A Venezuelan Chocolatier Just Won the First Nobel Prize for Chefs

Maria Fernanda Di Giacobbe from Venezuela was awarded a prize yesterday for her extensive work in social enterprise, after creating the framework to assist those in her community through education and entrepreneurship.

Her area of expertise? Chocolate. And the thing her fellow competitors had in common? They were all chefs.

The Basque Culinary World Prize, awarded by the Basque Culinary Centre (an academic university for gastronomy in San Sebastián, Spain) is a new "award for chefs who improve society through gastronomy" and have "refined their profession by integrating new skills, creativity, innovation, and social concerns into their approach."

So, basically a Nobel Prize for chefs. At least that's what the BBC said.

Di Giacobbe, who is also founder of the La Paninoteka restaurant in Caracas, has already championed Venezuelan cacao through her chocolate store KAKAO Bombones de Venezuela and a book titled Cacao and Chocolate in Venezuela and Venezuelan Bonbons: 25 Recipes. But it was her social enterprise scheme, Cacao de Origen, for which she scooped the culinary prize.

Through a bean-to-bar method of chocolate making—a process by which the chocolatier roasts, grinds, and tempers the product, rather than starting with a block of couverture chocolate to mold—Di Giacobbe works directly with growers to get the best price for them and help improve crops.

In between cooking, writing, and making chocolate, Di Giacobbe also found the time to create educational courses to help more women break into the trade, including a cacao industry management education programme at the Simón Bolivar University in Caracas. So far, she has helped 8,500 people train.

And what have you done with your day?

Beating 110 candidates from across the world to take the top prize and €100,000 prize money, Di Giacobbe said in a press statement: "This award is a reflection of hundreds of entrepreneurs, producers, and chocolatiers and their learning, enthusiasm, and hard work. It allows us to set new goals and open up new ways to connect with the world"

Joan Roca, president of the jury which also included molecular gastronomy author Harold McGee and Michelin-starred chefs Heston Blumenthal and Massimo Bottura, said of Di Giacobbe: "Today's recipient of the Basque Culinary World Prize reflects how gastronomy can take a leap from craft to consciousness. Maria Fernanda uses cacao as a gastronomic symbol that has a positive impact on the entire food chain."

As if we needed another reason to reach for the chocolate as a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.