So on the final day of Competitours, Day 11, we went to one of the first Swiss chocolate chalets, Cailler. We had basically a whole day event at their production facility. First we went in to a large glass enclosed “kitchen” where all of the people taking tours could look inside and watch us. Once inside we were introduced to Geraldine (a Swiss Chocolate Master) who had us get dressed up for our chocolate making challenge. We donned aprons and chef hats and then got assigned to one of 12 stations.
From there we got a demonstration on how to make this!!!!
We did it in two parts. First we had to make the leaves which involved colored, melted cocoa butter which we painted on a piece of plastic. Then, after the “paint” dried, we gently spread melted white chocolate over the painted areas. When the chocolate dries and we peel them off of the plastic the “paint” will come off with them. To make the leaves curl we placed the plastic sheets in a curved mold so when they dried, they dried curled! So cool. We used a similar process with darkchocolate to make the green and brown leaves and twigs. Lastly to make the contoured base we put ice nuggets in a shallow box leaving a open area in the middle to create a flat base. We then poured dark chocolate over the ice. The chocolate immediately cooled. Later the ice would melt leaving a contoured mold for our base! So cool!
Once this was done the chocolate pieces were all placed in the refrigerator to harden. That was it for the first part of our big challenge for the day. Next, after a short snack break we had the opportunity to go through their chocolate museum where we learned all about Cailler, it’s history, it’s founders, how they make their main production chocolates. The second challenge was a 10 question quiz that the chocolatiers gave us which they graded. It was not easy!
Next came the third challenge which was really fun. They prepared a tray with multiple ingredients for a taste test challenge. There were four colored liquids, each had one of the four basic tastes that we had to identify – bitter, salty, sweet and sour. Next there was a cup with sugar in it. However, this sugar was flavored and we had to guess what flavor it was. We guessed nutmeg, and we were CORRECT! Finally the last two cups had pieces of chocolate and we had to taste them and decide what we felt was percentage of cacao in those pieces of chocolate. We guessed 70% for the first one (it was actually 64%) then 40% for the second (and it was 46%), so we got pretty darn close!
Once those two challenges were completed we had to finish our chocolate flower. We took all of the previously made pieces out of the refrigerator and peeled them off their pastic molds. The paint came off perfectly. Reall neat. Next we had to fix them into position on the middle white chocolate piece of the flower, using melted chocolate and a cooling spray to instantly harden the chocolate once we had the piece in proper position. Once both rows of petals were completed, like we were shown by Geraldine, we could ad lib placement of the different leaves, twigs and other accessories like the chocolate hearts we were supplied with. (There just wasnt enough time to make every single piece). We also placed gold edible luster dust on to areas to give the golden shine.
Once the flower was completed we had to clean our work station and put the flower on a chocolate base and in a presentation box and set it out for judging. The judges were the chocolatiers themselves. Here is the sample again and the one below is what we made!
We thought ours turned out pretty well and the judges did too. We were in the top 5 and got major points on this last ONLY risk/reward point challenge which was also bumped up on positive and negative points to make this the most point earning (or losing) single challenge of the competition. We were so proud of how we did! We all got certificates for our chocolate making skills, and also got to keep our aprons and chef hats as well. Sweet, literally!!!
After this we got on the bus for a ride to our final night hotel which is on the shores of Lake Geneva. Amazing views from our bedrooms of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Unbelievably beautiful. We all got settled in our rooms and then went down to the deck off of the dining room and hung out having drinks and playing a game of mafia. I had never played that before and it was very interesting. Ask any teenager, they’ll probably be able to tell you how it’s played, because I’m still trying to understand it. 😆 Then it was on to the final dinner, end of competition video show (which was put together by a very bright young man who was part of a team from Philadelphia), then the awarding of the wimning prizes.
As one last suprise, Steve had arranged for the other teams to video a Happy Birthday wish for me and that was made into a video as well which was shown right before the end of tour video. I was quite touched by the video. This was a vacation that I will never forget!! THE STEVE, despite all of his craziness (or maybe because of it) was the ultimate host for this amazing trip. He made it an absolutely wonderful exerience.
So, now you might ask, “how did you do in the competition”? Well, let me tell you. We did just about as well as you can do without being in the money. We came in 4th place, but ony missed the money by 30 points!!! To put that into persective. We were lingering in 3rd and 4th place from the beginning until about day 7 when we crashed and burned and literally fell into last place (again there were 12 teams). Then over the last 4 days we clawed our way back up and ended up with 610 points (only 30 behind 3rd place). >600 points and only missed the top 3 by a mere 30 points! Oh well! Quite an amazing comeback from the absolute cellar just 4 days prior. But the more important prize than the cash was the amazing friends we made in the 11 days of the trip. To have only met all of this unbelievably talented group 11 days ago is crazy. Everyone feels like family now. Breaking away at the end of the night didn’t feel like leaving aquaintences from the last 11 days. It felt like saying “good bye for now,” to family you have known for years. What an incredible transformation over a short 11 days. An 11 days I will never forget!!!
Peace out to all of the Competitouristas!!!!