Kansas City Chocolate Festival

The past three month in Kansas City have been packed with numerous outings and festival that in one way or another center around food. Included in this foodie frenzy is the Scottish festival, Irish festival, Plaza Arts Festival, Waldocrawldo Pub Crawl, Greek festival and Renaissance Festival. This past weekend (Oct. 11) was yet another foodie fest, the 4th Annual Kansas City Chocolate festival. This one day gathering of chocolate lovers included the likes of Christopher Elbow and his stunning chocolates, Three Women and an Oven, the Sweet Guy and numerous other local and national chocolate related companies. Perhaps it is because last year’s Chocolate Festival was one of the first things we did after moving to Kansas City, but my memories of the event far exceeded the realities of the day. While it is difficult to call anything that includes the likes of Christopher Elbow bad, this year’s festival was a disappointment on nearly every level. I am not usually a complainer and tend to celebrate even the smallest efforts, but the event left me continually wondering, “what happened?” What happened to the large selection of vendors, to last year’s beautiful and elaborate entries in the chocolate design contest? What happened to the advertised children’s activities and chocolate/cooking demonstrations? While I could see where some of these were supposed to be, none took place during our visit. Although our children were content with the marshmallow and pretzel run through the chocolate fountain, my wife and I were left disappointed and wondering what the $8 entry fee was for.

Chocolate is one of life’s truly great pleasures; it boosts the spirit, warms the soul, tastes great and is good for you. Chocolate is rich in history, folklore and mystery, it has been used religious practices, for currency, for savory dishes and the best desserts. Chocolate impacts all the senses, from its rich color, to its cool touch; from the sound of its “snap,” to that lush, warm, soul stirring taste. With all of chocolate’s greatness combined with America’s newly educated palette and passionate interest in chocolate, and with this city’s talented chocolatiers, The Kansas City Chocolate Festival has the potential to be a truly significant event in the foodies culinary calendar. Well, there is always next year – I hope.