I don’t consider myself a competitive person, but when Victoria Levin of Anaheim and I tied for first place in a cooking contest a few years back, I had to get her recipe.

I’ve been getting “wows” for it ever since.

The occasion was a Chocolate Fantasy luncheon held at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton, and Rabbi Deborah Prinz, author of “On the Chocolate Trail,” was invited to speak as well.

Sixteen bakers submitted 19 chocolate desserts. My entry was an almond-honey olive oil layer cake with a chocolate ganache filling and frosting, and Victoria brought her no-bake chocolate-chocolate chip cheesecake.

What is it about chocolate that makes people swoon at the mere mention?

Famed chocolatier and cookbook author Alice Medrich once told me: “Of all the special, ‘gourmet foods,’ chocolate is one of the only ones we have all loved since childhood.

“It’s not an acquired taste. Maybe we liked milk chocolate and have grown to like bittersweet, but it’s always been there for us,” she said. “We didn’t have to learn to like it, like coffee, wine or caviar.”

Levin is a self-taught baker who likes to find recipes on the Internet.

“However, I always tweak them to make them my own,” she said. “My mother would never let me in the kitchen. She told me, ‘Just learn in school,’ so I learned to bake in home economics class in junior high.

“I came in second in a cherry pie baking contest. They told me I would have come in first had I used red dye. At that time red dye was very controversial in causing cancer,” Levin said. “My leaning was always towards science, so I wouldn’t go there. “

Levin grew up in San Bernardino and continued to bake after home ec class.

“My dad loved lemon meringue pie, so that was what I made a lot of,” she recalled. “My mother let me in the kitchen to make the lemon pie, but she didn’t really try to help. We had our own dwarf lemon tree, so that made it easy too.

“Even today I’m a very big fan of lemon,” she said. “I’d say my favorite dessert to bake is lemon bars with a crunchy topping.”

Levin earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology at UC Riverside, where she met husband Jerry – in chemistry class!

“I did research in my senior year and found out I didn’t like it, but I’d loved teaching since I was 5 years old,” she said. “I got my teacher’s credential at the University of San Bernardino, taught for a year and got married. Jerry was drafted and sent to Germany. I helped run the educational center there for GIs getting their GED. Our landlord was a Nazi, so we could never reveal that we were Jewish.”

After various teaching assignments, Levin retired from Thomas Edison Elementary in Anaheim to take care of her now 16-year old grandson. Today she takes care of two of her eight grandchildren, yet still finds time to bake.

Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.

VICTORIA LEVIN’S NO-BAKE CHOCOLATE-CHOCOLATE CHIP CHEESECAKE

Ingredients:

Crust:

24 Oreo cookies, center removed
8 ounces (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
16 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
4 ounces (1/2 stick) melted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 ounces thawed whipped topping
3/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
Chocolate syrup and shaved chocolate, for topping

Method:

1. Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Process cookies in food processor; mix with melted butter. Press onto bottom and sides of buttered 9″ springform pan. Bake for 9 minutes. Cool thoroughly before adding filling.

2. Filling: Melt chocolate chips in microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Continue melting at 10 second intervals, stirring each time until smooth.

3. Beat together cream cheese, sour cream, confectioners’ sugar, melted butter, and vanilla until well mixed. Add melted chips and mix again. Fold in thawed whipped topping and then mini chips. Pour into springform pan. Drizzle chocolate syrup over cake in a random pattern. Add shaved dark chocolate around edge of cake. Chill 6 hours to 24 hours. Remove from springform pan and enjoy.