LEWISTON — A packed Green Ladle played host to the sixth-annual Chocolat, a chocolate tasting and competition to benefit Lewiston Middle School, on Sunday afternoon.

Cars filled the parking lot and lined the street outside the Lewiston Regional Technical Center’s Culinary Arts program while the Pinky D’s food truck pumped out oldies to eager chocoholics gathered out front.

Pinky D’s was a newcomer to the event and owner and local chapter of the American Culinary Federation’s 2014 Chef of the Year, Randall Smith, was determined to bring his own unique spin to the competition.

“This is very different,” Smith said, operating an ice cream scoop and greeting people. “White chocolate mac and cheese with brown butter and sage.

“Most people cringe or turn their nose when hear it, then they try it and they’re like, ‘hmm, that’s pretty good,'” Smith said. “That’s the whole point of it — to get people to say ‘that’s different’ and the idea of us being a food truck — we have to be a little bit different anyway.”

Smith said he’s had people return for seconds, even thirds for the savory spin on white chocolate, topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

“We can’t conform to everybody else,” Smith said. “We had to do something different.”

Next to Smith, another newcomer, Eric Agren of Fuel, applauded his pastry chef, Jessica Henson. Henson was the local ACF’s Junior Chef of 2014, a Green Ladle alumna who began her career at Fuel at the age of 18.

Henson served hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows and chocolate crunch macaroons with triple berry butter cream.

“We’re just doing this for today,” Henson said. “We do occasionally have macaroons on the menu — we used to have the hot chocolate but typically we do more modern French and a little less classic French.”

Agren said, “She’s really good — Jessica’s 19 years old and she’s been given 100 percent control of the menu.”

Green Ladle students moved quickly and quietly behind the scenes, filling the buffet with chicken wings, nachos and meatballs. Their leader, chef Dan Caron, rotated between the kitchen and dining room, making sure all needs were attended to.

“I’d say we served a good 450 right now,” Caron said. “We have some new chocolatiers in the building so we’re excited about that.

“(My students) got here at 6:30 a.m. and they cooked up a lot of food,” Caron said. “We have 16 appetizers that they’re serving today.

“I think my kids probably volunteer their time a good 20 times a year, from the Chili Challenge to this to the Dempsey Challenge; if I need 10 kids, I’ll get 20. So, we’re really fortunate they’re in the community — they support the community,” Caron said. “It’s not just learning how to cook, it’s learning how to give back to the community — they do a lot of that.”

Not only can Caron claim Henson as one of his students, he also has people he taught on the Bates team as well as Rebecca Ducette from Goldfinch Bakery.

With Caron was Brianne Doyle, pastry chef instructor at the Green Ladle and the 2014 Pastry Chef of the Year for the local ACF.

“I think the competition is definitely elevated this year,” Doyle said. “I think everybody really brought their game face and a real variety of entries. We had things that ranged from truffles to bread pudding to white chocolate mac and cheese and frozen yogurt — a real cool variety.

“The judges actually told me that they thought this was the most competitive year and the nicest product they’ve seen,” Doyle said. “Personally I think this is the best year yet.”

In the past, Sandie Blais of Rolly’s Diner raised the bar with creations like her chocolate crepes and last year’s cake assortments with chocolate-raspberry and caramel chocolate sea-salt ganache.

This year, “It’s a devil’s food cupcake with chocolate Bavarian creme in the middle and coated in chocolate ganache with a chocolate butter cream on top — with a glass of milk too,” Blais said.

“Everyone really seems to like it — people are coming around using their second turn on it,” Blais said.

Blais kept serving the cupcakes as her father, local ACF Chef of the Year 2013 Ken Blais, kept her supplied.

There were a few tables in the back of the dining room for people to sit but standing around was simply not an option. Guests, in a sugar-induced haze, formed a constant orbit around the tables — back to the buffet for some savory treats, then off again to the chocolates.

Children ran around the place as parents partook in the complimentary coffee in a feeble attempt to keep up. Forget Disneyland; for a few hours, this was the happiest place on Earth.

As if chocolate and treats were not enough, there were raffles — a 50/50 and six gift baskets with themes like “Snowy Night In,” “Superbowl” and “Taste of Italy.” The Italy gift basket was replete with olive oil, pasta and, most importantly, wine.

Dave Martell, eighth-grade U.S. history teacher at LMS, was selling tickets for the raffle.

“It’s great — good turnout — doing wonderfully,” he said while handing out another bundle of tickets. “All the baskets were donated by each individual team,” made up of groups of students and teachers.

Chocolat Chairwoman Sloane Shevrin, a LMS speech language pathologist, was pleased with the turnout.

“We’ve got a really nice crowd; we’ve got three new vendors and we’ve got a lot who have been with us four or five years which is nice,” Shevrin said.

Shevrin said she welcomes the new chocolatiers and hopes to attract even more for next year.

[email protected]

Chocoholic’s Dream (judged by professional confectioners)

1st Place — Marley’s Chocolate Lab

2nd Place — Maine Gourmet Chocolate

3rd Place — Rolly’s Diner

Decadent Display

1st Place — Rolly’s Diner

2nd Place — Bates College

3rd Place — Fuel

Candy is Dandy (People’s Choice)

1st Place — Rolly’s Diner

2nd Place — Maine Gourmet Chocolate

3rd Place — Central Maine Community College