With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we’ve got sweet treats on the mind, particularly the kind born out of the design world. Take, for instance, Kohler. Yes, that Kohler. Last month at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS), the mega company known for such successful brands as Kallista, Ann Sacks and Robern served up confections in its booth that were mouthwatering bite-size pieces of art. But believe it or not, this isn’t Kohler’s first foray into sweets.
Kohler
Insisting that the turtle — chocolate-covered pecans and caramel — could be improved upon, CEO and chairman Herb Kohler Jr. challenged the chefs at the company’s five-star resort in Wisconsin to concoct a recipe. The result, the Terrapin, debuted in 2007 with the launch of the Kohler Original Recipe Chocolates brand. What differentiates the Terrapin from most ordinary turtles is a more complex blend of handpicked salted pecans and a smoky burnt caramel.
Kohler
Since then, Kohler has rolled out different varieties of the Terrapins, the sculptural and colorful truffles Rare Facets and Garden Ganache, milk and dark chocolate bars, Caffè & Cream shells and, most recently, a naturally infused dark chocolate brandy produced at Milwaukee’s Central Standard Craft Distillery. While it might be too late to order your Kohler chocolates and brandy online, you may be able to find them in your area at specialty food stores. (Click here to search for shops that carry Kohler Original Recipe Chocolates.)
Dinara Kasko
On a larger scale, we look to the stunning creations unveiled last year by architectural designer–turned-pastry chef Dinara Kasko. Her baked desserts and chocolate blocks not only look architectural in appearance, but are also made using architectural-like processes and thought, from creating molds using geometric constructing principles to layering the pastries with internal “scaffolds” of ingredients such as mascarpone and mousse.
Dinara Kasko
But, did you know that you, too, could make some of these yourself? Kasko has made available handmade silicone molds for three of her designs. Each is priced at $65 and uses food-grade silicone.
Dinara Kasko
Dinara Kasko
Dinara Kasko
And finally, while these aren’t available for purchase, we couldn’t overlook two other beautiful concepts that some designers have conjured up in recent years. Among them, there’s Nendo’s Chocolatexture project, which was shown at Maison et Objet Paris in 2015. The concept focused on how shape and texture can create distinct tastes in chocolate, as opposed to fillings and ingredients activating taste, by presenting nine intricate designs ranging from the spike “toge-toge” to the honeycomb-like “fuwa-fuwa.”
Nendo
Then there are the edible chocolate LEGO bricks that were made by illustrator and designer Akihiro Mizuuchi in 2014. These may look rather delicate, but they can actually connect just like the real non-edible modules. In order to achieve this, Mizuuchi created molds from actual LEGO bricks, complete with the LEGO logo in the top of the pieces. Although you can’t buy Mizuuchi’s bricks, you can find a number of Etsy sellers who are specializing in whimsical LEGO-shaped chocolates.
Akihiro Mizuuuchi
Akihiro Mizuuuchi