Chocolate Adventure Contest

CHOCOLATE ADVENTURE CONTEST SEEKS DARING RECIPES AND OFFERS GRAND PRIZES OF $10,000


Let your adventurous side run wild as Scharffen Berger� chocolate and TuttiFoodie present the third annual Chocolate Adventure Contest�. As part of the contest, daring cooks, amateur or professional, are invited to develop original and creative recipes combining Scharffen Berger chocolate with one or more of 16 enticing "adventure ingredients."

Judged in two categories, sweet and savory, recipes can be prepared for any course: appetizer, entr�e, dessert, or drink. The contest starts accepting entries until midnight on January 3, 2010.

All recipes will be judged by epicurean luminaries. The chocolate creations will be judged on creativity, spirit of adventure, taste, ease of preparation, and - for the finalists - appearance.

This year's adventure ingredients are the following:

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

"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, many of which grow in the regions where the brand's cacao is sourced."

Two winners (one each for sweet and savory categories) will have the opportunity to win a grand prize of $10,000 and a custom selection of Scharffen Berger chocolate. Each runner up will receive 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 last year's winning recipes, 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 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 lovers who care about a sustainable world. week, the site emails a brief, informative and witty tribute to an exotic or off-the-beaten-path food, drink, food-related book or blog, or culinary travel adventure. Launched in October of 2006, TuttiFoodie has been featured on popular foodie sites such as epicurious.com, chow.com, yumsugar 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.