Art of chocolate sculpting

While chocolate in its molten form might not excite many taste buds, some chocolatiers can create art and head-turning models out of the melted form.

Web shows like ‘School of Chocolate’ (on Netflix) have brought more eyes to the field, with an increased interest among youngsters.

Arvind Prasad, who has been sculpting chocolate since 2005, enjoys sculpting woman-like aesthetic pieces. One of his showpieces in 2014 was named after the Greek goddess ‘Rhea’. “The idea was to portray the piece like she was asking people not to cut her as she is the goddess of nature. The piece resembled a forest,” he says.

Chef Vinesh Johny, who has 1.28 lakh followers on Instagram, created his first chocolate sculpture in 2010. He believes that sculpting is not about copying things. He says, “Chocolate sculpting is a lot more skillful. Fewer people do it when compared to realistic cake art, which is in the trend now.”

Goa-based Avinash Martins, an ‘impromptu artist’, explores and works on what inspires him. According to him, the time taken to make a piece is dependent on the design and the kind of detailing that goes into it. “Chocolate is a great medium to connect because everybody loves it,” he says. Ananya Srivastav is inspired by various chocolatiers across the globe. The 23-year-old took up a chocolatiering course. “The best part about chocolate is, you get to reheat it and give it a different shape, unlike cakes, which have to be thrown away,” she says.

Chocolate sculptures are commonly seen in competitions and events as a showpiece. Social media has brought more attention to chocolate sculpting, feels Vinesh.

The design process

At the baking academy that Vinesh runs, one of the modules is ‘chocolate sculpture’. He explains the process as: “Start off with a sketch of an idea or theme. Work on putting it all together — cast all the big pieces first that take a longer time to set. While it sets, the smaller things can be worked on so it can be stuck together.

“We ensure that the chocolate is strong and does not melt when there is a slight temperature fluctuation,” says Arvind.

The designing process includes creating a chocolate base, melting chocolate, tempering it, giving it a form, and then creating a design out of it, while ensuring it looks beautiful by adding colours. This is done with cocoa butter.

Avinash’s designs are mostly earthen-looking vessels and nature-based sculptures like swans. For sculptures, he works directly with the chocolate after building a base. But for a portrait, he sketches it on paper or the medium it will be made on.

Ananya is impressed by the trend of hyper-realistic sculptures. She is deeply inspired by nature. She starts with sketch-like others. “I give it shape with the help of tempered chocolate, which is poured on a silicone or cardboard mould, wrapped in a plastic-like sheet. The next task is to make it presentable and realistic,” says Ananya.

Key factors

Dark chocolate is the most preferred type. “Unlike milk chocolate or white chocolate, dark chocolate does not have milk solids, which gives more stability to the sculpture. The harder the chocolate, the more stable the structure,” explains Avinash.

The temperature of the surrounding area is also key — for a sculpture to stay as it is, the temperature around should be approximately 17-19 degrees Celsius.

Interesting designs

Vinesh has worked on themes like crypto, ramen, and Mario in recent times. The ‘ramen’ themed chocolate sculpture created by the diploma students of Lavonne, under the leadership of Vinesh, garnered 37,900 views on Instagram. This sculpture was presented as noodles coming out of a bowl on a table with a Japanese flower and a fan. The Mario-themed sculpture garnered 24,100 views — it used both white and dark chocolate.

For most chocolatiers, their symbols or motifs depend on their themes. “If the theme is Christmas, it will have elements like simple balls, gifts, Christmas tree and Santa,” says Arvind.

He has sculpted other pieces like ‘Pretty Peacock’, which consists of three pieces of chocolate put together in its feathers, ‘Rain Drop’ that was inspired by a painting of a woman under an umbrella, and other abstract pieces.

Equipment

Basic tools like chocolate scrapers, thermometers, and marble-topped tables are commonly used, says Arvind. Vinesh, who uses a pen and paper to initially design, uses equipment ranging from melting kettles to tempering machines to tools like palette knives, moulds and other sculpting tools.

A chocolate flute that plays!

A playable and edible flute made out of chocolate was created last year by Vinesh Johny. “During the lockdown, I came across a video of someone making a flute. While watching it, I got inspired to make it out of chocolate,” Vinesh says. He contacted his friend Parth Chandiramani, a flautist and worked on the model.

“Making a wind instrument out of something so fragile and sensitive is not easy. With every note that is played by blowing, heat is produced, which the chocolate is not friendly to,” he adds.

Thus, the process took about a month. Parth played AR Rahman’s hit song ‘Urvasi Urvasi’ on the chocolate flute, which was also re-shared by the Oscar-winning music composer.