A chocolate competition organised by Biz Today International at the Knead Café of Skills Valley, North Campus in Karachi on Thursday felt like a box of chocolates full of sweet indulgences and surprises.
There were 19 chefs participating in the competition, a dozen of whom happened to be student chefs while seven were home chefs.
Their entries included desserts such as brownies, chocolate fudge, chocolate cookies, chocolate cakes, chocolate tarts, chocolate sundaes, coconut chocolate balls, chocolate tiramisu and much, much more. If there was anything which had not chocolate, then it had a chocolate topping or could be dipped in chocolate.
The executive editor of Biz Today InternationalRafiq Vayani, said that he has recently been organising several cooking competitions with a local dish competition followed by a sweet dish competition. For example, there was a biryani competition earlier, which was followed by a mango desserts and snacks competition. Similarly, there was a nihari competition last month only, which is followed by this chocolate competition.
Co-founder and Director of the Skills Valley Mubeen Durrani said that they were holding the competition in Knead Café, which is a project of Skills Valley, and strictly focuses on offering organic food. About the competition, he said that their culinary arts students and hotel management students were also taking part in it.
Sukaina Iqbal, a home chef, had created a little jungle with chocolate bonbons, brownies, white chocolate and edible moss. Everything was placed on a wood log base about which she had to inform everyone who wanted to taste it too that it was real and non-edible.
Meanwhile, another home chef Sadia Arif had made strawberry white chocolate bonbons and tiramisu cakes with icing that looked like forks and spoons. She also had to point out to people that the utensils were not real forks and, therefore, could be eaten instead of being used for eating.
Fabiha Fatima, yet another young home chef who sells her creations through her social media page called ‘Heaven Bites’ outdid herself by entering the competition with a chocolate bento cake, a lava cake, chocolate pops and chocolate sundaes. She was confident of impressing the judges.
Ramsha Nadeem, a student chef at Skills Valley, entered banana chocolate delight cupcakes, which she took care to present well by serving in a golden multilayered bird cage shaped dish rack.
Another student chef, Syeda Rumesha, had balanced the sweet and savory with her perfect chocolate tacos while a home chef Komal Ahmer managed to do the same with chocolate paratha.
Chef Beenish, the judge, said that presentation really matters with desserts so she would be looking at that. She also said that the structure needs to be checked too. “Whether a piece of dessert is soft or not so soft as it should be cannot be ignored,” she said. She also added that balancing tastes is also very important. “Too much sugar will ruin your dessert. And different levels of sweetness go with different desserts.”
Originally published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025