Discovering the NW Chocolate Festival

Seattle is very fortunate to be home to one of the premier chocolate festivals in the world. The Northwest Chocolate Festival offers the Pacific Northwest's devoted foodies and chocolate lovers a chance to connect with renowned chocolate experts from around the world who flock here for a weekend filled with chocolate.This year's festival runs from October 3-5 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center. The festival is chock full of chocolate education, tasting and demonstrations from craft chocolate makers, renowned chefs and chocophiles.There are so many educational and tasting experiences this year that it's hard to know where to start. Stay tuned to this blog every day this week as I make workshop recommendations.I'll start today with recommendations for the Culinary track. There are some amazing chefs and chocolatiers scheduled to make chocolate demonstrations. Both Saturday & Sunday offer a great lineup, but if I had to choose one day for the Culinary track, I'd choose Sunday. Why Sunday? Award-winning chefs Alice Medrich and Maricel Presilla both present. That's reason enough!While all of the presenters have something to offer, this is a list of ones I wouldn't miss.Saturday11am - Autumn Martin, Hot Cakes: "True caramel sauce"12pm - Julian Rose, Moonstruck Chocolate: "Elegant homemade truffles"12pm - Michael Recchiuti, Recchiuti Chocolate: TBD, Pro Series1pm - Jeff Shepherd, LillieBelle Farms: "Blue Cheese Truffles steal the show & the DO NOT EAT THIS BAR"2pm - Alice Medrich, award-winning chef: "Let's make a chocolate almond tweed torte"Sunday12pm - Alice Medrich, award-winning chef: "Chocolate truffles in a chocolate pretzel basket"1pm - Julian Rose, Moonstruck Chocolate: "Elegant homemade truffles"2pm - Maricel Presilla, James Beard award-winning chef & cacao expert: "Single chile chocolate Mole sauce w/Tamales"2pm - Michael Recchiuti, Recchiuti Chocolate: TBD, Pro Series3pm - Bill Fredericks, The Chocolate Man: "Polycarbonate truffle molding, pro technique"