Sugar Dome Fruit Carving Competition on Food Network Winner John Montgomery

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 the Carve IV the following year. I served as a judge for the U.S. National Collegiate Championships, which was part of  The Carve, both years.

Anyway, seeing John’s Sugar Dome fruit carvings on Food Network  reminded me of all the beautiful photos I took during The Carve IV which I never got around to sharing on my blog. Back then, I only had time to post a quick and dirty video of the competing pieces in the People’s Choice segment of the competition. You can see a video of the amazing competing fruit carving displays in The People’s Choice division at The Carve IV on one of my previous blog posts.

Here is the Sugar Dome fruit carving work done by John Montgomery that  aired on Food Network.

John’s Cops and Robber themed arch of carved fruit on Food Network’s Sugar Dome show.

Look for the Cops and Robbers episode of the Sugar Dome on Food Network’s reruns. You might also be able to view it on Hulu or Netflix, also.

Photos that Show Sugar Dome Fruit Carving Winner, John Montgomery’s Skills

Now, here are some photos of John Montgomery’s fruit carving display at The Carve IV. They really are beautiful and show off his talent even better than  Food Network’s Sugar Dome show did. The arc  may look similar to the one seen on the Cops and Robbers Sugar Dome episode but the quality of the carving is even more elaborate than you saw on TV.

John Montgomery with his beautiful fruit carving display. You can see the whole piece here.

Close up of John’s watermelon and radish flowers at the base of his entry

Honeydew carving with hanging chili peppers

John carved a daikon bird and radish butterfly to grace the top of his carved fruit arc

Close up showing more honeydew carvings that were part of John’s display.

More details of the base of John Montgomery’s fruit carving sculpture.

If you saw the Cops and Robbers episode of the Sugar Dome on Food Network, then you saw John Montgomery in action doing carvings under pressure in a limited time. These photos above show you his real talent when given more freedom and time to carve. He did a really great job on this display didn’t he!?

Disaster Strikes John Montgomery’s Fruit Carving Entry

During the Sugar Dome competition, John’s team, Tre Artistes had a close call. The weight of the last watermelon added to the arch caused a cracking sound warning that the carved fruit arch could come tumbling down. During the  The Carve IV competition where these photos were taken, John’s beautiful carved fruit sculpture actually did come crashing down to the floor. But, if was no fault of John’s.

I saw a woman who was part of the audience, walk between two sculptures and her purse brushed against John’s display causing it to fall to the floor smashing it into pieces. She was mortified and embarrassed and could not stop apologizing. Even though the public voting for the competition still had about 30 minutes to go, the voting was halted so that John would still have a fair chance in the competition.

John Montgomery’s fruit carving entry was accidentally knocked to the ground by an embarrassed audience member’s shoulder purse.

So Sad.

As beautiful as his display was, he took 5th prize. The winners of this People’s Choice division were determined by votes of the attending audience.

John’s skills has improved greatly from the previous year’s competition. The photos that you have seen above were from the People’s Choice competition at The Carve IV in Holland, Michigan. John Montgomery also competed the previous year at The Carve III. You can see John’s entry at The Carve III below.

John Montgomery’s fruit carving entry at The Carve III the previous year.

Although that design was pretty, the progress in his skills and design in one year is fantastic, isn’t it?

Besides John Montgomery’s fruit carving competition drama, there was a lot more going on at The Carve IV. In addition to the People’s Choice competition in which John was one of the contestants, there was also a lot of creative carving going on with the U.S. Collegiate National Championships. I acted as one of the judges for this division along with James Parker, who is a 2 time winner of other Food Network fruit carving competitions. It was a ton of fun seeing all the creativity and it was a blast meeting James.

One of the most exciting thing for me that came out of being at the event is that James Parker invited me to be part of a team carving pumpkins at the White House. That was a thrill. Not only did I get to carve at the White House but I got to hang out with some really talented carvers many of whom have also competed on Food Network shows including Ray Duey who was also a competitor in the recent Cops and Robbers Sugar Dome fruit carving episode on Food Network.

Nita Gill and James Parker who is a Food Network Fruit Carving Challenge winner served as judges for the U.S. National Collegiate Championship division at The Carve IV

Congratulations to John Montgomery, winner of Sugar Dome fruit carving show, Cops and Robbers on Food Network

I know the Carve IV is not exactly new news, but seeing John Montgomery win the Sugar Dome competition on Food Network reminded me I have all these great photos that I’ve never shared. Hopefully, I’ll get around to publishing more of those photos from the Carve IV soon. I know you will love seeing them. What the college students carved was amazing, too.

Well. I’ve wandered off the subject of John Montgomery and his amazing carving. I just wanted to show that although the Sugar Dome fruit carving competition on Food Network was entertaining, John (and the other carvers) can carve even more beautifully than was shown on TV.