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Bellagio: How To Engineer A Chocolate Fountain

Where: 3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd. [map], Las Vegas, nv, United States, 89109

One of our hotel mavens, tkhong1989, leads us, not only to photos of the Bellagio's large chocolate fountain, but also to an interesting discussion on eGullet about Jean Philippe Patisserie (that is the bakery that houses the fountain). Thanks tk.

Here is a sample discussion of the mechanical engineering behind the above mentioned fontaine du chocolate:

Discussion Board Member:

Oh, Im sure its real chocolate! I would guess that the chocolate is collected at the base of the fall, passed through a heated tube and pumped back out at the top, something like a tempering machine.

Pastry Kitchen Neil:

Yep, that's how it works - just like a regular water fountain. In fact, we were told it's designed to operate continuously for over a year without having to change or replace the chocolate. Since chocolate contains no water, there's no evaporation. Basically it's a fat fountain, and cocoa butter doesn't actually spoil, unlike butter for instance. Sorry, I don't know what brand they use for this thing.

So it is just like water for chocolate. Ahh, we just couldn't resist ourselves.

Click on the photo for the grande version.

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