Chocolate lovers, young and adults, had the chance to attend the opening of the "Salon du Chocolat" and the "Beirut Cooking Festival" in their fifth and eighth editions at the Biel Exhibition Center on the Beirut waterfront.
This event, which attracts Lebanese and western gourmets and cuisines, explores a range of international cuisines and new products this year. It also offers visitors the opportunity to learn how to prepare Lebanese and international dishes with the best chefs in 30 live shows. The event also dedicates a corner dubbed "Librairie Gourmande" for cooking fans interested in the latest publications in this field.
The chocolate fashion show, which the Lebanese audience awaits impatiently each year, displays many designs made of delicious chocolate by fashion designers and pastry makers.
The fashion show included 13 dresses made of chocolate and fruit, worn by models who walked in front of a host of political and industrial figures led by Lebanese Minister of Tourism Avedis Guidanian and French Ambassador to Lebanon Bruno Foucher.
In his speech, Guidanian said that the heart of Beirut is still beating with the love of life thanks to many Lebanese personalities such as Joumana Dammous-Salameh, managing director of Hospitality Services, the event organizer.
For over an hour, the audience watched the chocolate dresses show dubbed "Carnival" featuring radiant kinds of white and black chocolate. The guest of honor for this show was the international fashion designer Karoline Lang, who collaborated with Chef Charles Azar in creating one of the chocolate dresses with fine and elegant details.
Among the attendees was Gerald Palacios, from the Paris "Salon du Chocolat, who said that chocolate has become an indispensable component in the contemporary cuisine and in our daily lives.
The exhibition, which ends on Saturday, will see the participation of about 40 chefs and 100 exhibitors from Lebanon and the world. Dammous-Salameh said that food is an integral part of the Lebanese culture.
The exhibition includes a carnival of food, ingredients, juices and sweets of all kinds.
The Beirut Cooking Festival attracts about 15,000 visitors each year.
Ryan, who served the original Betrouni lemonade, says he is participating in this festival to highlight this traditional juice and recreate it with its original ingredients, lemon and orange blossom water.
Chocolate carving is among the fine arts highlighted by the exhibition. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Abeer Baltji, an expert in this field, said: "All the pieces of chocolate we make are not wrapped; we use them to carve the shapes and faces desired by customers."
In a section dedicated to the sale of Lebanese honey, Elias Sayah, from Alma al-Shaab, explained the new types emerging in the Lebanese honey industry. He said that the latest entries are the honeys of Inula, oak, and spring flowers along with the original rural honey collected by bees from wild flowers.
In other parts of the exhibition, we see ingredients from the authentic Lebanese cuisine with Souk El Tayeb team. Here the sweets are made with carob molasses, grapes and apples instead of sugar, while the "Kebbe", pastries, and thyme pies are prepared by housewives from different Lebanese regions with natural ingredients from the Lebanese countryside such as Sumac, walnuts, Farfahin and others.
From Greece and Brittany (northwestern France) Asharq Al-Awsat met Chefs Emaras and Bertrand, who came especially from their countries to participate in the making of Belgian chocolate pieces with creative flavors.
"It's a wonderful experience we live today in Beirut. I hope we will bring it back again, because the Lebanese people love to try new tastes of chocolate and to discover the latest innovations," they told the daily.
