What you see above is chocolate.
Or a finely-crafted food sculpture made of some of the world's finest chocolate by Barcelona-based food photographer and Pastry Chef Balazs Enzsol, to be exact.
Pastry Chef Balazs Enzsol's work has a distinct style: he regularly introduces unique, and distinctly masculine themes on his dessert plates for diverse groups of eaters from all around the world.
For instance, in the photo above (clicked by Pastry Chef Enzsol himself,) one sees a strong pair of hands seemingly rising in resistance, albeit with a splatter of "blood" alongside; as if a modern day still from an action-packed video game had come alive on a plate.
Similarly, one can find realistic-looking fat cigars, and a whole array of chess pieces, chocolate axes, white bamboo sticks, black chicken claws, and fortresses; all made of chocolate and other sweet and savory ingredients.
Chef Balazs Enzsol's take on desserts revolves around structure, order, and precision in the most literal sense, while ensuring a captivating aesthetic.
He doesn't seem to only "build" desserts, but also puts forth real-life, building components in dessert form: nuts and "bolts", chocolate concrete "bricks", granite "floors", and even Jenga pieces.
Above: 'The Knight' made from asparagus and pine nut.
Above: The Cigar Dessert.
Above: The Black Chicken Claw Desert.
Above: An edible planet.
Above: A "bamboo" shoot made from white chocolate.
Above: A chocolate "concrete" brick.
Above: Iced parfait "nuts and bolts."
Above: A masterful recreation of a real axe in dessert form.
Above: 'The Isle of Lewis' chess pieces in dessert form.
All this, of course, is not to say that Chef Balazs Enzsol does not make traditional desserts. However, even when he makes more traditional cakes and pastries, they often bear characteristic stamps of refined structure and order.
In practice, this translates to neatly formed lines and visible layers of ingredients. This is true even when he covers his pastries and cakes with beautiful recreations of abstract art, or spidery multi-colored glaze.
Above: A recreation of a modern painting atop a layered cake.
Above: A take on mushrooms.
Above: A strawberry tart.
Above: A 'skull' inspired by fine art.
Above: The Granny Smith Dessert, which very well may be seen as his elegant ode to the green apple- in cake form.
Above: A beautiful set of eclairs.
Chef Balazs Enzsol is also an immensely gifted photographer as he often photographs his culinary works himself. In doing so, he often makes them appear like extraordinary artifacts worthy of appreciation and preservation in the best art museums.
There is, for instance, the fruit series in which Chef Enzsol makes desserts look like real, fresh fruits:
Above: The lemon mousse dessert.
Above: A glassy pear.
Above: The cherry dessert- all in a dusty paint of white.
Then, there are desserts shaped like man-made museum artifacts:
Above: A mask made using a specialized mold from Chef Enzsol's own 'Damazo Molds.'
Above: An Easter egg.
Above: The Divo Traiano Dessert.
We look forward to following future visionary works of culinary art by Chef Enzsol. Indeed, his new silicone, dessert mold-making endeavor, called Damazo Molds, may well herald exciting designs in desserts, while equipping passionate bakers and professionals alike to adapt these unique tools to make interesting desserts of their own.
🖊 Lakshmi Art Press.