If Leonardo da Vinci’s paint had tasted nearly as good as Janice Wong’s, we would have been deprived of his masterpieces for sure. Let me explain.
At the media reception to celebrate the launch of Singapore Art Week back in January, there was a speech from the organiser, there were chances for the journalists to meet various officials, and you could also paint your own lollipop.
Janice Wong, Asia’s top pastry chef two years in a row, has developed a spectrum of liquid-chocolate paints which can you use to create pictures on a canvas (as she had done) or, by layering them, to build up your own edible, rainbow-like confection.
I forbore from attempting anything on canvas – no Madonna of the Dairy Milks from me – but did give the lollipopping a go. First, you lay a stick onto greaseproof paper then dip your paintbrush into a colour and start daubing around the stick.
It’s much harder than you’d think. It’s tough to be precise in establishing a shape – the paint slips and runs. Then, unless you wait for each layer to be almost dry, your colours bleed. You need to be very attentive to the viscosity of the paint. It’s hard to get it flat, so you build up a bumpy lolly. And since each shade of paint is flavoured (green mango, smoked chocolate), god knows what the result will taste like.
You can see my pitiful effort at a J below. Still, Janice Wong’s chocolate painting was a lot better than most of the art I saw at Art Stage Singapore – but more of that in the next issue of Spear’s.