EVENT REPORT
A GROWING ROLE FOR REGIONAL CHOCOLATE
began my career in chocolate over twenty- five years ago and have been an advocate for craft (aka specialty) chocolate and cocoa farmers since the bean-to-bar movement began. My first job in chocolate was selling French (Cluizel) and Italian (Domori) chocolates and confections to high-end restaurants, hotels, and event kitchens in the New York City metro area; then, as a journalist, critic, and competition judge, and as a consultant. My Chocolate Life has enabled me to visit
Clay Gordon, Creator and Moderator of The Chocolate Life, reports from the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival in Rushville, Indiana, where a hyper-local, nonprofit-driven model is demonstrating why regional chocolate festivals deserve greater industry attention.
FESTIVALS I
cocoa farms throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and West Africa, chocolate factories from the very smallest to the world’s largest, be invited to global launch events. I was also given the opportunity to talk with chocolate lovers of all flavors at festivals in the chocolate capitals of the world: Amsterdam, Brussels, Lima, Paris, Perugia, New York and Seattle, São Paulo and Ilhéus, and Tokyo. And now, Rushville, Indiana. Wait. What? Rushville? Indiana? A chocolate
capital of the world? How (and why) can that possibly be? But, perhaps more importantly: Why NOT,
Rushville? For every festival brand with international
reach and recognition, such as the Salon du Chocolat franchise, there are dozens of hyper- local and regional chocolate festivals that cater to specific audiences, benefiting their local communities and constituent maker communities in ways that international festivals do not and cannot. Here in the US, what makes The Midwest Craft
Chocolate Festival (MCCF) unusual is that it’s situated squarely in the middle of farming country. Because most of the attendees, volunteers, and organizing committee members are either
38 • KENNEDY’S CONFECTION • DECEMBER/JANUARY 2025/26
IMAGES: Nettie Atkisson
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