Chocolatier Dean Gibson's passion for his craft is contagious. Just ask his students.
Known for creating world-first moving - and edible - works of art like Iron Shark and The Boneshaker, Gibson has been conducting a chocolate confection masterclass for students at TAFE NSW Hamilton in recent weeks.
Read more: Take a deep dive into project Iron Shark
"Produce Chocolate Confectionary" is a popular learning unit run by him as part of the Certificate IV Patisserie course. Students tempered chocolate to create and decorate Christmas-themed bonbons as part of their final assessment, while Gibson made a raven-themed chocolate Christmas bauble.
"The class is made up of 50 per cent chefs, some professional cake decorators, pastry chefs, and a few enthusiasts. Being able to temper and present chocolates gives them an advantage. They can do desserts, they can do petit fours," he told Food & Wine.
"For students to be presenting those industry-standard chocolate confectionaries, yes, it's very rewarding. It's nice to hear that students are saying nice things about me and the course too [laughs]."
Maddison Turner, 22, has been an apprentice baker for the past three years. She lives at Wyee, works at a bakery in Lake Munmorah and travels to Hamilton to study.
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"I just love coming here to this TAFE and learning. All of the teachers are so committed," she said.
"I know how to temper chocolate now, and it's a top tier skill to have. Wherever I go, I don't have to be taught how to do that. I can just quickly do it."
Is tempering chocolate as difficult as it looks?
"It's very technical but once you know the steps, and you memorise all the information, it is pretty straight forward," Turner replied.
"This course teaches you a lot. All those basic steps, how to store things, how to recognise faults and know how to fix them. I love the creative aspect of working with chocolate - layering flavours and textures and using different colours and designs."
Gibson hopes to offer the unit again next year.
"The course is just five lessons. It's intense but that's how it needs to be," he said.
"We're using high quality ingredients. We can deliver it in a short period of time and then students can return to work and put their skills into practice."
As for his two-metre-long Iron Shark, it has a new home at the Continental Patisserie library in Sydney.
"The library has the biggest collection of patisserie books in Australia. There's over 900 books dating back to the 1920s and they've all been donated," Gibson explained.
"You walk into the library, which is air-conditioned, and in the middle is the shark.
"We had to do a bit of repair work after it was couriered to Sydney but it still moves and everything. Iron Shark was all about showing people what highly skilled tradespeople can do."
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