The World’s Largest Chocolate Sculpture

Chocolate and pastry professionals Qzina has created a chocolate sculpture that weighs 18,239 pounds—breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest chocolate sculpture in the world.

Qzina’s six-feet tall, solid chocolate sculpture is modelled after an ancient Mayan temple—as a tribute to the role the Mayans played in the origins of chocolate.

According to the company, the Mayans were “one of the first civilizations to cultivate Cacao trees” and discover the true (delicious) potential of the cocoa bean.

Mayans worshiped the Cacao tree and regarded the beans as food of the gods.

Francois Mellet, lead architect of the record-breaking sculpture and pastry chef of Qzina; Stephane Treand, the best craftsman in France; and Mellet’s team spent more than 400 hours constructing the chocolate temple, using the company’s various chocolate brands.

A Mayan temple was thoroughly researched to get the exact number of steps and panels—details which were also significant to the Mayan calender.

The sculpture was built proportionately to the temple’s true size in a 1:30 ratio. Its base measures 10 feet by 10 feet.

“We studied Mayan pyramids at great lengths to create an exact replica of the Temple Kukulkan at Chichen Itza to honor the original chocolatiers,” Richard Foley, founder of Qzina, said in a statement.

“It was important for us to create something memorable in celebration of our 30th anniversary and the grand opening of the Qzina Institute of Chocolate & Pastry,” he said.

Qzina plans to destroy the chocolate sculpture on 21 December 2012—when the Mayan calendar was previously thought to come to an end.

For now, it will be displayed at the Qzina Institute of Chocolate & Pastry, in Irvine, California.

On a different note altogether—were the Mayans inspiration for Roald Dahl’s Oompa Loompas?

[via Qzina]