You might expect folks like Lydia Shire and Tony Maws to eat only the finest artisanal candies when they indulge their sweet teeth, but in fact, we found that Boston’s top chefs are just as likely to get down with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup as civilians. We polled seven Hub chefs about their favorite candies and what they’ll be distributing on October 31. The results may surprise you.
“My favorite candy is candy corn. It’s just delicious. I guess you’d call it a junk candy, but I like it. You can’t give it away because it hasn’t been packaged. I also like Sugar Babies, which are packaged. They’re like really sugary caramel, a little gritty. Until you’ve had Sugar Babies, you haven’t had candy.” -Lydia Shire, Locke-Ober and Scampo
“I don’t even want to say what we’re handing out on Halloween because it sounds snobby. My wife bought a mixed bag of Lindt chocolates, but they’re a little fancy for Halloween. I don’t like candy corn, that’s for sure. I like Snickers.” -Scott Hebert, Troquet
“My wife and I just give out standard fare: Tootsie Rolls, Twizzlers, stuff like that. We don’t give out a ton of chocolate because we have two kids at home and they’ll want some of whatever we’re giving out and we don’t want them to eat too much chocolate. As for me, depends on my mood. If I want a hard candy, I’ll have a Werther’s or if I’m craving chocolate, I’ll have a Twix bar, but there’s a science to it. You have to eat around the cookie so it’s like unwrapping a present.” -Art Welch, King’s Dedham
“We’ll be handing out Snickers (both regular and almond), Twix, Take 5, KitKat, Zero, Milky Way Dark, and Mr. Goodbar after I return from trick or treating with my gang. I have a toddler and newborn twins!” -Charlie Redd, Coda
“We’ll be handing out Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and only the large size. They have the perfect ratio of chocolate and peanut butter - the small size has too much chocolate!” -Tony Maws, Craigie On Main
“I used to like to eat low-carb milk chocolate from Trader Joe’s, but I got greedy and ate the whole bar once. You see, it’s sweetened with maltitol, which, for some people, is more effective than ExLax. That’s the last time I ate candy.” -Jay Murray, Grill 23
“We are big fans of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We refer to them as ‘cups.’ As for as our assortment of candy, my wife, Meg, buys what she dislikes the most so she doesn’t eat it then brings it down for the staff at Catch after she eats half of it anyway.” -Chris Parsons, Catch
Related: What to Make for Halloween
