Now for the biggest deal - we are making a movie! I have been thinking for a while that it is a travesty that the Food Network - on which I rely so much for so much food information - seems so uninformed about fine chocolate. It seems as though they feel they are providing us with some service by unleashing some percentage value of baking chocolate on a show. I thought they should know more.
How does one tell the Food Network that they have it all wrong in my favorite area? I thought that maybe if they just had some concerned citizen write a cleverly-worded email they would see the error of their ways, and then they would produce some beautiful sweeping documentary about fine chocolate - one that would dispel all the myths of chocolate and receive such heavy rotation that you would think it supplanted reruns of Seinfeld as the most played show in history.
Something about that feels unlikely.
So I thought about it more, and I talked about it with a film-making friend of mine. He got all excited about the idea of doing some epic film about the true story of why chocolate is "the food of the gods." He started throwing around ideas of travel to the sources, and feature-length. It had me thinking a lot.
The next day was a Society meeting, and I spoke to Scott about it. Scott works at a local news station as an editor primarily for a local investigative reporter, and he has a lot of equipment, training, and skill. He also has a camera and buckets of excitement. I mentioned to him that I wanted to make a documentary, and he started sharing plans he has been formulating for the last year or so.
Meetings began quickly, and we have already started shooting. Our goal is to educate about the history, makings, and experience of chocolate. We want to celebrate the best, and leave the "lesser" chocolate out - we will keep our hands clean. Investigating claims of foul play will have to wait for the next film...
We plan to interview all the major players we can get our hands on - and the more eloquent among the enthusiasts. We hope to go to the Academy of Chocolate awards banquet this summer to capture the best of the best producers all in one spot. We want to go to Venezuela and/or Ecuador to show the origins of some of the best beans that incidentally have some interesting stories.
We plan on hiring planes locally to get some high-end shots to spice up the film. We have some good networked connections to fantastic camera people. We have enthusiastic and skilled people willing to put their own time into the project - and me. I am enthusiastic, but my skills pretty well end at being a network hub. But that I am good at.
The hope is we can complete shooting this year, and wrap up editing early enough next year to start applying for festivals by March. We want to apply for all the major festivals starting with Cannes. If we can get in, we will educate people about chocolate all over the world!
This - combined with the newsletter - could be a huge force in introducing so many new people to the wonderful world of fine chocolate. Finding funding for this could end up being the most difficult adventure, but I imagine it will be well worth it in the end!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Newsletter
Jesse is my neighbor and among the first members of the Chocolate Society. I had forgotten this, but he and his wife were in my living room when I made one of my first pronouncements that I would be starting a Chocolate Society. The funny part is that they hadn't had the "A-ha!" moment about fine chocolate yet, and they thought they had front-row seats to the musings of a slightly mad man.
Anyway, fast-forward about a year, and Jesse, a PhD. candidate in the field of bio-engineering, is a stalwart. I had briefly entertained thoughts of starting a newsletter, but never seriously, when Jesse suddenly threw out the idea of putting together a newsletter from the Chocolate Society. This came right about the time when Art Pollard of Amano let us take a tour of his facility in Orem.
Upon talking with another of the founders of the Chocolate Society, we starting thinking big about the effect a small publication could have on the local scene. We figure that there are lots of Utahns that are only an experience away from being changed forever. And as they discover the products that have changed me, picking up an unassuming little publication next to their chocolate could be the catalyst that distills the experience to their core.
The newsletter will hopefully become a quarterly publication. It will have recipes, science-y information about chocolate, information about the processes that make the products we love, and interviews with people who are making a difference in the local chocolate scene. We are also going to include a section about local places that sell chocolate that meets the snob standard, local chocolate events, and local restaurants that use fine chocolate in ways we deem "worthy."
As neither Jesse nor I stand to make any money from the newsletter, or chocolate in general, and I have a rather broken editing filter (those who come to the meetings know I love to point out whatever wrongness I perceive in chocolate), we won't be selling an ad space. Call it journalistic integrity, but I can't be censored very easily.
Anyway, electronic copies of each issue will go out to the Chocolate Society when they are completed. We hope to try to get retailers of fine chocolate to carry it to sell for a buck or so to their chocolate customers to try and raise awareness of fine chocolate. Also, we want to build some camaraderie among purveyors and advocates of great chocolate. Competition is great, and an educated and eager consumer-base is better. Chocolate doesn't sell itself. I had to be taught why I was tasting a $12 bar, but once I got it, I got bit hard.
Anyway - expect the first copy soon!
Anyway, fast-forward about a year, and Jesse, a PhD. candidate in the field of bio-engineering, is a stalwart. I had briefly entertained thoughts of starting a newsletter, but never seriously, when Jesse suddenly threw out the idea of putting together a newsletter from the Chocolate Society. This came right about the time when Art Pollard of Amano let us take a tour of his facility in Orem.
Upon talking with another of the founders of the Chocolate Society, we starting thinking big about the effect a small publication could have on the local scene. We figure that there are lots of Utahns that are only an experience away from being changed forever. And as they discover the products that have changed me, picking up an unassuming little publication next to their chocolate could be the catalyst that distills the experience to their core.
The newsletter will hopefully become a quarterly publication. It will have recipes, science-y information about chocolate, information about the processes that make the products we love, and interviews with people who are making a difference in the local chocolate scene. We are also going to include a section about local places that sell chocolate that meets the snob standard, local chocolate events, and local restaurants that use fine chocolate in ways we deem "worthy."
As neither Jesse nor I stand to make any money from the newsletter, or chocolate in general, and I have a rather broken editing filter (those who come to the meetings know I love to point out whatever wrongness I perceive in chocolate), we won't be selling an ad space. Call it journalistic integrity, but I can't be censored very easily.
Anyway, electronic copies of each issue will go out to the Chocolate Society when they are completed. We hope to try to get retailers of fine chocolate to carry it to sell for a buck or so to their chocolate customers to try and raise awareness of fine chocolate. Also, we want to build some camaraderie among purveyors and advocates of great chocolate. Competition is great, and an educated and eager consumer-base is better. Chocolate doesn't sell itself. I had to be taught why I was tasting a $12 bar, but once I got it, I got bit hard.
Anyway - expect the first copy soon!
Catch Up
I decided a while ago that I needed to write more on here, but I didn't know where to start. So, naturally, I procrastinated. Well, I am making up for it now.
The Chocolate Society is really going great. In the beginning, I wanted a group of fellow chocophiles with whom I could join in geeking out about arcane elements of my chocolate passion (and theirs). I harbored some pipe dreams about being part of something special that would one day garner national or international attention in the still rather small chocolate community, but having fellow nerds would be enough.
Well, nerds we are. And I am loving it! Each meeting is so much fun, and I look forward to seeing everybody. All the chocolate keeps me up rather later than I anticipate each time - though one might think I would catch on at some point. I come home completely wired and ebullient, feeling great, but not in the least bit tired.
We have so far hit on topics such as blind-tasting Madagascar bars, examining the difference between Rio Caribe (NE Venezuela) and Lake Maracaibo (NW Venezuela), blind tasting Ecuadorian and Dominican bars, zeroing in on the flavors of Amedei's blends and the constituent origins, the subtlety of Domori (in person that would come across as a joke for those in the know - take my word for it), and the effects of great chocolate in filled confections. To any and all members who may come across this - thank you so much for joining with me in all the craziness!
We have some fun news, but why stop at one post tonight?
The Chocolate Society is really going great. In the beginning, I wanted a group of fellow chocophiles with whom I could join in geeking out about arcane elements of my chocolate passion (and theirs). I harbored some pipe dreams about being part of something special that would one day garner national or international attention in the still rather small chocolate community, but having fellow nerds would be enough.
Well, nerds we are. And I am loving it! Each meeting is so much fun, and I look forward to seeing everybody. All the chocolate keeps me up rather later than I anticipate each time - though one might think I would catch on at some point. I come home completely wired and ebullient, feeling great, but not in the least bit tired.
We have so far hit on topics such as blind-tasting Madagascar bars, examining the difference between Rio Caribe (NE Venezuela) and Lake Maracaibo (NW Venezuela), blind tasting Ecuadorian and Dominican bars, zeroing in on the flavors of Amedei's blends and the constituent origins, the subtlety of Domori (in person that would come across as a joke for those in the know - take my word for it), and the effects of great chocolate in filled confections. To any and all members who may come across this - thank you so much for joining with me in all the craziness!
We have some fun news, but why stop at one post tonight?
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