Chicago Tribune - December 6, 2004
Lucinda Hahn is at lhahn@tribune.com.

One of the partiers was a sexologist. "We study sexual habits," said Rachel Ross, who has a PhD in sexology. "And we provide sexual health information and sex tips."

Ross stood sipping a tiny cup of organic yellow corn soup topped with white-chocolate-and-goat-cheese foam from the Wells Street restaurant SWK -- one of some 20 local vendors who turned the Fairmont Hotel's ballroom into a Willy Wonka-esque funhouse of epicurean decadence.

Cut to the really important stuff:

"Isn't chocolate a sexual enhancer?" Toast of the Town asked the sexologist.

"Oh, yes," Ross said, nodding. "The same hormone is released in your brain when you have an orgasm as when you eat chocolate."

TOT asked for more details -- to, uh, report to readers.

"It's serotonin -- that's an enjoyment-happy hormone," Ross explained. "So if you can sprinkle a little chocolate into the sexual activity, that's even better.

"Marshall Field's sells a chocolate body sauce; I recommend that very highly -- and it doesn't get hard, like if you use the stuff for sundaes you get from the grocery store."

Nothing at the benefit was pedestrian, grocery-store fare. Gourmands cruised the ballroom swilling chocolate martinis and swarming tables manned by chefs who had been challenged to let their creativity run wild.

Commodities trader Steve Kaufman and his wife, Lori, swooned over the fried chocolate-and-raspberry-filled croque-monsieurs, by John Bubala of Thyme.

Lori: "It's like eating chocolate french toast with raspberries!"

Steve: "I have to have another one."

Lori: "Oh, I'm gonna be so sick."

Phil Stefani Signature Restaurants chefs pushed small plates of pear-filled ravioli, bathed in marscapone cheese sauce and drizzled with chocolate.

Blommer Chocolate Store, which manufactures the stuff at its Kinzie Street and Des Plaines Avenue factory, gave 10-pound white- and milk-chocolate megabars to raffle winners.

The French Pastry School in the Loop offered tiny ganache candies, some adorned with 18-karat-gold lettering. "It's food grade," assured school instructor John Knaus, laughing. "It'll only hurt your kidneys for a little while."

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago, celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, has given away more than $14 million to support HIV/AIDS prevention and education. To that end, staffer Sanford Gaylord passed out free samples of the new female condom, which -- in the vein of dry cleaning and haircuts -- costs about four times as much as the male version.

At 9 p.m., a gaggle of celebrity judges -- including ABC-Ch. 7's Kathy Brock, Fox-Ch. 32 anchor Robin Robinson and the "Today" show's "Domestic Diva" Wayne Johnson -- gave the best-in-show award to online chocolatier Love in Disguise (www.loveindisguise.com), for its handmade truffles.

By then, though, the love affair was over. "I'm chocolate-ed out," said Vicky Alfafara, an optometrist, waiting for her coat. "I can't look at it anymore."

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