"willy wonka" news and stories

Willy Wonka (a.k.a Nestle) is launching a new line of chocolate that they hope will live up to Roald Dahl's classic tale, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

"Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop! The great big greedy nincompoop!" Everyone knows those immortal lines, uttered by a chorus of judgmental Oompa-Loompas. Sadly, we think those Oompa-Loompas would be underwhelmed by real-life Willy Wonka chocolate bars.

But the company is trying to remedy that with a new line called Wonka Exceptionals, which will launch with --what else?-- a golden ticket contest. The lucky winner does not win a tour of the Wonka chocolate factory and a chance to float down a river of chocolate. But the winner will be awarded a trip around the world, which sounds pretty good too.

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]

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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.

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