Sugar Dome Fruit Carving Winner on food Network, John Montgomery at The Carve IV with his 5th Place Winning Piece

Food Network recently aired an episode of Sugar Dome that included fruit carving. The fruit carver on the winning team was John Montgomery. Even though John did a great job and won, he can carve even more beautifully than he did on the Sugar Dome fruit carving competition. I’ve got photos to prove it.

The show gives contestants limited time to carve which creates the necessity to hurry, which results in less beautiful carvings than one is capable of. Let me show you how beautifully John can carve.

I met John a couple of years ago at The Carve III carving competition in Holland Michigan where we competed in the People’s Choice competition. We both attended continue reading…

In today’s blog post, I am going to show you how using my new transfer pattern paper makes carving designs into melons and pumpkins SOOOO much easier. In my last blog post, I showed you a couple of celebrity portraits I carved in watermelon. I mentioned the transfer pattern paper as being super helpful.

Not only does this transfer pattern paper let you get to the fun part – carving – faster, it gives you a more clear and detailed pattern to follow. You will see what  mean when you take a look at this short video. continue reading…

Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, music mega-stars serve as judges on American Idol

I am a fan of American Idol. And I’ve been playing around with carving watermelon portraits. My watermelon carvings pretty much sum up the the relationship between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. At least that was my impression after seeing the audition in Charlotte, North Carolina.

I don’t have a lot to say about their antics on American Idol. I just thought it would be fun to carve this up and thought it might make people smile.

I’ve been experimenting with my new Transfer Pattern continue reading…

Portrait carved with pattern transfer paper

You might remember the story about my friend who carved her first pumpkin portrait  who I wrote about in a previous blog post.

When came to visit us over this past weekend and we had planned for her to carve the pumpkin that her friends had asked her to carve.

If you didn’t read my past blog post, my friend carved her first pumpkin portrait. It was done from a photo of her friend’s daughter. When her friends saw the pumpkin carved to look like their daughter, they asked my friend if they could hire her to carve another for Halloween.  So this past weekend our plan was for my friend to carve another and I was going to carve something else.

As it turned out, continue reading…

A few days I announced my new Pumpkin Carving Portraits video lessons. So far, they are a  big hit.

Think You Can’t Make a Good Pumpkin Carving Portrait?

Some people may look at the pumpkin carving portraits and think,

“Oh, this is too hard. I could never do it.”

You might think,

“Sure, Nita can do it but she is an experienced carver and I’m not.”

If you have an interest in making pumpkin portraits, you CAN do it. If you can trace or follow the dots, you can carve these types of pumpkin portraits.

Take a look at the portrait a first time carver made after learning from my lessons.

continue reading…

Have you ever heard of making music with vegetables? It gives a whole new meaning to “playing with your food”.

You might have if you saw my blog article about vegetable instruments that I posted a while back.

Well now, I just heard about a vegetable orchestra in Vienna. It was brought to my attention by one of my customer / students, Sheetal Patel. It’s another creative way to carve vegetables, another form of food art.

This is not your typical orchestra. Each performance is different because their instruments are different each time. It depends on what vegetables and fruits they find in the marketplace on the day of their performance. They drum, flap, toot, scrape, crinkle and even make string instruments from vegetables. continue reading…

A carving by Svetlana Partem for the Plain City Hertiage Days Festival competition

In April, I wrote a post about upcoming fruit and vegetable carving competitions, which included the Plain City Heritage Days festival competition on May 19th. Well, I got a first hand account from one of my readers,  Luis Rodriguez, who was a contestant in the Plain City fruit and vegetable carving event in May. This was Luis’ first carving competition!

Here’s a message that Luis wrote to me after his competition experience: continue reading…

Today, I want to give you an early look at some of the food art competitions and events coming up later this year. Food carving competitions are a great way to showcase the beautiful art of vegetable and fruit carving, and are an opportunity for like minded culinary enthusiasts to share and learn from each other.

Besides fruit carving, food art competitions and events can include cooking, ice carving, cake decorating and chocolate carving. Oh, and let’s not forget about a watermelon eating contest and watermelon face painting. Find out more about these fun and wacky fruit activities and how they are actually supporting a great cause! continue reading…

Competitions Push You to Challenge Yourself  

Nita's First Place Entry for the People's Choice Award at the Carve III Competition

I know for some people just hearing the word “competitions” can be intimidating, especially if you’re a beginner in your vegetable and fruit carving journey. You may think, “I’m just doing this for fun!” But don’t worry, competitions are meant to be fun and they can be a valuable learning experience. You’ll meet people who will inspire you and seeing their work will encourage you to further your skills even more. And who knows, you may be surprised with how well you do!

Announcing an upcoming fruit and vegetable carving competition in Plain City, Ohio. Whether you’re a competitor or a spectator, attending a fruit and vegetable carving competition is a great way to meet like-minded people and get inspired!

2012 will be Plain City’s third annual Heritage Days Festival, which celebrates the history of the city with local food and craftsmanship. The fruit and vegetable carving competition, sponsored by the World Food Sculptor’s Association, is a big part of the Heritage Days Festival.

This Year’s Heritage Days Fruit and Vegetable Carving Competition will take place on Saturday, May 19, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Plain City, Ohio at Der Dutchman Restaurant continue reading…

Are you looking for creative and fun vegetable activities for kids?

Here is a fun idea that is great for getting children in on the fun of creating with vegetables. This will be an activity where you can actually encourage them to play with their food. And, it’s great for small children, too because no sharp knives are required.

Vegetable Activities Get Kids Involved

For one of these vegetable activities, start out be cutting up various vegetables into a variety of shapes. Slice zucchinis into wheel shapes. Carrots can be cut in various lengths. continue reading…

Don’t you just love fresh and colorful fruit arrangements? They make wonderful gifts, attractive centerpieces and you don’t have to feel guilty about eating them!

Homemade fruit arrangements are fun and delicious as well as beautiful.

Even parents with little picky eaters at home can “trick” their kids into enjoying a healthier snack with pretty fruit arrangements that can be eaten. I know this was the case with my son. For some reason, things are just more fun to eat when they are served on a stick!

The problem with store bought fruit arrangements is that they can be quite expensive, especially if you want special additions such as chocolate dipped fruit.

The good news is that it’s easy to make your own fruit arrangements at home. Read on to see photos of homemade fruit arrangements and vegetable bouquets and get some tips on how to make your own edible creation. continue reading…

This sassy Senorita, carved from eggplant, looks like she's ready to go out on the town

I recently learned about a fascinating Food Trade Show that takes place in Brazil, featuring amazing food sculpture. Have you ever heard of Fair Equipotel? I hadn’t either until Chef Charlie from Carving Studio Brazil sent me photos of beautiful food art from this event.

Fair Equipotel in Brazil is held every year and is considered the largest and best Food Trade Show in Latin America. In 2011, the event was held in Sao Paulo and included a Food Sculpture Workshop (with some friendly competition) lead by Chef Charlie.

Realistic Food Sculptures at Food Trade Show in Brazil

Look at the facial expression on these pumpkin food sculptures continue reading…

Witch Face Carved by Pam Leno

What a blast! What a memorable experience!

I had the honor of carving pumpkins at the White House for the first family’s Halloween trick or treat event.

The White House hosted a Halloween party with trick or treating for military families. The trick-or-treating was done on the front portico and drive way of the White House. Our team created a carved pumpkin display for the event.

How did I get invited? continue reading…

The Carve IV was a really fun vegetable carving event held in beautiful Holland, MI.

In the video on this page you will hear from pro contestants, collegiate contestants, judges and organizers of this one-of-a-kind event.

Maybe it will motivate you to attend next year. Or, even start you own vegetable and fruit carving competition in your area.

Take a look. continue reading…

Would you like to see what went on at The Carve IV, Vegetable and Fruit Carving competition? You can also see photos of  last year’s carving competition event, THE CARVE III

See all the action and drama of  this
amazing vegetable carving competition.

It was a really fun event for everyone from the competitors, to the audience, to the children who attended. This video will show you how the Professionals in the People’s Choice carving competition set up their beautiful displays. You’ll see how the audience was entranced by the amazing carvings and you’ll see how even the children got in on the fun.

And of course there was drama. You’ll also see how disaster struck one of the People’s Choice competitors. continue reading…

Ray Villafane is one of the best (if not THE best) pumpkin carvers ever.

Ray would never say that about himself, but I would! And thousand of others would agree with me.

You’ve seen his work in many viral emails that circulate at this time of year.

You’ve seen Ray Villafane win pumpkin carving competitions on the Food Network.

He’s appeared on The Today Show, the Evening News with Katie Couric, Martha Stewart and more.

Ray Villafane has carved all over the world and has even had the honor of carving pumpkins at the White House.

Now, you have an opportunity to learn secrets of outrageous pumpkin carving in a small LIVE class with Ray Villafane.  And it’s just in  time for Halloween!

Can Ray Villafane really teach you?

Ray Villafane taught art in K-12 schools for 13 years. So, he knows how to teach! If Ray can teach children, he can surely teach you. He is great at breaking it down to steps so that even a beginner can have great results with their pumpkin carvings. for those who already have pumpkin carving skills, he will take you to the next level. To see photos, video and details about Ray Villafane’s outrageous pumpkin carving class, click here.

Or visit http://www.vegetablefruitcarving.com/pumpkin-carving-instruction-ray-villafane/

With Ray Villafane’s expert instruction in a small class setting, you will be carving the most amazing Halloween pumpkins that you have ever carved!

Seats have been filling up fast, so take a look at this opportunity now.

When you go to the page that gives more detail about Ray Villafane’s live class, you will see lots more photos and videos of his amazing pumpkin carvings.

Ray Villafane and his carvings are truly amazing. With Ray Villafane’s expert instruction, you will amaze your friends and family with your outrageous 3D pumpkin  carvings this Halloween.

 The Carve IV is the largest vegetable and fruit carving competition of it’s kind in the United States. This will be it’s 4th year and it keeps getting bigger and better. There will be over 50 carving competitors this year.

Two teams from Columbus Culinary Institute led by instructor Nicole Bennet won the First Place Overall Team award and the Fourth Place Overall Team award at The Carve III

The Carve will be held on September 30th and October 1st in the charming town of Holland Michigan. There are two different types of food carving competitions that take place at The Carve IV- The U.S. Collegiate National Championships (for students) and the People’s Choice Competition for pros and hobbists.   In addition there will be free vegetable and fruit carving seminars and an area for children to have some creative fruit and vegetable fun.

Take a look at lots of photos from last year’s competition. continue reading…

Examples of cakes taught in Nita's Watermelon Cakes video lessons

Look at this beautiful variety of watermelon cakes below! I love seeing how people take an idea and make it their own. I thought you might enjoy seeing these photos, too.

Students and Blog Readers Send in Their Watermelon Cake Photos

About 9 days ago, Mike Ghali ordered my new Watermelon Cakes video lessons and has since carved such a beautiful watermelon cake with roses on top. Isn’t it lovely? Great job Mike!

Here is what Mike wrote in his email to me that included his photo. continue reading…

How Cancer Led Me to Discover Fruit Carving.

I have a special fondness for watermelon cakes because my first watermelon cake is what led me to discover fruit carving.  Actually, cancer led me to fruit carving. How?

Watch the video below to find out. continue reading…