Giant Easter egg unveiled at The Grand Hotel

Tradition dictates the kitchen of the Grand Hotel, on Eastbourne seafront, produces a magnificent giant Easter egg for its guests and this year was no exception.

This year the enormous chocolate egg weighed in at a whopping 18kg – roughly the same weight as a 4-year-old child.

That’s 18 kilos of high quality Belgian chocolate couverture with 70 per cent cocoa, to which pure cocoa butter is then added.

It took creator and head pastry chef Carlos Dantas more than eight solid hours to put the egg together.

Head chef of the Mirabelle restaurant at The Grand, Gerald Roser, kindly lent a hand at the crucial moments. The hardest part of creating such a huge egg in the heating and cooling to precise temperatures to make sure it is super glossy and has a good snap when it is broken.

The huge chocolate egg was then decorated and stored safely until its unveiling on Good Friday.

The Easter guests at the hotel enjoyed marvelling at the impressive chocolate egg, which was displayed at The Grand among a sea of springtime daffodils.

It will now follow the tradition of previous years and be donated to a local charity or good cause.

Executive head chef Keith Mitchell said, “This egg has become as traditional to our Easter guests as the hot cross buns on arrival and the Easter Bunny on Easter Day, so we knew we couldn’t disappoint.

“The most challenging part of the production is definitely the tempering of the chocolate, which involved melting, heating and cooling it to precise temperatures; it simply has to be right to get that beautiful shine and satisfying snap when the shell is broken.”

The Grand is at the western end of King Edward Parade.

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