Melting moments for festival of chocolate

A renowned chocolate sculptor has crafted the centrepiece for Sydney’s Smooth Festival of Chocolat this weekend | WATCH

Traditional sculpting materials have their challenges, Dean Gibson believes, but nothing is more difficult than working with chocolate.

“It’s an uncompromising, unfriendly material to work with,” he said. “And you can’t display it when the temperature is above 24C — but damn, it’s tasty.”

The 49 year-old pastry chef, an internationally renowned chocolate sculptor and artist, has been enlisted to craft the centrepiece for Sydney’s third annual Smooth Festival of Chocolate, to be held at The Rocks in Circular Quay this weekend. So far, the Halloween pumpkin-inspired piece weighs about 30kg and has been crafted by hand out of Callebaut Belgian chocolate.

“I first drew a picture of this maybe four months ago,” Gibson said. “But I try and enjoy the journey. I spent a lot of time working on each part. It’s an opportunity to show off.”

Unlike some edible sculpting ingredients, chocolate can be brushed, scraped and painted.

The “Pumpkin Head Scare Crow” is 1.7m tall and has the arm span of an adult male.

Mr Gibson, who has more than 36 years’ experience and teaches a diploma of patisserie at Hunter TAFE, says the Australian pastry scene has changed for the better.

“They called us ‘bush pastry cooks’ back then,” he said. “Pies, sausage rolls — that was reflective of us. Of course, there’s a place for Australian pastries like that, but the international trend is where the benchmark is. I would say over the last five years, we’re now one of the strong countries.’’