Competing chefs in the 2014 Big Island Chocolate Festival have some big names to impress with their sweet and savory offerings this year. Headlining the Chocolate Festival this year is “Mr. Chocolate” Jacques Torres, Food Network celebrity from New York City, plus chef Donald Wressell of Guittard, chef Vincent Bourdin of Valrhona USA, and chef Stanton Ho for Amoretti.
These well respected chefs will be offering their talents in a variety of ways beyond choosing the winners of the coveted “Best Savory” “Best Sweet” “Best Bean to Bar” and “Best BonBon”. In 2012, Jacques Torres provided a tasting of his famous bonbons. In 2013, Donald Wressell created an amazing four foot chocolate sculpture, while Stanton Ho held chocolate demonstrations and judged the Student Culinary Competition. We will be working with these chefs, along with local cacao experts, over the next few months to see how they would like to share their talents with our guests and students at our seminars and demonstrations. Stay tuned for details.
Mahalo to Amoretti, Guittard and Valrhona for sponsoring these chefs and allowing our island chefs and students an opportunity to learn from them.