Professional Chocolate Showpieces

Pastry art competitions are fundamental milestones in the career of a professional pastry chef. Chocolate sculpture competitions are by far the most challenging field where artistic abilities and technical skills play a major role. This course offers students the knowledge needed to join the world of international chocolate competitions by covering the entire process of competition sculpture from design to creation. The international evaluation standards will be analyzed and will be the starting point of the creative plan developed by students to present in competition: dimension and proportion, applied color percentage, balance of the various elements, sugar decorations application, cleanliness of the work, theme recognizability, and more. Students will learn how to produce their own resin, plaster and PVC molds, while all other operations will be rigorously hand-made. Special emphasis will be placed on a variety of different techniques such as carving, hand-modeling, hydro-free butter application, and piping-painting. Students will learn the guidelines for the choice of suitable colors to be applied in relation to a specific theme. The course will include also the application of basic geometry and physics principles in order to guarantee the balance and stability of the sculpture.

Prerequisites: Advanced Chocolate Artistry or equivalent.