Are you looking for ideas to make fruit and vegetable centerpieces for Christmas or other winter holidays?
Here is a short video showing you several different elements you can put together to make beautiful Christmas centerpieces. Arrangements like these will certainly get ooohs and aaahs at your Christmas or holiday party.
You’ll surprise and delight your guests continue reading…
At this time of year, you might be looking for some great ideas for Thanksgiving centerpieces. In this article, I’ve compiled some of the ideas for fall and Thanksgiving centerpieces that I have posted in previous years. I hope that these photos and 2 short video ideas give you some inspiration for your own Thanksgiving centerpieces this year.
Last year, I carved a few different centerpieces including one that looked like a turkey. It was carved from kabocha squash.
You can take a look at more continue reading…
It’s been a very busy fall this year with introducing Ray Villafane’s 3D Pumpkin Carving Tutorials on DVD and with my carving at the White House. I hope that you had a very Happy Halloween.
Lots of my customer/students have been having fun learning how to carve pumpkins with Ray Villafane’s Pumpkin Carving DVD. It is really not as difficult as it seems to carve pumpkins with expressive 3D faces.
At first it seems totally daunting. But when Ray Villafane breaks in down into a series of easy to follow steps, anyone can do it. Really! Well. anyone who wants to do it.
I have had so many student/customers send me emails telling me how pleased they are with their first attempts at carving faces after watching Ray Villafane‘s DVD tutorials.
One student told me that he thought carving faces would be too difficult. He though that he had to be an artist to sculpt pumpkin faces. But when he saw how Ray Villafane breaks it down into steps he thought, Wow, maybe I dont’ have to be an artist. He told me that he was so pleased with their pumpkin carvings and how they cna’t wait till next year to show off thier pumpkins at Halloween.
Take a look at photos of pumpkins that some people have carved after watching the DVD lessons by Ray Villanfane . continue reading…
Ray Villafane’s 3-D Pumpkin Class was a blast. Here a some photos of the finished and unfinished pumpkin carvings done during the class.
You can learn how to carve3-D pumpkins like these in Ray’s new DVD Tutorials.
I recently posted an article about carved pumpkin lanterns made to celebrate Halloween. In it, I show a bunch of carved pumpkins with movie and cartoon themes. One thing that these carved pumpkin lanterns all have in common is that they use varying thickness of the pumpkin to create varying shades of light and dark.
In order to help you carve your own carved pumpkin lanterns, I’ve made a free video to illustrate the concept of carving varying thicknesses to make differing shades of light and dark. Take a look and you will see what I mean. You will find it useful the next time you carve a pumpkin lantern. And the same concept works well when you carve lanterns from melons.
Take a look. continue reading…
Want to see some truly amazing and inspiring pumpkin carving?
Pumpkin Carving of David Letterman by Ray Villafane
Tonight the Finale of Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” airs. It’s on Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 9pm ET/PT
Watch it and you will see Ray Villafane in action carving his extreme pumpkins.
If you miss that, you can see Ray carve his extreme 3-D pumpkins on the following shows.
October 17, 2011 at 9:30 pm ET, the Weather Channel will air a segment featuring Ray called Pumpkinpalooza.
And you can see Ray on Martha Stewart Live on the Hallmark Channel at 10 am on October 18th and 19th, 2011
LIVE in person Class With Food Network Champion Ray Villafane.
Have you ever seen how pretty Armenian cucumbers are? Do you know when is a cucumber really a melon? Find out in the short video below. continue reading…
Nita’s Swan Watermelon Carving Won the 2nd Place Award
I recently participated in a watermelon carving competition for which I carved a Watermelon Swan that won the second place award. I posted lots of photos of all the other winners and participants in an earlier blog post about the watermelon carving competition.
As a result of seeing the photos of my carved watermelon swan, I got a lot a requests asking for more details and information about my watermelon swan. So I made up this short video to show you more details.
If you are an intermediate or advanced carver, this may give you some ideas for creating your own watermelon swan. If you are a beginner, perhaps you will be inspired to learn more. Take a look. continue reading…
In celebration of the USA’s Independence Day, here is an idea for a red and white striped 4th of July watermelon bowl that is perfect for the 4th of July or any time.
4th of July Watermelon Bowl – free video lesson
Today, I want to share with you some photos and an instructional video from Thai master carver and teacher, Wan Hertz.
Thailand is one of the countries best known for it’s beautiful fruit carvings. And, Wan Hertz carves some of the finest Thai fruit carving that I have seen. The detail and intricacy of her carvings are amazing. Take a look at this one. Can you believe that she did this in only 3 hours? Look how complex the detail is! continue reading…
Spring is here. And with it, the blooming of spring flowers.
Calla Lilies, also known as Easter Lilies are beautiful and elegant springtime flowers. Did you know that you can easily create your own Easter Lilies with vegetable carving? And it’s pretty easy. continue reading…
Kabocha Squash carved with Roses
Have you ever seen Thai fruit carving instructions that ask for Thai pumpkin? Or maybe the instructions just ask for pumpkin but it doesn’t look like the American pumpkin that you may be familiar with? That is what I experienced when first trying to learn fruit carving. Since then, my Thai friends and teachers have introduced me to Kabocha squash. This is what the Thai refer to as pumpkin. continue reading…
With the leftover white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate used for the chocolate dipped strawberry bouquet that I showed in my two previous video mini-lessons, you can make some tasty white chocolate bark with this super simple recipe. continue reading…
Yesterday I posted a brief lesson showing how to make a white chocolate dipped strawberry bouquet. Today, I’ll show you a quick and easy way to decorate your white chocolate covered strawberries with contrasting semi-sweet chocolate. Watch this short video min-lesson. continue reading…
With fresh strawberries coming into season, it’s a great time to make a chocolate dipped strawberry bouquet. These strawberry bouquets can be made with white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate or both. Strawberry bouquets are easy to make, beautiful and make a thoughtful gift or unexpected dessert during fresh strawberry season.
You can even make pretty strawberry bouquets with fresh strawberries that are not chocolate covered. You can serve your fresh strawberry bouquet along side a choice of dips that can include powdered sugar, brown sugar, chocolate sauce, minced fresh mint leaves, minced fresh basil, vanilla yogurt, plain greek yogurt, honey or sour cream and let your guests have fun mixing and matching the variety of dips. continue reading…
Strawberries are coming into season here in Southern California. Yummy, red, luscious strawberries.
Strawberries aren’t exactly the best or most popular fruit for carving. But there are a couple of pretty and super simple strawberry garnishes that you can make. One is a super simple way to dress up a drink. It would be perfect with a frozen strawberry smoothie or ice cream shake. The other quick strawberry garnish is a strawberry fan that you can use to dress up a plate, individual servings of fruit salad or a dessert. continue reading…
Honeydew carving can be easier than you think once you are shown how.
Here are a couple of melon carvings that I’ll be teaching in videos in my upcoming Carving of the Month Club.
Update: These Honeydew melon carving lessons are now available on DVD. Learn more about my Honeydew Carving Lessons by clicking this link.
Honeydew flower carvings
These honeydew carvings were the two most requested melon carving designs of the photos that I posted in a previous blog post where I asked readers to vote for their favorite melons carvings that they would like to learn. continue reading…
If you are looking for fruit carving for beginners, you have come to the right place. To get you started, I offer some quick and easy vegetable and fruit carving lessons. Because it is so much easier to understand vegetable and fruit carving instructions by being shown rather than reading and seeing pictures, I show you how in video lessons.
This blog has a number of quick and easy vegetable and fruit carving videos demonstrating how to do some easy fruit carvings.
Roses carved from a variety root vegetables carved by Chef Muhammad Siddiqui
Here is a quick video showing a little about the beauty of the carved beet rose and some different things you can do with beet roses.
Beets come in various colors in additional to the familiar deep red color. They can also be found in shades of orange and yellow. This golden beet in the photo below had orange skin with a yellow interior. You can also find beets in shades of pink and white. Mix the red, pink and white and gold beet roses together and you have a beautifully colorful vegetable bouquet. continue reading…
Tomato roses are quick and easy to make
Here is how to make a tomato rose. It’s a super simple garnish for beginners. In these two short free videos you will see how easy it is to make a tomato rose garnish for Valentines Day, or any romantic dinner.
You may have seen my other video on how to make a rose from citrus peels. This is essentially the same idea but pretty red color of tomato roses make them perfect for Valentines Day. When you make these yourself, you will find that tomatoes are easier to wind up and keep in place. continue reading…
Want to carve impressive watermelons?
You can with these easy to follow, step-by-step instructions.
The Hearts and Roses video lessons are designed for beginners with no special tools required.
Carving Melon Flowers
Intermediate Lessons show how to carve smooth and jagged petals, step-by-step.
Learn 3 Lovely Centerpieces
Nita's VegetableFruitCarving.com presents
Amazing Carving with Jimmy Zhang
