Rushing to Get to Slow Chocolate

It's Thursday morning, 9am. I find myself stuck in an airport. I'm hoping that I'll get out of Pittsburgh, through Chicago, and on to San Francisco without too much trouble. I'm also hoping that all of that will happen before 6pm West Coast time, so that I can show up on time for the Chocolate Forum, taking my place on a panel next to (clockwise from the top left) Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate, Seneca Klassen of Bittersweet Cafe and Bittersweet Origins, Alex Whitmore of Taza (pictured with his cofounder Larry Slotnick), Art Pollard of Amano. Formal and informal talks about chocolate will continue throughout Labor Day Weekend in the Bay Area, since Seneca from Bittersweet is heading up a chocolate pavilion at the frenzied Slow Food festival, and he's also planning to cap the whole thing off with a chocolate roundtable at the Fort Mason building in the San Francisco Marina area.

(Photo of Alan McClure by LG Patterson)