Chef Janice Wong makes a sweet treat for time

SINGAPORE — Swiss artisanal watch brand Claude Bernard often emphasises the passion that artisans invest in their craft. So it was not surprising that the company looked to renowned Singapore chef Janice Wong when they wanted a sweet treat for the Claude Bernard Time Is Movement SG50 Watch Artisans Exhibition (on until Aug 30). The chef responded with an artisanal chocolate sculpture, called Time In Movement, inspired by four of Claude Bernard’s signature watch models (The Swirl, The Moon, The Spectacle and The Calendar).

Made from 30kg of 76 per cent Equateur dark chocolate, the sculpture features more than 100 “hands” with more than 100 turns that swirl upwards in a seemingly never-ending spiral. Each hand is also painted with edible rose gold to match the rose-gold finishings of Claude Bernard timepieces.

When conceptualising this piece, Wong said she also considered what time meant to her. “Time is moving, it is memories, precious and fragile,” she said. “Time is a form of movement as we are constantly evolving and the world is changing faster than we can change it. Time is memories because it’s past, present, future. Time is precious because every minute counts and you can’t have it back.”

“The collaboration with Claude Bernard is very interesting and I took it up because it challenges me as a chef to create a unique piece of art based on time,” added the chef-owner of the popular 2AM:dessertbar. “For me, it’s a timeless masterpiece, one of the most challenging I’ve ever done, because I wanted to make it so fragile so as to showcase the fragility of time and the movement of time. Every piece of chocolate is hand-crafted, very similar to Claude Bernard’s hand-assembled watches, vision and values.

“So, following Claude Bernard’s values, this 30kg art piece is a showcase of time moving in stillness — each hand-prepared chocolate is stacked up one piece at a time, equally measured to appear that it ‘ticks’ like a Claude Bernard watch. It is also encased and stacked in four chocolate boxes to signify tradition, history and quality.”

Pamela Tan, the senior brand manager of Claude Bernard, said Wong was their first choice as a collaborator. “Working with Janice Wong on this project has been an eye-opener. Despite her busy schedule, she still painstakingly finds time to come up with original designs, creations and flavours for her chocolates,” said Tan.

“She is a perfectionist in ensuring that her chocolates are beautiful to the eye and that taste is never compromised. Her hands-on approach and dedication to the art of chocolate making is very similar to Claude Bernard timepieces where the founder Victor Strambini still carefully creates the timepieces and personally ensures that each timepiece maintains its high-quality standard.”

The Claude Bernard Time Is Movement SG50 Watch Artisans Exhibition runs until Aug 30, 10am to 10pm daily at the Vivocity Atrium (Central Court C).