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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Ellen Futter
Aired June 14, 2003 - 09:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, there is sweet and there's semisweet, there's milk and dark. You know, chocolate lovers know exactly what we're talking about this morning.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Now for a little chocolate history for you. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a chocolate exhibit opening today featuring a find that anthropologists say is so sweet.
Museum president Ellen Futter joins us now to talk about it.
So Ellen, good morning to you.
ELLEN FUTTER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Good morning.
ROBERTS: All right, talk about this find. What have we found here? What type of chocolate delight?
FUTTER: Well, we have all kinds of chocolate. And this is just another example of the museum's fascination with the interaction of culture and nature. And chocolate is a wonderful element to tell that story.
And you've got all kinds of chocolate in this show, including a 15-year -- 1,500-year-old residue of chocolate discovered in Honduras, probably the oldest example of chocolate ever found. Don't recommend you eating it.
COLLINS: Yes, I was just going to ask. You know, we've seen all morning kind of this gob of the chocolate that was incredibly old, and it doesn't look like it's in the greatest shape any more. But what's most interesting to me is where chocolate comes from. And I think that I read that there was actually no sugar in it in the very beginning. Is that right?
FUTTER: That's correct. It was the -- originally used in the Mayan culture, and they drank a very spicy drink. It also then it worked its way through the Aztec culture, where it played a very strong role in the trade market there. And it wasn't until chocolate made its way to Europe and the Spaniards added sugar, and that has made for the chocolate that we love and adore today.
ROBERTS: Ellen, what was the process to figure out that this was 1,500 years old? How do we know? FUTTER: Well, the scientists have a very elaborate dating process for specimens of all kinds, whether it be bones or residues of chocolates.
COLLINS: All right. So I got to get down to the nitty-gritty here. How much do you get to eat when you come to the exhibit?
FUTTER: Everybody can eat lots, because there's a phenomenal chocolate shop with loads of chocolate for sale. And then we have a wonderful chocolate cafe, if you haven't done enough damage in the shop. We recommend that you do both.
My office, unfortunately, is down the hall from all of these. It's a dangerous place to be these days.
COLLINS: I bet it is.
ROBERTS: I'll bet. Ellen, why chocolate, though? I mean, why take this path and put this on display and have everybody come to see it?
FUTTER: Well, we like to take elements of nature that have played a unique role in culture and society. And chocolate, whether we tell the story of the rainforests and an endangered plant, the cocoa plant, the role of chocolate in culture, whether it's in romance or food, chocolate in religion, and indeed one of the -- part of the scientific name of chocolate is derivative of a Greek word that is "food for the gods."
And chocolate in every aspect of ritual and ceremony. It's one of those substances that has played that kind of role. And, you know, our museum has done shows on pearls and diamonds and amber, which similarly show that interrelationship between nature and mankind and the way that a fascinating element of nature plays a role for its beauty, its value, its influence.
COLLINS: All right, Ellen Futter, the president of the American Museum of Natural History and the Chocolate exhibit, runs through September 7, if you want to check it out, everybody.
Ellen, thanks so much this morning.
FUTTER: My pleasure. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Now, what were we saying before, it would be interesting to go see a piece of chocolate that was 1,500 years old, but we could walk around the corner to the vendor and see (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just as old that was in there.
COLLINS: Maybe we could, I don't know.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 14, 2003 - 09:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, there is sweet and there's semisweet, there's milk and dark. You know, chocolate lovers know exactly what we're talking about this morning.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Now for a little chocolate history for you. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a chocolate exhibit opening today featuring a find that anthropologists say is so sweet.
Museum president Ellen Futter joins us now to talk about it.
So Ellen, good morning to you.
ELLEN FUTTER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Good morning.
ROBERTS: All right, talk about this find. What have we found here? What type of chocolate delight?
FUTTER: Well, we have all kinds of chocolate. And this is just another example of the museum's fascination with the interaction of culture and nature. And chocolate is a wonderful element to tell that story.
And you've got all kinds of chocolate in this show, including a 15-year -- 1,500-year-old residue of chocolate discovered in Honduras, probably the oldest example of chocolate ever found. Don't recommend you eating it.
COLLINS: Yes, I was just going to ask. You know, we've seen all morning kind of this gob of the chocolate that was incredibly old, and it doesn't look like it's in the greatest shape any more. But what's most interesting to me is where chocolate comes from. And I think that I read that there was actually no sugar in it in the very beginning. Is that right?
FUTTER: That's correct. It was the -- originally used in the Mayan culture, and they drank a very spicy drink. It also then it worked its way through the Aztec culture, where it played a very strong role in the trade market there. And it wasn't until chocolate made its way to Europe and the Spaniards added sugar, and that has made for the chocolate that we love and adore today.
ROBERTS: Ellen, what was the process to figure out that this was 1,500 years old? How do we know? FUTTER: Well, the scientists have a very elaborate dating process for specimens of all kinds, whether it be bones or residues of chocolates.
COLLINS: All right. So I got to get down to the nitty-gritty here. How much do you get to eat when you come to the exhibit?
FUTTER: Everybody can eat lots, because there's a phenomenal chocolate shop with loads of chocolate for sale. And then we have a wonderful chocolate cafe, if you haven't done enough damage in the shop. We recommend that you do both.
My office, unfortunately, is down the hall from all of these. It's a dangerous place to be these days.
COLLINS: I bet it is.
ROBERTS: I'll bet. Ellen, why chocolate, though? I mean, why take this path and put this on display and have everybody come to see it?
FUTTER: Well, we like to take elements of nature that have played a unique role in culture and society. And chocolate, whether we tell the story of the rainforests and an endangered plant, the cocoa plant, the role of chocolate in culture, whether it's in romance or food, chocolate in religion, and indeed one of the -- part of the scientific name of chocolate is derivative of a Greek word that is "food for the gods."
And chocolate in every aspect of ritual and ceremony. It's one of those substances that has played that kind of role. And, you know, our museum has done shows on pearls and diamonds and amber, which similarly show that interrelationship between nature and mankind and the way that a fascinating element of nature plays a role for its beauty, its value, its influence.
COLLINS: All right, Ellen Futter, the president of the American Museum of Natural History and the Chocolate exhibit, runs through September 7, if you want to check it out, everybody.
Ellen, thanks so much this morning.
FUTTER: My pleasure. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Now, what were we saying before, it would be interesting to go see a piece of chocolate that was 1,500 years old, but we could walk around the corner to the vendor and see (UNINTELLIGIBLE) just as old that was in there.
COLLINS: Maybe we could, I don't know.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
