International Chocolate Salon Welcomes Celebrity Panelists

More news about TasteTV's San Francisco International Chocolate Salon:

The San Francisco International CHOCOLATE SALON, July 14 and 15, 2007, announces a delicious lineup of speakers and members of its Chocolate Tasting Panel, including celebrity chocolate perfume maker Yosh Han. TasteTV also announces that Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur wil be a major sponsor of the Ten Days of Bay Area-wide chocolate events culminating with the two-day Chocolate Salon at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Conference Center.

Panelists for the International Chocolate Salon include celebrity chocolate perfume maker Yosh Han and dozens of others. July 14 & 15 at Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco.

During the week leading up to the International Chocolate Salon, Bloomingdale's San Francisco will present daily chocolate recipe demonstrations in its kitchen by chocolatiers XOX Truffles, Coco Delice, Cosmic Chocolates, and Coco-luxe Confections, as well as by chefs Eddie Blyden, Ryan Scott of Myth Cafe, and Murielle Roux of Absinthe Brasserie. In addition, Vermeer will be sponsoring "Chocolate Specials" on dishes, drinks, and desserts at local restaurants, bars and clubs.

Salon sponsor Vermeer produces the only chocolate liqueur made with real Dutch chocolate, and must be considered a leader in the pursuit of pure indulgence. Maurice Kanbar, the man behind the renowned SKYY vodka brand, took 4 years to source the chocolate to accompany his vision. When he eventually came across a creamery making the finest real Dutch chocolate in the Netherlands, Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur was born.

The San Francisco International CHOCOLATE SALON takes place on Bastille Day Weekend, July 14 and 15, 2007 at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco. Chocolate aficionados, fanatics, buyers and journalists will experience the finest in artisan, gourmet & premium chocolate in one of the world's great culinary metropolitan areas.

International Chocolate Salon participants include NEWTREE Gourmet Belgian Chocolate, Lillie Belle Farms Artisan Chocolates, Theo Chocolate, San Francisco Chocolate Factory, XOX Truffles, Grand Avenue Chocolates, MarieBelle Fine Treats and Chocolates, DeBrito Chocolate Factory, The TeaRoom Chocolate Truffles, Terra Nostra Organic Chocolate, Gelato Classico, Coco Délice Fine Chocolates, Serendipity Chocolates, L'Artisan du chocolat, Poco Dolce, Cosmic Chocolate, Coco-luxe Confections, Saratoga Chocolates, Charles Chocolates, Rushburn Toffee Company, Couture Chocolates by Ginger Elizabeth, Amano Artisan Chocolate, The Xocholate Bar, Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream Liqueur, Quady Winery, Silkwood Wines, Four Vines Winery, Steele Wines, Sol Rouge Winery, C'est Tres Chic Chocolate Molds, Trader Joe's, Izze Beverage Company, Le Creuset, Swissmar, Putumayo World Music, Chocolate Television and TasteTV.

The Salon will also include a Chocolate Awards Tasting Panel, speakers, and demonstrations, and donates a portion of proceeds to local non-profits. Panelists and speakers include Yosh Han, Rob Valencia, Seneca Klassen , GraceAnne Walden, Emily Stone, Pam Elder, Leslie Harlib, Joan Steuer, Karletta Moniz, Herschell Taghap, Carolyn Byrnes, A.K. Crump, and Jose-Gaspar Vibal.

The San Francisco International CHOCOLATE SALON is July 14 & 15, 2007, Fort Mason Conference Center, San Francisco. Tickets $20 for adults, $10 for children 6-12, under 6 free. Saturday July 14th, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m, Sunday July 15th, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. For Advance Ticket purchases, Salon information, or for the Menu of events and specials for the Bay Area Ten Days of Chocolate, go to http://www.SFChocolateSalon.com.

Salon sponsor TasteTV is the leading New Media food, wine and lifestyle network, covering delicious topics ranging from restaurants, food, and wine to chocolate, cooking, fashion, and style. Its videos can be seen online at http://www.TasteTV.com, ChocolateTelevision.com, BlogCritics.org, on TiVO, Comcast On Demand, and on over 80 television stations nationwide.

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USA TODAY mention of TasteTV and TiVO

Today there is a brief but useful mention of TasteTV in the USAToday daily newspaper, in relation to its analysis of the TiVO service. It's very cool to be in a national newspaper:

You can stream music and photos and upload home movies to your TV, too. TiVo also has Web video content from CNet, iVillage, TasteTV and others that can be recorded and viewed on your TV (free with subscriptions). "This is the first of the set-top boxes to allow Internet content to show up on your TV like that," McQuivey says.

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TasteTV Toasts Chef Melissa of 2 for 10

TasteTV is on a bit of a roll

We just want to take a moment to congratulate Chef Melissa of "2 for 10" on her recent success.

Chef Mel decided to promote her TasteTV affiliation by issuing a press release about her program being part of the TasteTV TiVO Launch, and then her fortune took off.

1. First, she was featured on YouTube's front page,
2. Next, she was the featured topic of a newspaper article
3. Then, she became a favorite 'celebrity chef' on mySpace!
4. And below, as she is featured on the tv news in Philadelphia doing her thing
   

All within a three week period. How's that for New Media?

We hope to see more great news from her, and of course are happy to have her be a part of TasteTV when it goes national this summer with a weekly 30 minutes television program to local stations nationwide in over 70 cities.

This blog from the contributors, producers and correspondents at TasteTV at TasteTV.com. technorati tags:TasteTV, restaurants, video, content, food, Chocolate, wine, recipes, cooking, Restaurant Reviews, Chef, ITV, fashion, seafood

A Source for Gilmore Girls Chocolate Quotes

Gilmore Girls is ending this season, but Cocoajava has immortalized some of their best quotes about Chocolate. Good to know that the CW's television writers have kept in touch with the simple pleasures in life:

1.04 - The Deer Hunters

MRS. KIM: What’s that? [points at Snickers]
RORY: Oh, that’s mine.
MRS. KIM: That is chocolate covered death.
RORY: With a creamy caramel surprise.

1.07 - Kiss And Tell

[Inside Doose's Market]

CASHIER: Oh, you girls having another movie night?
LORELAI: Yeah...It's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
CASHIER: Oh, that's nice. Isn't that the one with Gene Hackman?
DEAN: Uh, Gene Wilder.
LORELAI: You're a Wonka fan?
DEAN: Yeah.

[Later…]

RORY: Got it!
LORELAI: Score! You know, on the one hand I'm glad it was in but on the other hand what kind of world do we live in where no one has rented Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?
RORY: Well we rented it.

1.10 - Forgiveness and Stuff

[Taylor and carolers enter Luke's diner]

LUKE: Whoa, what’s going on?
TAYLOR: Well we were caroling around town and we got a bit chilly and we thought maybe we could trade you a song for some hot chocolate.
LUKE: You want free hot chocolate?
TAYLOR: No no, we’ll sing for it, any tune you like.
LUKE: And then I give you free hot chocolate.
TAYLOR: Yes.
LUKE: Tell you want, you can have your hot chocolate, and pay for it, then go next door and sing for the marshmallows.

1.12 - Double Date

SOOKIE: [giggling] It was so funny. Oh God! Do you remember?
LORELAI: I remember.
SOOKIE: What was Rory, eight?
LORELAI: I believe she was.
SOOKIE: Oh god, that mud pie fiasco haunted me for a year! I mean, hers looked just like mine. Of course I used you know, homemade chocolate cookies, bittersweet ganache and she used well, mud. You know, but they did look damn similar.

For more, go to Cocoajava

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Chef Ramsay Rants Ravingly about Rubbish and Ronald McDonald

Alliteration is a beautiful thing. Actually, this article says the Chef Ramsay rants about burgers, but since the word "burgers" doesn't begin with the letter "R," we took creative license with this blogpost's title. On the other hand, one person's "Rubbish" is another person's "Crap," and Ramsay does use that word in his opinion below:

A rival's praise for the Big Mac raises chef Gordon Ramsay to boiling point.

The brash and confrontational Gordon Ramsay is as well known for his bad temper and four-letter outbursts as for his unquestionable culinary flair.

Now the Glasgow-born chef has picked a fresh target for his rage - the Big Mac. In a rare interview, he also offered a tantalising insight into the drive and ferocious temper that have propelled him from chopping vegetables in pub kitchens to a multimillion-dollar international empire.

But a few scores need to be settled.

Ramsay-watchers will not be surprised to learn that there's a history behind his latest outburst. In his attack on junk food, he rekindles his war with mentor-turned-nemesis Marco Pierre White.

White has just horrified the world of haute cuisine by claiming that the secret of his success was the Knorr chicken-stock cube. But it was his comments about the fast-food chain McDonald's that really enraged his fiery former pupil.

"From a chef's point of view, Marco is talking absolute utter crap," Ramsay says in the kitchen of his eponymous west London restaurant.
To read more in the New Zealand Herald, go here

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Marines Give "Iron Chef" Marching Orders

What can we say? An army fights on its stomach, or the old saying goes something like that. Anyway, this Food Network star is more like an Iron Chef than any out there...

WASHINGTON – When Chef Robert Irvine discovered his "mission" was to feed 850 Marines after they'd completed 30 days of desert warfare training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., his reaction was what one might expect.

"Shock and, gasp, horror," Irvine, host of Food Network's "Dinner Impossible," and a former chief petty officer cook in the British Royal Navy, said.

Part of the shock came from the fact that Irvine, who also spent 10 years cooking for the royal family, didn't really realize where he was or why he was there.

"The reason I don't know is because they don't tell me anything. The premise of this show is so secretive," he said. "I didn't even know what the challenge was until I literally met the master gunnery sergeant and then he actually gave me the mission, which was to cook the warrior dinner for 850 Marines."

Irvine accepted the challenge, which gave him seven hours to prepare a meal for the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, which was preparing to deploy to the Middle East. He was provided a field kitchen with an oven he was told had the power of a jet fighter's engine. He quickly discovered that Marines have a sense of humor.

"Let me tell you this, if any Marine or air service person is flying a jet with that on it, they're not going very far," Irvine said. "It took me 45 minutes to saute an onion!"

The meal he prepared required 104 pounds of onions.
To read more, go here

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The World's Coolest Breadbox Design

The TasteTV team asks whether anything stylish in the kitchen really has to be smaller than a bread box? Answer: Not when it IS a bread box, especially the Eva Solo breadbox bin, made of folded stainless steel with a plastic cover. According to the firm, it is the "optimum" place to store bread... as in 'pane,' 'pain,' and 'panino,' not "money." Of course, if you have enough money, you could buy these as gifts for all of your friends.

And just in case it seems like we missed there other sexy products, check out these:

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