Radish and Turnip flowers by student Allan Jarvis

This blog post features the lovely fruit and vegetable carvings of one of my student/customers, Allan Jarvis. Allan is in Queensland, Australia. In one of Allan’s first emails to me he told me that he was introduced to fruit and vegetable carving many years ago in Thailand but had not done too much until recently. He wrote, “The book I bought in Thailand is great but not enough steps… ” Shortly after, Allan joined our video lessons.

With spring celebrations like Easter, Songkran Festival and the Indian Festival, Holi coming up you might see some ideas here that you can use. continue reading…

Carved melon hat by Abigail Veira

I receive so many photos of fun food carvings and ideas from my blog readers and students of my lessons. The photos show all kinds of fun ways that people do fruit and vegetable carvings and food art. The common thread of all these random carving images is creativity and fun. I love how some of the people in this article have brought different types of food art into their lives and the lives of others.

Fun food carvings are all about making people smile and spreading a little joy. And sometimes, it’s about eating healthy.

Fun Food Carvings To Make you Smile

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article about watermelon hats.

In response, continue reading…

Daikon bird carving by Tzipy Cohen

In honor of National Bird Day, here are some bird carving designs in fruits and vegetables.

January 5th is National Bird Day. It is celebrated by bird lovers through bird watching, studying birds and other bird related activities. So, why not create bird carvings?

In the past, I’ve written a few blog posts featuring bird carving designs in food. Since the bald eagle is the official bird of America, I’ve received photos from students and readers of their unique bird-themed carvings. Most of the photos featured eagles or hawks. You can check out these clever bird carving continue reading…

Japanese food is as much about art as it is about taste

Great for school lunches, casual picnics or work place breaks, Bento boxes are a fun and creative form of Japanese food art.

In Japan, the presentation and artistic nature of a meal is just as important as the taste. This doesn’t just apply to fancy five star restaurants – home chefs, including clever parents and caregivers, pride themselves in creating awe-inspiring food art for their childrens’ school lunch boxes, or bento boxes.

A bento box in Japan is a single portion meal, which is commonly eaten at lunch or for any meal away from home. It usually contains a balanced list of ingredients including rice, meat and vegetables. Not only do homemakers spend time making the food healthy and delicious, they also put considerable effort into making the food presentation spectacular! A common belief is that when food looks and tastes good, it will enhance the mood of the person eating it and improve their performance continue reading…

Unique "pizza" vegetable and fruit arrangement by Ramblin' Rose Florist in Claifornia

I often get e-mails from customers and readers who have used my fruit and vegetable carving techniques in their own unique vegetable and fruit arrangement displays. I always enjoy seeing their creations and want to share them so that other readers can get ideas for their own projects.

Today, I have a few interesting vegetable and fruit arrangement displays to show you that will hopefully spark some new creative ideas for your next event. 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…

Vegetable and Fruit Platter Arrangement by Richard Testani

Many of my readers have expressed an interest in getting into business with Vegetable and Fruit Carving arrangements. After receiving “oooohs” and “aaaahhs” from their edible displays, friends and families have encouraged them to try turning their passion for making beautiful vegetable and fruit carving arrangements into profit.

Today, I want to introduce you to one of my readers/customer, Richard Testani, who is a professional in vegetable and fruit carving. You may have come across Richard’s name if you’ve read my blog post Radish Flowers | An Easy Vegetable Carving for Beginners. I think you will really enjoy his vegetable and fruit carving work and I hope his story will inspire you! 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…

Aneta Lekas carving fruit at the Riu Mambo in the Dominican Republic

How does a medical office assistant end up with a vegetable and fruit carving business, get a chance to showcase her skills at a famous Riu hotel in the Dominican Republic and possibly on a television show? 

This inspiring story is about one of my vegetable and fruit carving students/customers, Aneta Lekas. If you follow my blog, you may recall that I featured Aneta’s vegetable and fruit arrangements  in a previous post. I recently received more beautiful photos of her latest vegetable and fruit carvings, plus some exciting news that I wanted to share with you. I think you will find her story truly uplifting. continue reading…

Gianna Goldy's Underwater Garden Food Art made from carved vegetables

Food Art is becoming an increasingly popular because of popular television cooking shows and because food naturally appeals to both our eyes and our taste buds! Well, today I want to share with you a lovely ocean food art creation by a student, Gianna Goldy. Gianna’s “under the sea” theme, with all of its fresh vegetables, makes me think of an underwater garden.

I was delighted to receive her wonderful photos and the following message in my e-mail:

 Nita, here are some pictures of an “Under The Sea” food carving I did for a project in my Culinary Arts class. This is the first time I ever attempted food carving. My inspiration came from what I saw while diving at the Virgin Islands. I was quite pleased at my attempt at food carving which led me to research food carving on the internet, which lead me to your website. I have ordered 14 of you’re DVD’s and several knife and carving utensils. Thank you for your teachings! I am learning a lot. Gianna Goldy”  continue reading…

Radish flowers bouquet taught in Nita’s free video lesson

Making carved radish flowers is a great way to “get your feet wet” with vegetable and fruit carving. Radishes are easy to work with and are usually accessible in your grocery store all year round. Their bright red skin and white interior makes for a beautiful color contrast that is perfect for making vegetable flowers.

My free radish bouquet is easy enough for beginners and pretty enough for professional fruit carving displays. In this article you will see examples of radish bouquets make by students and pros.

Readers of my blog who have signed up for my free lesson always have great photos to share from their first attempts at carving radish flowers. I recently featured some of these photos in a previous post: Radish Flowers Carved by Students of Free Lesson. I also wrote a blog post about how students made their own variations on the radish flowers idea: Delicious Fruit Arrangements.

Since writing those posts, I’ve received more photos and comments from readers who have tried making radish flowers. I’d like to share them with you as it might give you ideas for making your own edible bouquets. continue reading…

Fruit arrangements that can be eaten are fun, fresh, pretty to look at and are always a welcome addition at any special event. You may have even given or received fruit arrangements as a thank you gift. There are several companies selling their own fruit bouquets and  arrangements; but have you ever thought that you can make these yourself at home?

With the fresh fruit and vegetables available in Spring, what better way to celebrate the season than by making your own  fruit arrangements for a potluck, dinner party or just for fun with your kids or grandkids? If you celebrate Easter, homemade flower fruit arrangements with colorful fruits and vegetables will really brighten up your table! continue reading…

Whenever I need a creative gift idea, or just something unique to bring to a dinner, I can always be sure that vegetable bouquet arrangements will be a big hit. Not only are they colorful and attractive to look at, depending on the veggies used, they’re fun to eat for both kids and grown-ups.

While some Vegetable bouquet arrangements are purely decorative, they can  also serve as a healthy alternative at potlucks and brunches, where there are already plenty of rich foods to indulge in.

People are usually so impressed by homemade vegetable bouquet arrangements because they think, “Wow, that must have been hard to make!”

The truth is they are actually quite easy to make once you learn how. continue reading…

When I set out to create my Vegetable and Fruit Carving Course 101 for Beginners I really wanted my students to experience success right away. I want them to have creative satisfaction and get oooohs and aaaaahs from friends and family. Based on my own experiences, I knew they would. My goal was…and is…..to eliminate some of the frustration that comes with starting out and now knowing where to learn or what tools to buy and which books are a waste of money.

And so, it’s so rewarding to hear from students like this one. continue reading…

I love vegetable and fruit carving for Spring.

Vegetable and Fruit Carvings - that are Perfect for Spring

Probably because Spring is my favorite time of the year. It comes with lovely spring flowers blooming everywhere, bright happy colors, days that are warm and sunny, butterflies, birds nesting, and new life everywhere. Even if spring is not yet warm and sunny in your part of the world, you can brighten up your table with fresh spring vegetable and fruit carvings. Here are a few spring vegetable and fruit carving ideas. continue reading…

Much of my carving training has been in the Thai fruit carving style. Thai fruit carving often includes lots of detailed and intricate melon carving. The results are colorful and enchanting to the eyes. 

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.

Take a look at these lovely Thai fruit carvings.

Rather than try to view these with the Pic Lens or Slide show links, it will most likely work best if you click the photo that you want to see. Then you can click the ‘Next’ and ‘Back’ links to view photos before it and after it. Enjoy!

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If you enjoy carving melons, you will love the Thai Pro Flexible Blade knife. You can learn more about it here.

If you want to learn to carve melons in the Thai style, check out my video lessons Carving Watermelons – Roses, Buds and Leaves. A great next step after that is the video lessons in Carving Melon Flowers – Smooth and Jagged Petals. Because you can get online access right away, you can start learning Thai fruit carving today.

Yesterday I participated in a little friendly fruit carving competition and won 2nd prize. I thought you might like to see my arrangement. I hope it gives you some ideas for your own arrangements.

When you click on the small photos below, you will be able to see a larger photos as well as a description of the carved items.

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The following is a question that I got from a student after he viewed my post showing photos of  Thai carvings at the Songkran festival. You can view those photos here: http://vegetablefruitcarving.com/blog/thai-fruit-carvings/

Perhaps you have this same questions, so here it is followed by my answer:

The question:

“Hi and Good Afternoon:  I really liked the shade of purple used to dye the diakon.  Other than the standard blue,yellow,red and green food coloring found in grocery stores I have not been able to locate food coloring that gives a pastel shade to carvings.  I suppose I could mix red and blue and try to come up with an acceptable shade of purple but was wondering if oriental/asian stores handle a different food coloring than those commonly available? continue reading…

This past Sunday I participated in a Songkran Festival which celebrates the Thai Traditional New Year and is also known as the Water Festival. A group of us carved fruits and vegetables to make a lovely display table and I thought that you might enjoy these photos. They may give you some inspiration and ideas for carvings of your own.

continue reading…