THE Annual Davao Chocolate Festival held last Sept 25-27 at the Annex Event Center of SM City Davao proved very successful. The Chocolate Festival is organized by (CIDAMI) or the Cacao Industry Development Association of Mindanao Inc.
The Chocolate Market displayed a variety of the best chocolates in Davao, this year the Chocolate Festival was participated by Davao Exhibitors like Human Nature, Lara Mia, Giardino, Aromacology, Gatchocolatto by Saging Republik, The Chocolate Bean, Coco Dolce, Tsokolate de San Isidro, Malagos Chocolates, Cacao de Davao, IChef, Valente Tsokolate , Purato, Fedco, and Nutrarich Philippines.
SM City Davao's Annex center was transformed into a chocolate-lovers’ paradise with a chocolate house on display, a sure hit to every Davaoeño. Crowd started to pile as everyone loves to take their pictures on the display as well as enjoy chomping the sweet treats available at the Chocolate Market. This year’s Chocolate Festival promised both chocoholics and foodies an overload of decadent treats and pastries from participating stores.
The Davao Chocolate Festival is designed to bring chocolate lovers and sustainable Davao chocolate producers together in one venue. The chocolate festival was designed to show people that better chocolate can only come from good cocoa (fine or flavor cocoa, and sustainable beans).
The Ceremonial Ribbon Cutting and the Giant Chocolate Cake Slicing was witnessed by SM shoppers, as well as distinguished VIP’s, which include: Cacao Industry Development Association of Mindanao Executive Director Mr. Val Turtur, AVP for Operations Mindanao Debby Go, SM Supermalls AVP for Marketing Mindanao Russel Alaba, SM City Davao Mall Manager Lynette Lopez, SM City Davao Asst. Mall Manager Engr. Nick Santos.
The 3 day event also featured Mock tail/Cocktail Challenge, Dessert preparation, Celebrity Talk and Cake-Off Challenge. Also present in the event were the famous husband and wife Chef’s Chef’s Rolly Laudico and Chocolatier Jackie Laudico and Chef Jackie Ang Po. While Chef Lau of ABS-CBN’s Master Chef amused his audience with his delectable “Chicken Chocodobo”, a delightful, sophisticated dish and very sinful too, that elevated the usual adobo dish into a whole new level.
Chef Jackie judged the winners for the Chocolate Cake-Off Challenge with Master Baker/Chocolatier Mr. Peter De Cauwer, they carefully chose the winner of the 3 finalist who made it from the 25 cake entries, and each gave their creative inputs that made the participants feel grateful.
The Golden Potluck Jackpot was won by Andrew Alba who took home the Chocolate filled Pot, he was able to guess the number of golden coins, (three thousand one hundred fifty) inside the pot to win the Golden ticket and everything inside.
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