For CTV News Canada: Cacao is a vehicle for change in Venezuela: winner of 'Nobel Prize' in food
Stock image by Etty Fidele
Sept. 8, 2016
In Venezuela, a country on the brink of collapse from a crippling food shortage, a quiet but swiftly growing group of female entrepreneurs has poured their hopes for the future into a chocolate-covered, fruit bonbon. On Thursday, the woman credited with setting this powerful movement in motion will be honored at gala event in San Sebastian, attended by some of the most influential chefs in the world.
It's a big dream packed into a small bite-sized confectionery.
But for chef and chocolatier Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe, the inaugural recipient of the Basque Culinary World Prize, the notion of solving the food crisis with a luxury food item makes sense given Venezuela's long history of cacao production.
On Thursday, Di Giacobbe will accept the award pitched as the Nobel Prize of the food world, for having empowered 8,500 of her fellow countrywomen in a poetic story that marries two Venezuelan culinary traditions and has taken on a life of its own.
Read more at https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/cacao-is-a-vehicle-for-change-in-venezuela-winner-of-nobel-prize-in-food-1.3063094
