Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker and TuttiFoodie.com Announce Winners of Third Annual Chocolate Adventure Contest

HERSHEY, Pa., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Two talented home cooks were awarded the Grand Prize of $10,000, each, in the third annual Chocolate Adventure Contest® sponsored by Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker and TuttiFoodie.com.  As part of the contest, daring cooks—amateur or professional—were invited to develop original and creative recipes combining Scharffen Berger chocolate products with one or more of 16 enticing "adventure ingredients." New York's Karin Lazarus and Edwina Gadsby from Great Falls, Montana out-cooked 15 other finalists with their imaginative and delicious uses of Scharffen Berger chocolate and the adventure ingredients.  Judged in two categories, sweet and savory, Lazarus' Chocolate-Filled Pandan Dumplings and Gadsby's Smoky Cocoa-Dusted Pommes Frites with Peanut-Cumin Dipping Sauce came out as the winners.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090805/NY57225LOGO )

Karin Lazarus paired adventure ingredients, pandan leaves and rice flour, with Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet chocolate baking chunks for a delicious dessert that infuses a truffle-like treat with Asian influences. Edwina Gadsby chose to work with raw honey, peanut butter, cumin, paprika, smoked sea salt and Scharffen Berger unsweetened cocoa powder to give a sophisticated makeover to one of America's favorite snacks: French fries and ketchup.

"This contest is all about being adventurous and exploring flavor combinations that might not always occur to people in an everyday setting," said Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef America participant and award-winning chef Elizabeth Falkner, who served as a judge for the contest.  Joining her to taste the finalist recipes were other epicurean experts, including Scharffen Berger co-founder John Scharffenberger; chocolate pastry chef and award-winning author Alice Medrich; award-winning food blogger, photographer and art director Matt Armendariz of MattBites.com; and TuttiFoodie founder Lisa Schiffman.  The adventurous chocolate creations were judged on creativity, spirit of adventure, ease of preparation, appearance and flavor.

"Scharffen Berger was founded on the principle of sourcing the world's best cacao to create a unique blend of chocolate that offers a different taste and experience with each bite," said John Scharffenberger.  "This contest encourages food enthusiasts to explore endless flavor possibilities by combining chocolate with exotic ingredients. This year, the 'adventure ingredients' were largely from the regions where Scharffen Berger's cacao is sourced."  

Each year a new and comprehensive list of adventure ingredients is carefully selected to complement the unique bean blends in Scharffen Berger chocolate. This year's adventure ingredients were the following:

• Fresh mint (any variety)
• Fresh or crystallized ginger
• Pandan leaf
• Banana leaf
• Sumac
• Raw honey
• Cacao nibs
• Fresh or whole dried chili pepper
• Malbec
• Peanut butter
• Black-eyed peas
• Rice flour
• Papaya
• Cumin
• Paprika (any variety)
• Smoked sea salt

The Chocolate Adventure Contest's two runners up were Mary Shivers of Oklahoma for her Tropical Pandan Coconut Ice Cream with Raspberries and Thai Noir Sauce and Carolyn Kumpe of California with her Muscovy Duck Mesopotamia Moderne. They are each receiving a custom selection of Scharffen Berger chocolate, as well as signed copies of The Essence of Chocolate, the 2007 James Beard award-winning cookbook by co-founders John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg; Elizabeth Falkner's Demolition Desserts and Bittersweet, by Alice Medrich.  

For more information about the 2009 Chocolate Adventure Contest, and to see the winning recipes along with video of the judging and of chef Elizabeth Falkner demonstrating the sweet and savory winners, visit www.ChocolateAdventureContest.com.  

About Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker was established in 1997 in San Francisco, California, and first earned national recognition for its artisan-quality chocolate in 1998.  Producing bean to bar premium chocolates, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is one of the world's finest chocolate makers.  All Scharffen Berger chocolate is composed of proprietary bean blends from up to nine different cacao-growing regions throughout the world.  Scharffen Berger chocolate has received recognition throughout the U.S. for its high quality chocolate. Scharffen Berger products are sold by retailers nationwide, at Scharffen Berger chocolate's own retail location in San Francisco and through its website www.scharffenberger.com.  Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker is part of the Artisan Confections Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Hershey Company.  For more information please visit www.ScharffenBerger.com.

About TuttiFoodie

TuttiFoodie is the guide for adventurous food and drink lovers nationwide who care about a sustainable world.  Each week, the site emails a brief, informative and witty tribute to an off-the-beaten-path food, drink, food-related book or blog, or culinary travel adventure.  TuttiFoodie has been featured on NPR's Splendid Table, on popular foodie sites such as epicurious.com, chow.com, yumsugar.com and elsewhere.  The blogosphere tipped its hat to the site early on, with one San Francisco food blogger naming TuttiFoodie, "the Daily Candy of food."  For more information please visit www.TuttiFoodie.com.

SOURCE Scharffen Berger