strawberries, bananas and pears.

At one point I went into chocolate overload and needed to purchase a croissant . . . I then resumed my chocolate trek.

[Note: I've moved this from Events to Shopping and Cooking]

BR wrote:My favorite chocolate of all though was a choclate w/ grapefruit center (not too tart and not too sweet) which was from Christopher Norman Chocolates.

Where was the Christopher Norman stand? I looked all over for this stand--the one I most anticipated--and even asked someone. We were there a little later, and I saw but missed the lamb loin and the parmesan. Drat. It was a pretty nice collection of stuff. I don't have a real frame of reference for Saturday visits, but the place was packed, and it wasn't real easy to be leisurely with two little kids.

Unfortunately the one "class" that we got to sit in on--on drinking chocolate--the expert they had lined up bailed out and the replacement was terrible. I felt bad for her, as she really was not put in a good position, but really ended up reading random notes culled from some books on chocolate.

Oddly, however, after tiring of the talking and reverting to the tasting, my near-four-year old son gave me a puzzled look and said, "But I want to go back to the class." He was fascinated to learn, among other things, that chocolate starts off as something that grows.

Did you go to any of the classes BR?

I thought that the comparitive tasting and chocolates of different origins sounded very interesting, but I was limited in time and greatly underestimated the number of samples that would be offered. That's too bad about the chocolate sipping class b/c it looks like the store made a great effort to make this "fest" spectacular -- I think they did a great job.

The Christopher Norman stand was near the back, just past the cheeses and right in front of the wine. The woman offering the Christopher Norman chocolates was a little over-talkative and went on and on in a semi-affected tone about Christopher Norman and at one point, I kind of turned around and laughed, thinking that with the crowds descending upon the stand, she was going to lose her voice in only a matter of minutes.

Fox & Obel was very crowded -- much more so than the usual Saturday I think. But I'm happy it drew people in there. F&O is my favorite stop for dinner party prep because of their high quality meat/seafood/cheese collection and their willingness to accomodate special orders (venison, fresh turkeys, elk, etc.). I don't think that it's necessarily up to par with Dean & DeLuca, but it's damn good!