Chocolate festival bitterness
[ROME] What better city to stage a chocolate festival than this, a capital whose glorious past is filled with tales of gluttony? All over town, there are posters for Eurochocolate, which will take place from 1 to 9 March. Most of the events — tastings, conferences, exhibitions — will take place on the Villa Borghese's magnificent Terrazza del Pincio, renamed "Pincioc" for the occasion, and all around the city on 8 March there will be "sweet surprises" to mark Festa della Donna.
The festival atmosphere has been somewhat soured, however, by the exclusion of Nestl頦ollowing protests from anti-globalization activists. Rome's mayor Walter Veltroni asked the organizers to withdraw their invitation to the multinational after being presented with allegations about its powdered milk, which is used as a breast milk substitute in developing countries. UNICEF claims that it leads to the deaths of 4,000 infants a day. Nestl駳 forced absence is a major embarrassment for the Italian chocolate industry as the company owns the Baci-producing Perugina. And that 's not the only chocolate-related setback that the Italians must cope with this year. In August, the country is being forced by the EU to change its legal definition of the sweet stuff. A new EU ruling means that Italy (and Spain) will have to accept as "chocolate" products that contain up to five percent non-cocoa butter vegetable fats. These products, legally acceptable as chocolate in other EU countries, are defined in Italy as "chocolate derivatives."
Given the innate genius of Italy's confectioners in matters sweet, I'm sorry to see them lose this particular battle with Brussels. Must slurp up more of the real stuff this evening before heading back to Munich. Who knows? Might not be back until after August.
Diarist of the day: Stendhal, 25 February 1808"Since the last entry I've killed three hares, the first quadrupeds of my life."
