The Chocolate Conspiracy: A Chat with Rachel Handler | #PSC 242
OVERVIEW: Episode 242 of #PodSaveChocolate features a chat with Rachel Handler, a features writer for NY Magazine, who authored "The Chocolate Conspiracy" article that led to my recent interview with Brad Reese.
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Episode 242
Rachel first reached out to me by email on June 12th with the following request:
Clay:
I am writing about the state of the chocolate industry as it pertains to ingredients and compound chocolate – specifically inspired by Brad Reese’s comments about Hershey. Would love to hear about your experience as a “chocophile” and your take on the current state of ingredients in the industry!
Our interview was scheduled for the 23rd of June with some back and forth clarifications and requests for more details in late August. A fact-checker from NY Mag reached out on October 23rd, and the article was published on October 19th.
Rachel Handler
Click to sign up for a free trial to read the full article.
Looking back at the questions the fact-checker had for me, not very much from our initial interview made it into the final article. But that’s often the way things turn out.
I have said, and I will repeat here, that this is one of the best-written pieces about chocolate by a non-subject-matter-expert I have read in the past decade or longer. There is a real grasp of nuance that is missing in many pieces, even those written by the “mainstream confectionery press.”
I tried to get both Brad and Rachel as guests on the same episode but was not able to.
Clay Gordon
The links to watch my chat with Brad are in this post.
Rachel graciously agreed to join me solo. I learned from Brad that Rachel began her research for the article months before she reached out to me, so in this episode I want to talk about the journey – where she started out, what the original vision for the article was, how it changed (and why), as well as discussing what she found most surprising about chocolate and cocoa.
Future Episodes
November News & AMA
I will be traveling (in the air) to Tabasco, MX on the 10th and returning on the 20th, so there will be no episodes either day. I also don’t know my schedule for the 13th and 17th, but I update the schedule when I find out.
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Clay Gordon
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Clay Gordon