We’ve found a spiritual successor of sorts to the “Is it cake?” trend. And this time we’re looking at a wildly impressive pastry chef and chocolatier who is constantly dazzling Instagram with his very realistic chocolate recreations. Those of us astonished by what people can do with food are probably familiar with Amaury Guichon. The chef, who runs the Pastry Academy in Las Vegas, is very popular online—and his recent masterpiece is a good example why. The chocolatier spent five whole days creating a giant squid, made entirely out of chocolate. And if we hadn’t seen the full video of him constructing the huge chocolate sculpture, we might mistake it for the real thing. (Or, at least a sculpture made out of non-edible materials.)
According to Guichon, whose incredible sculpture we first saw at Laughing Squid, the whole thing took about five days to construct. And in the end, the chocolate giant squid weighed about 95 pounds. That is certainly a lot of chocolate. Of the inspiration for the design, Guichon wrote in the video’s description, “It’s always fun to combine an aquatic theme with architectural elements, my favorite feature is the rusted anchor technique.”
The end result is astonishing on its own. But it’s incredibly fun seeing exactly how Guichon created the giant squid and its rusted anchor accessory. Throughout the four minute-long video, Guichon takes us through the process. From templates to molds to using even more chocolate to hold the piece together, Guichon makes it quite clear—as if we had any doubts—that this is a work of art. The detail really brings it together. From the giant squid’s vibrant color to the rusted anchor, Guichon goes above and beyond.
The chef is no stranger to incredible chocolate and pastry designs—which range from giant tiger to old-fashioned race car. But still, the giant squid might just be our favorite. Stick it in a tank and it looks like something we’d see in a MBARI video. Hopefully Guichon takes another dive into aquatic and deep sea chocolate designs.
