A Tasty Celebration:

Chocolate Dinner Benefited

A Local Audubon Center

WOODBURY — A capacity gathering of guests was on hand February 28 at the Old Woodbury Town Hall for a festive and informative dinner that included organic wines, chicken mole, bird’s nest salad and chocolate beet pops, topped off by mouthwatering dark organic truffles, chocolate dipped apricots and chocolate chocolate chip scones.

The food had all been created by New Morning Store’s new executive chef, Carol Byer Alcorace. Dr Michael Coe, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Yale University, Curator Emeritus Peabody Museum and a specialist in the ancient cultures of Mesoamerica and Southeast Asia, regaled the group with his very detailed and witty account of the history of chocolate dating back to the ancient Mayan culture.

Dr Philip Cohen, a holistic physician and professor of dermatology at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Bridgeport and creator of a new nutritional beauty line called Health by Chocolate, was also on hand to set the record straight about the health benefits of chocolate.

Cocoa contains polyphenols, a group of organic pigments that are some of the most powerful antioxidants in the world. Although green tea is often recommended for its polyphenol content, cocoa not only contains more than green tea but eight times the amount found in strawberries. Dr Cohen explained that some of the health benefits are compromised by excessive amounts of sugar and fillers.

The less cocoa in the product, he explained, the more sugar and other additives are necessary to enhance the flavor. Dark chocolate has at least 50 to 70 percent cocoa but milk chocolate can have as little as 5 percent. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar and flavoring and no cocoa, so it has none of the antioxidant value that dark chocolate has.

All of the chocolate used in the meal was of the dark organic variety, and donated by Green & Black, one of the first chocolate companies to support fair trade growing practices. Fair trade is an international system of monitoring and certification that ensures poor producers a fair price for their harvests.

In addition to enjoying a sumptuous five-course dinner attendees – who included New Morning Store owner John Pittari and Woodbury First Selectman Richard Crane – feasted on the knowledge that all proceeds from their tickets were going to benefit future programs and other needs for Audubon Center at Bent of The River, located in Southbury. John Longstreth, executive director of the Audubon Center in Southbury, was also a guest at the chocolate dinner.