World's Largest Chocolate Sculpture: Massive Pyramid Breaks Guinness World Record

Chocolate-lovers, here's something you should know about: Qzina Specialty Foods has broken a Guinness World Record for building the world's largest chocolate sculpture.

Modeled after an Ancient Mayan temple, Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza, the work weighs a whopping 18,239 pounds, which far surpasses the previous record of 7,500. The company's corporate pastry chef, Francois Mellet, led the effort, with help from top craftsman Stephane Treand. Altogether, the project took more than 400 hard hours of construction.

Their attention to detail is extraordinary -- the structure is exactly proportional to its inspiration, down to the the number of steps and panels. It's precisely one-thirtieth the size of the original with a base of 10 feet by 10 feet and a height of six feet.

“Breaking a Guinness World Record for building the largest chocolate sculpture will be Qzina’s greatest masterpiece yet,” said Qzina founder and CEO Richard Foley in a release. “We studied Mayan pyramids at great lengths to create an exact replica of the Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza to honor the original chocolatiers." The sculpture, he said, was created in celebration of the company's 30th anniversary and its newly-opened Qzina Institute of Chocolate and Pastry.

The pyramid will be on display at the institute from June 4 through Dec. 21, when the Mayan calendar comes to an end. Fittingly, it'll then be destroyed. Stay tuned on how they plan to do it.

Click through the below gallery for a behind-the-scenes look at the pyramid's construction and the final result.

Comments

[sensiu]

05:36 PM on 05/20/2012

The Mayans: The First Real Chocolate-Lovers (taken from allchocolate.com) THE MAYANS WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD!! The Mayans are considered the most culturally advanced among the Mesoamerican civilizations. During the Mayan Classic Age (300-900 A.D.), they had cities with majestic pyramid-temples and palaces, a calendar calculated to end in the 21st century, and a complex written language that filled thousands of books. They also were the first true chocolate aficionados, treasuring cacao as a restorative, mood-enhancing cure-all. It became an integral part of their society, used in ceremonies, given as gifts and incorporated into their mythologies.

Burial tombs have been found that contain offerings, including ancient potteries that bear witness to cacao’s importance. The vases are covered with paintings showing Mayan gods fighting over beans and kings waiting to be served cacao creations.

Chocolate plays a part in Mayan religion.....for the rest of this article go to:
http://www.allchocolate.com/understanding/history/pre_columbian.aspx

[Conrad Miller]

01:31 AM on 05/16/2012

Sad, sad, waste of perfectly edible chocolate. During a time of unparallelled poverty and hunger, you'd think companies would be much more respectful.

[johnny1111]

04:37 PM on 05/20/2012

really? just being a negative person must be a hard thing to do.

[ninzo]

04:32 PM on 05/15/2012

A chocolate Mayan Temple? I have finally found my religion! I'll worship chocolate!

[Jose Luis Herrera]

11:21 AM on 05/15/2012

who saw "charlie and the choclate factory with johnny depp?...remember the castle he built out of chocolate?....lets all just watch it "melt" to the ground...or just have a giant smores party!!! who is bringing the marshmellows? ...i bring the graham crackers!!!

[abudotcom]

11:14 AM on 05/15/2012

Whaooo.. Can I move in? I love Chocolate.... PLS HELP SAVE EARTH..... as far as I know,
its the only Planet with Chocolate.. ;-)

[sunestate]

11:14 AM on 05/15/2012

Awesome. I just want to get inside that thing and eat my way out! YUM!!!!

[catwomencjk]

11:13 AM on 05/15/2012

Excuse me, but I can't appreciate a place of human torture and murder. Evil. Animals.

[tws9652]

12:07 PM on 05/15/2012

Excuse me, but how did you get, "...human torture and murder. Evil. Animals", from a chocolate sculpture?

I don't understand. Would you enlighten me, please?

[Koiblossom]

08:35 AM on 05/15/2012

Cool !

[butchcliff]

07:18 AM on 05/15/2012

mmmm (18k+) chocolate. Looks pretty tasty. My teeth are hurting just looking at it.

[mrchasmaniac]

05:16 AM on 05/15/2012

I was so inspired, that I broke into my Toblerone stash and ate my own chocolate pyramid.

[drc4337]

12:43 AM on 05/15/2012

Who, what, where, when & why? This article fails to meet even the most basic standards of journalism.

[nebro]

01:04 AM on 05/15/2012

You probably think that way because you forgot to read beyond the headline. It's all in there.

[revko]

10:12 PM on 05/14/2012

Did a giant chocolate bunny make him do it?

[Brighteye]

07:58 PM on 05/14/2012

What a waste of 18000 pounds of chocolate. It would be okay if people could buy pieces to eat afterwards but this is complete outright WASTE.

[WendyWillowDuggar]

08:55 PM on 05/14/2012

If people *could* buy a piece, you'd be griping about the obesity epidemic instead.

[Brighteye]

09:17 PM on 05/14/2012

Who the HECK are you to tell me how I think?

[skevwe]

09:33 AM on 05/15/2012

Or even about predisposing others to diabetes.

[johnny1111]

04:39 PM on 05/20/2012

really you have nothing else better to do, this is not a outright waste of anything, except your comments of course, no purpose behind it.

[Lifeisdone]

05:48 PM on 05/14/2012

i am always in awe of people who are able to create like this. Absolutely amazing