How sweet it is: Exhibit at Henry Ford Museum in Detroit walks us through our love affair with chocolate

Ron Krueger By Ron Krueger The Flint Journal
on June 10, 2008 at 3:59 PM, updated June 10, 2008 at 4:28 PM
Look closely - it's a room, not a box of chocolates. On what looks like a giant box of chocolates, visitors can watch videos of people talking about their love affair with chocolate.

DEARBORN, Michigan -- No, Johnny, milk doesn't come from the supermarket, but from cows, and chocolate doesn't come from a big spigot in Hershey, Pa.

Johnny will get straightened out on this most fundamental point and everybody will learn things about this ultimate fantasy food in an exhibition through Sept. 7 at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

"Chocolate: The Exhibition" was developed by Chicago's Field Museum, where it had a long run earlier this decade. Adjuncts here that are sure to be big hits are a gift shop with everything chocolate and a cafe selling very possibly the world's most decadent brownie.

If you go

Admission to Dearborn's Henry Ford Museum is $14 for adults, $13 for seniors and $10 for children. The museum is open 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. For more information, call (313) 982-6001 or visit the museum's Web site.

The exhibition follows chocolate's circuitous path from Central America to Europe and back, from being a bitter beverage prized by Mayan and Aztec rulers to being the key ingredient in thousands of confections, from Yoohoo the drink to truffles and Snickers bars.

You will see a replica of a cacao (pronounced KHA-cow) tree with its large, ridged pods. You read that these trees do best when shaded within rainforests even as forests are leveled to plant them.

Later, a video shows that chocolate is unavoidably a labor-intensive process at the harvesting level. Technology comes in with processing the cacao bean to create a free-flowing syrup that can be combined with other ingredients.

The first chocolate revolution was launched when Dutchman Coenraad Van Houten invented a press that separated cocoa butter from cocoa powder. This allowed chocolate to be processed more cheaply.

Visitors at "Chocolate: The Exhibition" learn how cocao trees thrive in the rainforest ecosystem.

"The press and the technology that followed democratized chocolate," said Jeanine Miller, a museum curator. "Before that, only the wealthy could enjoy it and then only in limited forms."

The result was a chocolate-mad culture in Europe and America, Miller added.
"During World War II, virtually all chocolate was funneled to our soldiers, which launched huge demand here once the war ended."

On the outside walls of the temporary exhibition quarters are displays of related artifacts from the museum's collection and items recently procured or borrowed.
Much of one case is devoted to the Sanders product line of sauces and candy, an institution to native Detroiters. Another features the special chiller container for Eskimo Pie bars on soda fountain counters.

Special events linked with the exhibition are an appearance by "Doc Choc," Patrick Fields, on July 10. He will guide a tour of the exhibition and lead a tasting of specialty chocolates.

On Aug. 9, chocolate artist Jean Zaun will demonstrate how she paints and sculpts with chocolate.

Nick Seccia, executive chef at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, with the three-layer brownie on sale at the Chocolate Cafe.