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Musical Chocolate Tasting Pairs Songs and Sweets

By Mathew Katz | September 17, 2013 7:14am
Chocabaret Combines Chocolate and Song
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Jackie Gordon

CHELSEA — A new show will bring the sultry and the sweet together in one musical package.

A combination chocolate-tasting and cabaret, Chocabaret will pair chocolates with live music in a delicious one-night-only revue Oct. 20.

The show is the brainchild of "singing chef" Jackie Gordon, who will make some of the chocolate set to be served and sing with a three-piece band at the Metropolitan Room.

Gordon said that the food is the focus of the show — not just an afterthought.

"I wanted to reinvent the dinner show because dinner shows invariably suck — because the dinner invariably sucks," the 51-year-old Brooklynite said.

"The way I do it, I match something about the chocolate to the song — it could be the flavor, it could be about the person who makes it," Gordon said.

  "Singing Chef" Jackie Gordon will pair songs with 10 kinds of chocolate for her Chocabaret show.
Chocabaret Combines Chocolate and Song
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The audience will sample sweets from nine chocolatiers from around the city and state.

Gordon matched up a dark truffle from Fine and Raw Chocolate in Brooklyn with "Do I Move You" by Nina Simone.

"It's very soulful — the quality of the chocolate is like the song," Gordon said.

A spicier bar from Hudson Chocolates, located in Poughkeepsie, will be accompanied by "Fire" by the Pointer Sisters.

"They can even follow along and take notes on the chocolate — it's an involved experience," she said.

Gordon herself is no stranger to the world of chocolate — she owned a chocolate shop Downtown, Divalicious Chocolates, and runs a chocolate event company.

This is Gordon's third combination of cabaret and dinner theater since she began to sing about food in 1999 — she previously did one matching songs with fried chicken, and another with cheese.

Those shows lost money, Gordon said, so she raised the cash to buy the oodles of chocolates — including some extra nibble-ready bites for each table — using a Kickstarter that ended in June. She ended up raising $12,505, exceeding her $11,500 goal.

Along with the music, Gordon will educate the audience about how to taste chocolate, provide tastes of cacao beans and show how chocolate goes from beans to bar.

Gordon even wrote an original — and humorous — song to go with the show: "That's the Sound People Make When They Love Chocolate."

"People make a lot of pornographic sounds when they love chocolate," she said.

Chocabaret will run at 4 p.m. on Oct. 20 at the Metropolitan Room, at 34 W. 22nd St. Tickets are $60 and are available online.