"Óbidos, the Chocolate Capital of Europe " a Óbidos Travel Page by acilina

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We had 3 days of a Chocolate Festival. 8, 9 10 November 2002.
This small village has beautiful streets, but these days there was so many people that was very dificult to walk.

Sandy Lesberg, a 77 years old american jornalist, who live in Óbidos for 11 years, had the Festival idea. Original from Boston, Lesberg was, for over twenty years one of New York’s leading broadcast personalities. Beside conducting interviews and doing political and social commentaries on his own program ‘Sandy Lesberg’s World’ on Radio station WOR, he was for ten years the critic at large for the station doing reviews of theatre, films, ballet and music.

During this time he also covered international and diplomatic affairs and maintained a studio at the United Nations. It was then that he met and befriended several heads of state of emerging nations, mostly in Africa.

He has appeared on many radio and television talk shows in the United States and Great Britain and produced a series of programs for European Satellite Television Network.

He has written twenty cookbooks with recipes gathered from restaurants around the world; restaurant guides to Paris, London, Amsterdam, and the United States (four regional editions); several novels and many magazine and newspaper articles about food, travel and international affairs.

He founded and was editor-in-chief of Peebles Press, book publishers of New York and London that first published many books in English i.e. ‘The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt’ and ‘The Diary of Alfred Dreyfus’. Also published the 75 volume Peebles Classic Library, The Midnight Library, and the Peebles Art Collection.

He was the founding director of The Master Chefs Institute, an international association of leading chefs and restaurateurs in the United States, Great Britain and several countries of Europe. He also founded and edited the Amsterdam based food, wine and travel magazine MASTER CHEF, published in English and distributed throughout Europe and the United States.

He founded and was president of the Paris based children’s’ relief organisation Center For World Hunger Control that was affiliated with UNICEF.

He was friend of Michael Caine and of Rock Hudson, interviewed the Beatles and deprived with John Kennedy.
After 20 years outside of US he is now planning to return.

3 chefs from Austria, 3 chefs from Brazil, 2 from Spain,1 from Holland, 1 from United Kingdom, 1 from United States and 1 from Portugal, had competed for the title of "Best Chocolatier of the year"
Some of them:
Werner Matt (chef-executif of Plazza Hotel, from Viena), George MacNeill ( Marriott Marquis, New York), Carlos Valente (Hotel Reids, Madeira), Helmut Ziebel (Hotel Ritz, Lisboa) e José Parreira (Escola de Hotelaria e Turismo de Lisboa).
In this picture you may see working before the jury, the winner - the spanish María Gomez Martin, who win the Festival with the recipe "Chocotale puding with french sabayon and cream" (Pudim de chocolate com sabayon francês e nata)
If you want you may see the <A href="http://www.cm-obidos.pt/chocolate2002/default.htm">delicious recipes</A> prepared in this Festival.

The village received so many visitors that it was impossible for me to get any chocolate at all !!!
So, when I came home, I made my prefered chocolate cake, "The black delight"... do you want the recipe? Ask me...
In the old VT I had made <A href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/23d50/46a30/#another Obidos page"> another Obidos page</A> , you may see it for more pictures.

Well, here is the recipe! Enjoy it!

BLACK DELIGHT
5 eggs
250 g sugar
1,5 dl water
350 g chocolate for cooking
200 g butter
200 ml cream
Beat well the entire eggs with half of the sugar (10 minutes with the electrical machine).
Put the other half of the sugar with the water in a saucepan and boil it for 5 minutes. Then, join it the chocolate (broken in small pieces) and the butter. Heat it to blend, if necessary.
Join this chocolate moisture to the eggs compound.
Spread some butter over a round mould and put all the paste into it.
Take it to the oven with a light temperature, over about 1 hour (see with a toothpick if it is ready).
It will remain a little wet.

When it is cold, take it off the mould and cover it with chantilly made with the 200 ml cream beaten with 50g of sugar.