Choc art and wacky flavours sweet success at show
(13 Oct 2017) LEADIN:
Famed artworks by the likes of Picasso, Da Vinci and Van Gogh's are being re-imagined in chocolate form at London's Chocolate Show.
Experts say master chocolatiers are getting much more experimental, crafting wild and wacky flavourings such as beef, brie or basil.
STORYLINE:
This recreation of Pablo Picasso's 'The Weeping Woman' looks good enough to eat - that's because it is.
At London's The Chocolate Show, master chocolatiers are embracing their arty side, creating sweet tooth versions of famous works, including Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', 'The Scream' and Michelangelo's 'David.'
The annual event's 'Choco L'ART' gallery features classic art pieces re-imagined entirely in chocolate.
London-based Aneesh Popat from The Chocolatier used a combination of sponge and figure-painting to create his tasty 'Mona Lisa'.
There's so much in here face and her eyes that to be honest - from me, from my experience of painting her - you could do the entire Mona Lisa, but just the eyes and the nose and just that look she has, if you don't get that on it just didn't work, says Popat.
So, it the face that probably took 70 percent of the time, to be honest.
There are also sugar-coated versions of Hokusai's 'Great Wave', Van Gogh's 'Starry Night and Klimt's 'The Kiss'.
As a material it works like paint, for example, but then paint, you know, it doesn't snap, it doesn't break off, it's not an issue if there's too much heat or cold or damp, says Popat.
So that's a real big issue. It's about painting with it knowing that it needs to finish in a physical format as well as just looking right. So that's the hardest thing with chocolate.
Hotel Chocolat is making a statement with this chocolate version of anonymous artist Banksy's 'Balloon Girl.'
It took around three weeks to make and weighs about 120 kilos.
Named 'Cocoa Girl,' the towering chocolate artwork is engraved with the words 'Cheap Sugar' across it.
It's intended to encourage shoppers not to buy chocolate made using cheap ingredients, additives or preservatives.
It says cheap sugar strapped across the whole of the area with a big cross through and a kind of graffiti edge, explains Marisa Rowlatt from Hotel Chocolat.
So, this is for us not really to replicate something like for like as some of the other chocolatiers have opted to do, but it's about us, a statement piece, making sure people are buying the very best chocolate with the best ingredients and very little sugar.
The Chocolate Show at London's Kensington Olympia convention centre is set welcome over 20,000 visitors over three days.
This year's event, its fifth anniversary edition, is playing host to over 100 fine chocolatiers, chocolate companies, pastry makers and artisans.
People are getting way more experimental, way more adventurous, way more savvy in the way they buy and ask for chocolate, says master chocolatier Paul A. Young.
The days of milk, white and dark are gone. It is all about the origin, the bean, the variety, how long it's been roasted, ground and what we do with it as chocolatiers.
Many, like Paul A. Young, are touting unique and untraditional chocolate flavours like Pickled Walnut and Goats' Cheese or Marmite.
Young is particularly proud of his beef dripping caramel chocolate.
The thing that I get a kick from isn't that I've made a beef dripping caramel, it's that somebody comes up and says; 'I wouldn't normally buy it. Should I try it? What's it taste like? I'll try one, ' says Young.
Chocolate Show visitor Nettie Oakley-Prior says it reminds her of beef meals with her family - of course, the addition of caramel and chocolate is a new one.
Like many of us, visitor Esther Rowe doesn't normally pair cheese and chocolate together, but she says it tastes great.
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Rod Teal baling at Carr House Farm,Ampleforth
Rod Teal,agricultural contractor came to bale the field in front of our house. As they were trying to beat the weather they came with a 20 ft span rowing up machine as well For sucha little field and light crop poor Rod and hsi mate must have been tearing their hair out . But at least it will make it look tidy