Post date: Mar 23, 2013 6:22:8 PM
French chocolatier designs an unusual Easter treat - a giant chocolate 'Obelix' which stands at one meter tall.
PARIS, FRANCE (MARCH 23, 2013) (REUTERS) - This Easter surprise may be a little difficult to hide in the garden as it is one meter tall and weighs 60 kilos.
Eric Lamy, a French chocolatier has designed a giant chocolate 'Obelix' to go on sale on Sunday (March 24) which was exhibited with other chocolate pieces on Saturday (March 23).Collections from the auction "chocolate sculptures" that also features other chocolate treats such as a giant pyramid of 90 eclairs and a couple of rabbits will go to a a children's charity.
The auctioneer Fabien Mirabaud is confident that the fact the benefits of the auction sale will go to a charity will encourage people to spend a lot of money on chocolate sculptures.
The giant Obelix could reach thousands of euros he said.
"An auctioneer doesn't have a Crystal ball and since this auction sale is for charity there is something effective about that. It's linked to sick children, so we can expect to reach several thousand euros if the public is ready to respond to expectations," he said.
All chocolatiers and organisers are volunteers.
Some spent days to create the chocolate sculptures to be sold on Sunday, likeFabien Rouillard, a pastry chef at famous chocolatier Fauchon who spent two days creating his chocolate pyramid.
"I mean, to think about it around a day, to create it and to make sure what we are going to do, and after it took about ten hours to do it, just to produce it with my chef, " Rouillard said.
Whatever the time spent, like others, Rouillard hopes first to raise the most money possible for the charity organisation fighting for children with cancer.
"We hope the auction is going to work well, after we don't give a price a special price, we will see. It depends how the people are generous. We will see," Rouillard said.
French pastry chefs and chocolatiers have built a fine reputation all over the world.
Paris chocolatier Jean-Marc Rue says that despite the competition with supermarkets, chocolatiers have convinced buyers to come back to hand-made chocolate.
"French chocolatiers have reached a very high level, there is a big competition but people want good quality products. I can see in Paris where there are lots of good chocolatiers selling good products that we managed to demonstrate the difference with the chocolate sold in supermarkets," he said.
For those who miss the sale, it will be still possible to get some copies of the sculptures as most chocolatiers will redo their sculptures in smaller sizes for Easter.