Various: Grande Chocolate

(adam štěch) Eat chocolate. It is healthy and improves your imagination and concentration. Some types of chocolate might even mediate unexpected encounters and new experiences, as in the cases of Tokyo Nendo, Italian Jjuice, or the Belgian designer Christiane Hoegner. Honestly, when was the last time you ate works of art?

The designers from Nendo have turned the concept of chocolate upside down. They mystify us. The Nendo studio, which is spoken about more and more these days, designed chocolate pencils for Tokyo confectioner Tsujiguchi Hironobu, who owns several successful delicatessen shops in the Japanese capital, including Mont St. Claire and Le Chocolat de H. Although the pencils are made from both classic milk and dark chocolate, there are also other variations.
About their project, the Nendo designers stated that “We wanted to bring the beauty of meals and eating closer to art. Why couldn’t serving meals be similar to the experience of laying color on canvas?”
The chocolate pencils were, in fact, designed as a set and accompanied by an elegant porcelain tray and a pencil sharpener. The sharpener is the main trick of the whole concept, allowing you to decorate your favorite dessert yourself by sharpening the chocolate pencil. In this way, a beautiful and highly original ornamentation will be created and will look like real shavings from a wooden pencil. The chocolate shavings become a real treat and a visual delicacy.
Another interesting example represents the cooperation of the Italian Jjuice Studio with the traditional chocolate manufacturer Pasticceria Gertosio from Turin. Last year, they introduced their collection of untraditional chocolate bars entitled Lagrange34. In their hands, circular or square grids similar to architecture were formed into cocoa delicacies. It was not an accident that the first machine that could process chocolate into various forms was invented in Turin in the 18th century by Mr. Doret. Where else should contemporary designers experiment with chocolate forms if not in Turin?
“We wanted to transform something very ordinary into an extraordinary experience in everyday life,” say the authors about their intention. As a result, the collection is a tribute to Turin – the traditional chocolate producer. At the same time, it experiments with the potential that chocolate offers in the field of design and its new techniques. The whole series culminates with a chocolate relief map of Turin.
The Belgian designer Christiane Hoegner uses chocolate for relief mapping of different landscapes. At first sight, her bar of chocolate, named Made in Switzerland, looks like an irregular and rough pancake. However, the enclosed plan reveals that it is a plastic map of the Alps. You can choose which Alpine peak to eat first.

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