Mumbai Chef Creates 4-Foot, 75-Kg Chocolate Ganesha Idol Entirely By Hand Without Moulds Or Supports

A Mumbai-based pastry chef named Sankesh Bangera crafted a four-foot-tall Ganesha weighing 75 kg entirely out of chocolate without the aid of moulds or non-edible supports. He claimed that the sculpture took over 36 hours to create over a period of three days. The main challenge was to ensure the structure remained stable through chocolate craftsmanship while preserving the intricate detailing, expression, and elegance of the idol.

Unlike traditional large-scale chocolate sculptures, Bangera chose to sculpt the idol by hand, allowing him to maintain control over its features, proportions, posture, and finer details. One of the biggest challenges was ensuring the structural balance, as the sculpture had to support its own weight without any non-edible internal supports.

This required meticulous planning and balancing of each section, especially the arms, crown, ornaments, and extended elements which created outward weight. Temperature control was another significant challenge, as chocolate softens quickly due to body heat and ambient temperature, yet needed to remain strong enough to support both large forms and intricate details.

Bangera emphasized that sculpting without a mould provided him with the freedom to correct, add, carve, and change the piece until it felt right, particularly for the face, trunk, crown, jewellery, hands, drapery, and Mushak. The idol was worshipped at an outlet in Pune before being immersed in milk on the fifth day of the festival on September 18, after which visitors were offered a chocolate milkshake made from the Ganpati idol.