Chocolate

It was eating room only at the Kennett Chocolate Lovers Festival Sunday afternoon in the Kennett High School gym. It attracted so many people, in fact, that the event deserves to become a business-school case study in logistics: What's the most efficient way to move hundreds of people past scores of tempting chocolate entries set out on tables? Our strategy was to pick a random spot, wait until the crowd thinned and then compare the four or five choices we could see from our vantage point. As a result, unfortunately, we got to see only a small number of the offerings.
Two of the gentlemen in my party (neither with an MBA) came up with an ingenious idea involving parallel, variable-speed conveyor belts to efficiently move people past the selections and discourage loitering.
We figured out that the amateur entries were on two sides of the rectangle of tables and the professional ones (which cost you TWO tickets) were on the end. We didn't realize until we got home and saw the photos that there were also student entries! One of my samples turned out to be one of the overall professional winners, a fabulous hazelnut marjolaine, and I also had a delicious brownie topped with a maraschino cherry.
This was the second annual fest, and one baker who is a veteran of both said this year's was much better organized than last year's, and thankfully in a much larger venue. Even with the ample parking lots at the high school, we parked across South Street at the Y pool lot and had an excellent calorie-burning hike up to the gym.
The event benefits our local United Way, which appears to have hit on a hugely popular moneymaker. Kudos to the volunteer bakers, organizers and patient tong-wielding attendants.