After seeing how he made the individual chocolate pieces and how he put everything together, and knowing students my level are expected to learn these techniques this term, I'm really inspired.
Here in this photo, you can see it is a showpiece with fish, shells, coral and seaweeds. It really made me think of the Great Barrier Reef...
Most of the chocolate pieces were made with moulds, but the coral in the foreground was made by allowing chocolate to set inside a bowl of ice cubes. As the liquid chocolate flowed into the gaps between the ice cubes, it hardens into what looks like coral.
The seaweeds in the background are made by spreading some chocolate on an acetate sheet, cutting out the desired shapes with a knife and then allowing the sheet of chocolate to set in a tuile mould, to give it a wavy form.
(Aside: There is a picture of a tuile mould in BP Lesson 10: Petits Fours Secs.)
Oh, I can't wait to buy some dark chocolate to try out some of the techniques... Of course, I have to practise tempering chocolate first.
