Throughout my childhood, 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' left me with an indelible memory of a large fantasy-like room with crazy color schemes where flowers and mushrooms are edible delectable sweets. So, my first experience of a candy factory had a lot to live up to! Last fall, I took a tour of a Genoa institution: Romanengo Fu Stefano. While it was not as surreal as Wonka's factory, it was much more authentic - every activity steeped in tradition.

The machines and the utensils were all reminscent of the store's eighteenth-century origins. Since 1780, Romanengo Fu Stefano has been serving some of the world's most exquisite handmade candied fruits and chocolates to those with discerning palates. One of the highlights of the tour was the chocolate room where I saw their antique chocolate mill (mélangeur) that dates back to the 1800s mixing cocoa paste with granite stones. Delfina Romanengo, descendant of Antonio Maria Romanengo, the original owner, told me that granite brings out chocolate's delicious aroma.

I saw succulent fresh apricots, pears, and figs transform into candy and syrups. The most striking and honorable aspect of Romanengo is it's dedication to preserving its traditional age-old recipes even if they're more time consuming and labor intensive. The chocolate is "beaten" non-stop for three days and three nights in the mill. Industrial chocolate can take just a few hours. After the tour I stopped by their historic gorgeous antique mirror-covered store on Genoa's Via Soziglia. You can order Romanengo sweets online. Or, if you live in the Boston area, you can purchase them from Formaggio Kitchen. Check out the gallery below to see some of Romanego's sweets and antique machinery.

Apparently the pressures and rivalry that come with being one of Britain's leading chocolatiers sometimes cause men to do strange things. Witness the case of Barry Colenso, the erstwhile master chocolatier of the prestigious Thorntons who was forced to resign after a "truffle-squishing" incident at a rival store.

That's right folks. We said, gasp, "truffle squishing." Actually it's no laughing matter. The man who has been likened to Willy Wonka and who you see standing before a chocolate billboard he created last Easter went on a truffle vandalism spree at rival store Hotel Chocolat where he mangled some $130 of confections. Store staff knew something was up when they noticed him pawing at the various truffles. Hotel Chocolat issued a statement saying, "This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it."

I know said something about this not being a laughing matter, after all it was highly unprofessional behavior, but I can't help thinking of the scene in Tampopo where the elderly female shopper roams through a store squeezing and destroying a wide array of items. It also begs the question, did they sell the damaged goods at a lower price or remake them or what? Personally, I'm not above eating a squished truffle or two.

[via Boing Boing]

The last thing on your mind once you slowly slip into a food coma after the Big Feast tomorrow is getting up and doing anything active. In my family, it invites all kinds of things like the same stories from relatives, arguments, and questions from Mom and Dad about each of our plans for our futures. The best thing for my sanity, then, is to pop in a DVD to keep everyone quiet and entertained. While there are plenty of movies out there, we at Slashfood are, naturally, particularly fond of movies that have to do with food. Blogger Sean Timberlake has compiled a list of his favorite food movies, some of which are pictured above (each box links to Sean's review).

There are a few more on his list, but what are your favorites? Or are we just overdoing it a little, since the last thing you want to do after stuffing yourself is watching someone else do it on the screen for another two hours?

The WonkaZoid refillable candy dispenser with video game is a combination guaranteed to get your kids hyper and then have something to do with that sugar rush. The hand held video games have multiple compartments to hold various candies like sweetarts and nerds so you can pop some candy and then slap some hockey pucks with your Oompa Loompas. There are four versions of the candy dispenser games available and if they want, your kids can "trick up" the gadgets with a variety of stickers and stuff to make them personal. I'm not sure if I'd like to see my kids blasting away with these WonkaZoids, but with a need for stocking stuffers fast approaching, I bet these will be a sure hit.

Sure we all know roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and maybe we even remember James and the Giant Peach. But did you know that after the children's book author passed on, two books were compiled that contain recipes for foods from his stories? I didn't, but now I know about Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes and Roald Dahl's Even More Revolting Recipes! Both books have such delicacies as Snozzcumbers, Fresh Mudburger, and Stink Bugs' Eggs. Yum.

Food blog Canada Eats knew about the book, too, and has made their adaptation of Bruce Bogtrotter's cake from the book. The original recipe didn't do well in muffin tins to transport, so they made their modifications and added chile and espresso. If the Bogtrotter's cakes are for a kid's lunch, you can always leave the spices out.

It looks like Amsterdam will be getting a new theme park, one based on the Roald Dahl's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The park will be called De Chocolade Fabriek and will be primarily located underground in an unused railway tunnel, which means that the builders will have an easier time creating the fictionaly world, since they won't have to block out the sights and sounds of the city. Attractions will include a glass elevator and a chocolate fountain, as well as a production facility that will make a small amount of chocolate. The park will cost about €20 million (approx. $25 million) and is expected to take 2-3 years to completion.

Since it's based on the book, not the movie, you can't expect to see the likeness of Johnny Depp popping up anywhere - unlike at the revamped Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland - but considering that they made Willy Wonka slightly more disturbed in the updated film, it's probably just as well. The park is, after all, supposed to appeal to kids.

[Images from http://www.dechocoladefabriek.nl/]

Artist Prudence Emma Staite is a lot like Willy Wonka in that she makes an astounding variety of things from chocolate. Her website, Food is Art, shows just how dedicated she is to remaking ordinary objects into edible art. Using fine Belgian chocolate, she makes everything from chocolate sculptures, like the chocolate kitchen set pictured here, to chocolate board games. The giant chocolate Jenga puzzle is made of more than 130 pounds of chocolate! She also has miniature chocolate games, paintings and does custom works. Her most Wonka-like creation is the edible chocolate room. The room contains pieces made entirely of chocolate, including a fireplace with mantle and chandelier, and even the walls are made of lickable chocolate with lickable sugar wall paper.