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 edible arrangements? They make wonderful gifts, attractive centerpieces and you don’t have to feel guilty about eating them!

Homemade fruit edible arrangements

Even parents with little picky eaters at home can “trick” their kids into enjoying a healthier snack with fruit edible arrangements. 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 edible 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 edible arrangements at home. Read on to see photos of homemade edible arrangements and 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…

What lessons will be coming up next. Here’s a quick sneak peek.

To get a FREE LESSON showing you how to make an easy watermelon cake, click the button below.

Update 8/21/11 If you’ll like to see what watermelon cakes have to do with cancer and my discovery of fruit carving watch this short video.

Update 8/23/11 – Want to see some of the cakes that people have made after viewing my video lessons. You can see lots of watermelon cake ideas here.

Take a look at this interesting Gourd Art!

Gourd Art by Larry McClelland

Gourd art is not is not exactly what you think of as vegetable and fruit carving but, it is a beautiful art that utilizes dried, hardened ornamental gourds. It’s a different variety of food art.

Here are some photos with some fine examples of gourd crafting from various artists. continue reading…

If you’d like to try your hand at competing in a fruit and vegetable carving competition, here are a couple upcoming carving events that are being hosted by the World Food Sculptors Association.

1st place - People's Choice at The Carve III - Nita Gill

One of the great things about competing in carving events is that it can be a great learning experience. It tends to force you to bring your carving to the next level. There are lots of opportunities to learn from other carvers as well. Even if you don’t compete, carving competitions are fun to attend. You’ll get lots of ideas.

I will be serving as a judge for the U.S. Collegiate National Championships at the CARVE IV in Holland Michigan at the end of September and I’ll be donating some of my DVDs as prizes.

By the way, both of these competitions are awarding monetary prizes to the top winners. You can see more of the details when you look at the entry forms with the rules and regulations in the links below.

Here is the information on these two upcoming carving competitions.

You may remember my student /customer Summer Dawn Coumbes from my blog article on pretty fruit arrangements on Mar 9th. A few days after I posted that article, I announced that a fruit and vegetable carving competition was coming up in Plain City, Ohio on May 21st. I suggested that it would be a fun event to attend whether it be as a spectator or a competitor.

Well, Summer hopped in her car and made the 3 hour drive to participate in her first ever fruit and vegetable carving competition.

Summer earned a third place prize in the amateur division!
Congratulations Summer!

Here is what Summer wrote to me in an email following the competition: continue reading…

There is lots of learning and fun to be had when participating in vegetable and fruit carving competition.

One of my customers is Chef Joe Renfroe who teaches at the Pennsylvania School of Culinary Arts in Lancaster PA. When he first contacted me he was looking for instructional DVDs for his students. He wrote,

I am always looking for other pieces of instructional information to show my students. I viewed some of your I viewed some of your work. Very good.”

Sometime after purchasing my Carving Watermelons – Roses, Buds and Leaves video for his students Joe sent me news of a competition he and his students participated in. Joe wrote,

I took my student to an American Culinary Federation (AFC) competition in Philadelphia last week and I took Gold professional and my students took Gold in the Student category. Here are some photos. continue reading…

A Create n Carve Fruit and Vegetable Event is being held by Nayna at SimplySensationalFood.com. It’s a friendly way for food bloggers and fruit and vegetable carvers to share their carving creations online. continue reading…

Here is what one student had to say about my 11 week Vegetable and Fruit Carving Course for Beginners.

I recently received this very enthusiastic email from a student of my Vegetable and Fruit Carving Course.

“Dear Nita,

I cant express in words how thrilled I am that I got your contact… Its indeed a great privilege to be associated with you… I am just amazed at all the beautiful work you do… the carvings are just wonderful, thanks for releasing all the 11 videos I have watched all of them.. first I need to grasp then i will start practising… i cant express in words how thrilled I am… do you offer any kind of certificates for the courses… just a suggestion.. so t hat it will nice for your students to have a certificate… when i practice, I will send you the photos of my work…. i was up until 1.00 a.m yesterday watching the videos… the instructions are so clear and its very easy to follow.. continue reading…