Marijn Roovers and chef Wouter van Laarhoven have printed you a delicate, tasty creation, according to Scientific American. Roovers' Chocolate Globe is a 0.8 millimeter thick chocolate shell embossed in gold with chocolate's continent of origin. The shell also holds delights that represent the region. The globe is printed layer by-layer with a 3-D printer. Each globe takes an hour to print.
"It's not very realistic," Hod Lipson, an engineer at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., according to Scientific American."At the moment it's a way to show craftsmanship."
"There is a big debate in the 3D-printing world: will one day everybody have a 3D printer at home? Is it like a personal computer?" said Lipson, according to Scientific American. "I think the answer is yes, but it's not going to print plastic. It's going to be a food printer."
Some adventurous foodies have already started swapping recipes online, including recipes with odd ingredients like ground up insects. Lipson noted that just because a purple cube tastes like broccoli, doesn't mean it should be considered cuisine. "It's edible," he said, according to Scientific American, "but when you eat it you feel very uncomfortable."
Roovers claims his globes taste akin to aerated chocolate bars, aided by their 200 individually printed layers. According to Scientific American, Roovers said that consumers are more conservative when it comes to savory foods, but his customers are used to new textures and colors for his sweets. "People just need time to adapt to some changes in the way food is presented," Roovers said.
