Introducing the Lindt Mocha Coconut Excellence Bar

About a month ago I competed in the Lindt EXCELLENCE Recipe Challenge, held at The Culinary Institute  of America. However I had to wait until this morning or New York's Saturday at 1:30 pm to finally find out the results of the competitions. I was first selected as a finalist and would compete against 9 others, each with our own chocolate bar that we created.

My chocolate bar inspiration was the "MO-CO-NUT" (Mocha and Coconut). I came up with this idea when we were celebrating my mom's birthday and a belated birthday for my uncle. My mom loves coconut cake and my uncle loves mocha frosting. So put them together and you get Mocha Coconut. Then the practicing began and didn't finish until the night before the competition which worked in my favor because I was so tired from practicing that I didn't have time to think about the competition. Waking up in the morning was a different story. If you don't know me, I have some tendencies to be very organized and clean a lot. Its just who I am. I had to make sure everything was in its place and ready to go. So after anxiously awaiting to be let into the bakeshop where the competition would take place, we were told that we would be videotaped while competing. Well this was a first! I had to make sure I stayed cool, calm, and collected the whole time! I was proud of the product that I came up with and made, so I had confidence in what I as doing. I had finished my chocolate bar in about a little over an hour. I cleaned up my station and then decided to help another finalist, Simon clean up his work bench. I give him so much credit for learning how to temper chocolate a week before the competition. Of course he chose how to temper the messiest way, tabling; so I helped tidy up his marble. After finishing the competition, we were photographed (of course) and critiqued on our chocolate tempering skills and appearance of the bar.

Fast forward about a month later and here we are today. I knew something was up because Lindt had offered to fly me to and from Australia for a 2 hour reception. However with getting used to my new job and the time difference I declined and offered some words of thanks instead. My parents attended the reception in my honor. They took pictures with Michael Symon before they announced the winners and enjoyed themselves. Apparently they went from 3rd to 1st place. I am told, they described my chocolate bar and myself. My mom was crying while they announced my name. Michael Symon went up to my parents and asked if they knew how hard it was not telling them I won when they were talking. I am extremely excited that Lindt has decided to produce and sell my chocolate bar. I am thankful for such a great support group, also known as my family. They have seen it from start to finish. Thank you Lindt for an amazing experience I got to participate in.

Photo taken the day of the competition!