By Alexander Chituc
BRUSSELS, April 1 (Reuters) – The 40 leading patisserie chefs and chocolatiers in Belgium came together to showcase artisanal chocolate with Easter egg-themed edible artworks in the country’s capital on Wednesday.
Bel’Oeuf is an initiative by Belgian chocolatier Marc Ducobu in collaboration with Carlo Ferrigno, the manager of Hotel Amigo, a luxury hotel near the Brussels town hall in the historic Gothic Grand-Place square.
The fourth annual event’s theme was “fun in movement”, with sculptures in the shape of rocket ships, carriages, and hot-air balloons, some taking up to 25 hours to complete and using up to 18 kilograms of chocolate.
“Chocolate in a way, it’s a medium that you can sculpt with,” said Michael Lewis-Anderson, a British-Belgian pastry chef who baked the wedding anniversary cake for Belgian King Philippe.
“All of a sudden, all these chocolate makers become artists. And that’s what’s great about it,” he said after setting up his own creation, “L’Uovo in Carrozza: The Coached Egg,” featuring Humpty Dumpty on a carriage atop an Alice-in-Wonderland-inspired chessboard.
“And you can eat it,” he added.
Belgium, a country of nearly 12 million, is famous around the world for its culinary products such as waffles, beers, and, of course, chocolate.
The exhibition will be open to the public from Thursday until Wednesday, April 8, and admissions and art sales will be donated to Televie, a Belgian cancer research organisation.
Each artwork is on sale for 900 euros ($1,050) and the centrepiece, “The First Movement”, a work by famous pastry chef Christophe Morel, will be auctioned off for a price beginning at 1,500 euros.
For Pierre Marcolini, award-winning pastry chef and chocolatier, the event is a chance for Belgian artisans to gain visibility for their work and demonstrate their creativity.
“I think people need to move beyond the idea that chocolate—or Belgian chocolate—is just pralines,” he said. “It can be something else; it can be works of art.”
($1 = 0.8609 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Chituc, Bart Biesemans and A Lennon, editing by Inti Landauro and Keith Weir)
