In the end of November my colleague Irina Fomina and I suddenly realized how bitter our life was and decided to sweeten it a little bit by going to the 2nd Salon of Chocolate that took place in the framework of Food Show at Gostiny Dvor in Moscow. Here is a photo report.

Although Gostiny Dvor is supposed to be a European-level fashionable exhibition ground, at the entrance we were given a chance to feel back in the USSR – the queues to the check-room were equal to those the Soviet comrades stood in to get vodka and sugar.

Finally we checked in our coats, bought tickets (that were surprisingly cheap – only 250 RUB) and entered the Food Show territory. The brochures we were given at the ticket office listed the participants of the 2nd Salon of Chocolate in Moscow: Grand Hotel Europe (Russia), Confael (Russian), A.Korkunov (Russia), Krasny Oktyabr (Russia), Morand (Russia), United confectioners (Russia), Chocolate atelier (Russia), Chocolate Factory (Russia), The Body Shop (Russia), Chocolate World (Russia), Comptoir du Cacao (France), Cote D’Ivoire la Terre du Cacao. Chocolat du Planteur (Côte d’Ivoire), Fazer (Finland), Jean-Paul Hevin (France), Lindtt (Switzerland), Ruta (Lithuania), Shocostyle (Russia), Valrhona (France).

As before going to Salon we hoped to eat as much chocolate as possible, we started walking from one stand to another looking at sweets and trying to taste something.

At some stands we also found queues: too many people wanted the same as we did. The first thing we managed to taste was truffles by Morand made straight in front of the visitors` eyes.

We could watch the whole process of truffles making while standing in the queue: first making balls from square pieces of chocolate, then sinking them into liquid chocolate, and then – powdering them with cocoa. Such a yummy sight!

Here and there we stumbled upon impressive chocolate sculptures and figures. A big chocolate brick by Confael, sculptures featuring Russian well-known “sweet” characters by United Confectioners (key factories – Moscow Confectionary Factory “Krasny Oktyabr”, Confectionary Concern “Babaevsky” and “Rot Front”), white chocolate OK! Sculpture, and other sculptures.

Soon we understood that it was possible to eat more chocolate by attending the degustation stands several times instead of going there just once and started bringing the idea to life with Lindtt. The stand offered three types of chocolate candies to taste: bitter chocolate, milk and white chocolate.

It is hard to remember how many times we stood in queues to get the candies and how many candies we took per time, but it seemed the stand staff still did not recognize us. We used the same handy trick with Cote D`or and both of us had at least two handfuls of candies in the end.

Chocolate dresses fashion show was supposed to become the main event of Salon. It was expected to start at 6pm but actually started only at 7pm. In order not to let the guests get bored, some French cook entertained the guests with cooking some French dessert. When the dessert was finished and the cook offered to taste it, the guests rushed to get a piece of it. We were amongst the first of course and finally managed to taste it too. It tasted nothing special to tell the truth. My mother cooks better desserts, IMHO.

The chocolate dresses were also a bit disappointing: they only had chocolate elements but were not fully made of chocolate as we expected, although the whole show was bright and expressive.

Satisfied and happy, we left Salon at around 8pm. I am not sure about my colleague Irina, but I personally now cannot even look at chocolate, not to mention eating it.

P.S.

Body-art presented by SIM magazine

We realized that it was not a chocolate rabbit only when tried to bite a bit

We also tried chocolate massage by SPA Palestra