Friday, October 29, 2010

Food and Travel Writers Gone Wild

Earlier this week I attended the International Food Wine Travel Writers Association  (IFWTWA) Southeast Regional Conference in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.  Our setting was the charming and historic Casa Marina Hotel.

Among our many activities was an afternoon of playing with chocolate.  Donned in aprons and latex gloves, we learned how to temper chocolate, made chocolate-covered popcorn and dipped chocolate truffles.  Our teacher and host was Phyllis Geiger, creator of Peterbrooke Chocolatier, who started her business in 1983 and has grown her franchise to over 20 stores in the southeast.  According to Lynne Christen, a food and travel writer from Destin, Florida, “It was a decadent, delicious and more than slightly messy lesson....  What’s better than an overdose by chocolate?  It was a tough job, but someone had to do it!”