SAVOUR & SIP
Calling All Chocolate Lovers... This Valentine’s weekend, satisfy your cravings with the Cambridge Chocolate Festival. Founder Riadh Falvo indulges us by spilling the beans
CE: Tell us about how the festival began. RF: The festival was born out of lockdown in 2022, as a way to provide our Cambridge community with something sweet to look forward to during the darker months of the year, but I had been ruminating on the idea for longer than that. As a chocolatier, I had created The Collab Club, working with local small businesses including other chocolatiers and start-ups such as Bitesize Bakehouse, The Brew Project and artists including Naomi Davies. I invited businesses to include promotional vouchers driving customers to their websites, while I included daily affirmations and recipes. It was a way of gathering my community in one place; the festival has become a manifestation of that community behind The Collab Club. CE: Give us a flavour of what we can expect from this year’s festival. RF: I was adamant it had to be over Valentine’s weekend, as no one else was celebrating the holiday – I have always made a special point of it. Now, it’s in its third year, becoming a
celebration of all the things that we love – and believe deserve celebration – under one roof. It will include gifts for Valentine’s Day such as bouquets of flowers, boxes and bars of chocolate, terrariums and potted plants to bring a little green and wellbeing to our minimal desk set-ups. This year, we are also featuring workshops, and are happy to announce that My Foodie Days will be offering a one-hour food photography workshop in the Keynes Library over the weekend. Finally, we will be running our logo design contest again, to promote and encourage the arts. Open to both amateurs and experts, artists can submit ideas for a Cambridge Chocolate Festival logo. We then shortlist those entries down to five designs and the artists behind them are invited to set up a stall for free at the festival to sell their wares. The public vote for their favourite design over the weekend with love hearts, and the winning design will be awarded £300! See the full programme of events and book your tickets at #CamChocoFest on Eventbrite @camchocofest
40 FEBRUARY 2024 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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