While the announcement of winning "student" is anticlimactic, each contestant has their moment of accomplishment and growth. By retaining many of the usual competitive elements and structure, more time than I would like is spent on character triumphs and angst, with less time on the whizzbang confections I came here to lap up. Favored contestants were too obvious, and one episode literally divided the group's strongest and "weakest" players - remember, these are all skilled professionals - into two glaringly unequal assignments. School of Chocolate isn't perfect by any means. Rather than eject skilled professionals who had a bad day or didn't quite master an architectural challenge mere cake-baking mortals would be hard-pressed to attempt, we lovers of food art witness even underdogs create feats of incredible culinary imagination (including an astonishing salmon roe "nigiri" you have to see to believe). Amid grudging pats on the back, gamesmanship occasionally rears its head.īut while the cream quickly rises to the top, keeping the class together gives viewers who care more about the jaw-dropping creations and less about the backstabbing a wonderful gift: more.Ī 100% chocolate showpiece from Netflix's School of Chocolate. Poor performers are forced to sit out rounds, and only the top two vie for the final challenge. There's deep tension from the start of the eight-episode season, and the stakes feel surprisingly real. The tone is a squeeze sharper than the good-natured, sometimes frothy and saccharine Great British Bake Off. Netflix may call the show "feel-good," but that doesn't mean it's all fondant and buttercream in School. The point of it all is for contestants to learn advanced techniques and improve over challenges that push their skills to the brink and reveal the breakout chocolatiers we can't help but elevate to star status. This sculpture made from pure chocolate is ferociously delicious.Īs with actual school, the School of Chocolate cohort remains intact throughout the entire competition, shedding tears, getting catty, jockeying for position - and a $50,000 cash prize - and creating piece after piece of astounding, towering, gravity-defying show art out of pure chocolate and pastry that at times makes me gasp in awe. Edible surprises layered within clever cakes that are both instantly mouthwatering and too gorgeous to eat. A chocolate octopus that looks impossibly real (pictured below).
WATCH THE OFFICE SEASON 8 EPISODE 17 PROFESSIONAL
Hosted by Swiss-born chef Amaury Guichon, whose TikTok videos of amazingly intricate and realistic chocolate creations garner millions of views, School of Chocolate is a masterclass in technique that eight professional pastry chefs - and all of us - get to see firsthand.Ĭhocolate sculpture with interactive hinges.