Treat yourself to the last days of the 2009 West Coast Chocolate Festival
2 Comments
Karen Hamilton
November 5, 2009
UPDATE, 3pm Nov 9, 2009: Congratulations to Lesley Chang for winning the Chocolat Ce Soir ticket giveaway worth $250 at the bottom of this post. This event is now sold out – thanks everyone for your help in spreading the word!
In the beginning of October, Eagranie Yuh of The Well-Tempered Chocolatier mentioned that she was readying for her presentation at a local chocolate festival.
“There’s a chocolate festival in the Lower Mainland?!” exclaimed I, my trigger-happy sweet tooth already wiggling in delight.
“Yes, a three-week festival starting in mid-October…but there hasn’t been a lot of promo [on Twitter and Facebook],” she replied.
I returned home that evening to look it up. Sure enough, an event called the West Coast Chocolate Festival was putting on its 7th appearance in Greater Vancouver after a one year hiatus. At the helm for 2009 is festival director Dawn Donahue, whom I have worked with in the past year to cover the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame Gala, the Culinary Tourism conference, and a number of charity golf events that benefit the BC Hospitality Foundation.
Not just a food fest
On the face, this festival looks like any other food extravaganza: a myriad of events peppered from October 15th through November 10th with a truly sinful theme of chocolate. Chocolate and scotch; chocolate and high tea; chocolate and beer; chocolate with wine; cooking with chocolate… if you can think up an angle for feeding your mind and mouth on chocolate, there was an event geared towards it.
What caught my attention is that this festival is jointly a fundraiser and a mentorship program for youth. Entirely volunteer-run, the West Coast Chocolate Festival is staffed by a team of mentors in event management, who take on interns ranging from high school through university, and put them through the ringer so they can gain real-world experience in organizing a massive, complex event.
This struck a chord with me. Some of my earliest forays into project management involved running events such as SFU’s 2001 Career Days fair and other university outreach events. Having recently been mentored by a terrific project manager through the Project Management Institute and wanting to pay it forward, I contacted Dawn and arranged to be a last-minute volunteer mentor for their social media effort this year (and hopefully for the next one).
Chocolate fun to date
In the process of re-jigging their Twitter and Facebook presences and exchanging emails with the volunteer team on social media tactics, I had the pleasure of attending a number of festival events, all of which I would shell out cash to attend again next year in a heartbeat. Here are my highlights in photo format:
Salon du Chocolat, October 15th
Single Malt Scotch and Chocolate, October 16th
Chocolate High Tea, October 17th
Cooking with Chocolate, October 23rd
Chocolate fun ahead
There are still a few events to enjoy before the West Coast Chocolate Festival winds down next week. Browse through them and grab your tickets while they’re hot.
A Tealicious Chocolate Tasting
Sunday, November 8th, 2-4:30pm
Heritage Tea House | 2224 Clarke St, Port Moody
Tea Master Nancy Prokosh of Tealicious will guide you through this afternoon tea tasting offering a variety of pairings from green tea to black, white chocolate to dark; the event will also include light refreshments and entertainment by emerging local talent. $35 per person.
Charlie’s Chocolate Factory Tours
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
9am, 10am, 11am tours
Charlie’s Chocolate Factory | 3746 Canada Way, Burnaby
See the famous Chocolate River in person and learn about the History of Chocolate and the Owner, Charlie and his Factory. Pre-book your spot online at $5 a person, as no tickets are sold at the door. For groups of 15 to 20, please call Maria at 604-818-1849 or maria@chocolatefestival.ca – a private tour will be booked for your group. (Ages 6 or above.)
Chocolat Ce Soir
Tuesday, November 10th, 5:30-10:30pm
Horizons Restaurant | 100 Centennial Way, Burnaby Mountain
The festival will close with an upscale dinner gala hosted at Horizons Restaurant on Burnaby Mountain. Featuring an exquisite five-course menu designed by Chef John Garrett of Horizons and Maître Chocolatier Wim Tas of ChocolaTas, the dinner will incorporate West Coast cuisine paired with fabulous wines, and of course, chocolate! This signature event is sure to top off a fantastic festival with a top of the mountain experience. $125.00 per person.
Chocolate High Tea
Due to popular demand, Schokolade Café has added extra Saturday chocolate high teas beyond the duration of the West Coast Chocolate Festival. Your tea experience includes a platter of chocolate petite fours, mini chocolate dessert pralines, tea sandwiches, savoury scones and strawberries dipped in chocolate sauce. Accompany it with your choice of Spicy Ancient Aztec drinking chocolate or herbal tea. $25 per person.
November 14 – 11am, 1pm, 3pm seatings
November 21 – 1pm, 3pm seatings
November 28 – 11am, 1pm, 3pm seatings
December 5 – 11am, 1pm, 3pm seatings
December 12 – 1pm, 3pm seatings
December 19 – 11am, 1pm, 3pm seatings
Schokolade Café | 2263 E. Hastings Street, Vancouver
Win 2 tickets to the Chocolat Ce Soir festival closer
No matter whether you’ve been to every festival event or have just heard about this today, we’re giving you a chance to win two tickets to the finale: a luxurious multi-course, chocolate-themed meal at Horizons Restaurant on Tuesday, November 10th.
How to win
We’ll randomly draw the winner of these two tickets–$250 worth of eating, drinking, and chocolate decadence–at noon on Monday, November 9, 2009.
You don’t have to do much to be eligible. By the deadline, anyone following @chocolatefest09 on Twitter or is a Fan of the West Coast Chocolate Festival on Facebook automatically gets one ballot into the draw.
If you’d like to increase your odds, help us spread the word about the remaining events on the West Coast Chocolate Festival calendar. Each of the actions below that you do before Monday awards you one more ballot for the draw, so if you’re our biggest promoter, it’s more likely that your name will be the one picked!
- Retweet this message to your friends on Twitter.
- Tweet a #FollowFriday recommendation for @chocolatefest09 (tag it with #wccf09 too).
- Tweet event links to any of the upcoming Chocolate Festival events (tag your tweets with #wccf09).
- Share any of the upcoming Chocolate Festival events through your Facebook profile.
- Upload photos you’ve taken during this year’s festival to the Facebook page.
- Write a recap of your festival experiences on our Facebook page’s Wall.
- Publish a blog post about your festival experience and tell us where to find it.
Guarantee your seat at Chocolat Ce Soir
If you don’t want to leave your invite to Chocolate Ce Soir to chance, buy your dinner tickets online.
Good luck, everyone, and thank you in advance on behalf of the West Coast Chocolate Festival!
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Events, Food
Comments
2 Responses to “Treat yourself to the last days of the 2009 West Coast Chocolate Festival”
Got something to say?
About Tiny Bites
Tiny Bites is a food blog that explores all things edible and imbibable in Vancouver, British Columbia. More >
Our Forum: Chefs’ Table Talk
Chat with other Tiny Bites readers and BC's restaurant pros on the province's newest food community forum.
Articles by Karen Hamilton
Read the food and non-food articles that I've contributed to sites other than Tiny Bites.
Tiny Bites on the web
You can find additional Tiny Bites contributions at these sites:
Karen – thank you.. you are a fabulous mentor. The West Coast Chocolate Festival is very lucky to have you on board and “paying it forward”..
[...] Treat yourself to the last days of the 2009 West Coast Chocolate Festival [...]