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…

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…

 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…

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…

Recently I came across these photos of incredible vegetable carvings from a Russian Vegetable Carving Competition. They so amazing that I wanted to share them with you. continue reading…

The Holland Sentinel published a nice article about THE CARVE and you can see it at http://www.hollandsentinel.com/features/x2138387608/Food-carvers-chisel-their-way-to-victory

The first ever U.S. Collegiate National Championships were held at THE CARVE event at the Holland Farmer’s Market in Holland Michigan. It was all about fruit and vegetable carving. What fun it was. There was creativity flowing everywhere. In this article, you’ll see the winners and you’ll find lots of photos that may give you some ideas of your own. continue reading…

People’s Choice Division – Winner’s and Competitors

THE CARVE at the Holland Farmer’s Market was a blast. Here are the winners and competitors of the People’s Choice division of the competition. The attendees of The Carve voted for their favorite vegetable carving arrangement. I was thrilled to be  awarded the first prize. Brandon D”Arca won the 2nd prize and Nicole Bennett took the third prize. Enjoy these photos.

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You might want to attend a really fun vegetable carving event coming up in a couple of weeks called THE CARVE III.

Holland Farmers Market’s third annual vegetable carving event will host the first ever U.S. Collegiate National Championship Carving Competition where teams from culinary schools across the nation will compete. I’ll be serving as one of the judges along with the winner of Food Network’s Fantasy Fruit Sculptures Competition, Doug St Souver. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top 4 winning teams.

Everyone can get in on the fun because there will be Peoples Choice division where professionals, amateurs, and students can complete and the public will decide the winners. High schoolers can compete in there own division. In these two divisions there will be cash prizes awarded to the top 3 winners.

On Saturday, kids can join in the fun by assembling their own fruit and vegetable sculptures.

This is bound to be a blast for anyone who likes to play with food as well as for the public that attends. Come if you can. If you know anyone else who likes the idea of playing with food, pass this on to them.

It’s not too late to compete. You’ll find all the details and the competition registration form at http://www.hollandfarmersmarket.com/thecarve/.

THE CARVE III takes place at the October 1 and 2, 2010 at the Farmers Market in Holland Michigan and is proudly sponsored by Alpenrose Restaurant.

P.S. As a lover of food art, you might find these two websites of the organizer of THE CARVE, Greg Butauski, really interesting. They show ice sculptures, sand sculpture, food art and more.

http://www.rockonice.com

http://www.arttheexperience.com

I have been studying and practicing Thai style fruit carving. A couple of weeks ago our group brought carvings to celebrate what we have learned. I thought that you might enjoy seeing these photos. They may provide inspiration for you to learn fruit carving. If you are already an experienced carver, maybe you will get some new ideas for patterns to carve.

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