FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CARVING

The History of Fruit and Vegetable Carving

The story of fruit and vegetable carving begins about 700 years ago in Sukothai, the capital of the Tai
people, in what is now the north of central Thailand. Sukothai was the capital of the region from
1240 – 1350. In preparation for one of their major festivals, Loi Kratong, one of the King’s servants,
called Nang Noppamart, tried to think how she could make her Kratong more beautiful, in order to
please the king. She took a flower and used it as a pattern to carve from. She then carved a bird and
set it with its head pointing towards the flower. Loi Kratong is still celebrated today and Sukothai is
one of the best places in Thailand to experience Fruit and vegetable carving is also mentioned in
the poetry of King Rama 2 who reigned from 1808-1824. He wrote about the beauty of Thai desserts
and fruit and vegetable carving.
After the revolution in 1932 fruit and vegetable carving became less popular. Those worried about
the art disappearing set up a course to train people to teach the art to everyone in Thailand. Today it
is taught from the age of 11 in primary schools through secondary school and on to university where
it is an optional subject. The art is now being passed to foreign people and is being practised around
the world. It is particularly popular with chefs who use it to improve the presentation of their food.
Everyone can now enjoy this amazing art in hotels, cruise liners, in every Thai restaurant around the
world and on the internet. Everyday more and more people are discovering with disbelief and
amazement the beauty of this Thai art thanks to the imagination of Nang Noppamart all those years
ago.
Sources: Fruit and vegetable carving by Nidda Hongwiwut and Eyewitness Travel Guides – Thailan
According to Wikipedia, “Mukimono’s origins began in ancient times when food was served on
unglazed clay pottery. These rough platters were covered with a leaf before the food was plated.
Artistic chefs realized that the cutting or folding of the leaf in different ways created a more attractive
presentation.”
Whatever way food art and vegetable carving originated, it is now known and practiced worldwide.
Vegetable carving is practiced in many different Asian restaurants, cruises, hotels, and other various
places.
Carving- is an art that transfer the fruit,
vegetables, thermocol or ice blocks into different
shapes such as flowers and figures of animals. It is
usually used to decorate in the buffet.
C- CREATIVE
A-ARTISTIC
R- REALITY
V- VARIETIES
I- I
N
N
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VATIVE
N- NATURALISTICS
G- GLAMOUR
Food art
 is the act of preparing, cooking and presenting food in creative ways.
 Fruits and vegetables can be used to create items that are meant for a decorative purpose. You
will often find examples of food carving at weddings, parties and receptions.
 Fruit and vegetable carving is a very common practice, even today, in European and Asian
countries, notably Thailand. It involves the art of carving into the skin of the item to reveal the
fleshy center, where the color is different.
It incorporates everything from elaborate plating that we see in fine dining establishments to both
simple and intricate fruit and vegetable carvings that are meant to be decorative in nature.
It is hard to say exactly when food art, vegetable carving, food sculpting, and other artistic ways
forms of vegetable art first started. The history of vegetable carving is disputed but many people
believe it to have begun in Thailand 700 years ago.
Others believe that vegetable carving originated in the time of the Early Chinese Dynasties, notably
the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906) and the Sung Dynasty (AD 960-1279).

 Cucumber Carving
There are lots of videos on YouTube that show how to carve vegetables. One that I found interesting
is this one showing how to make cucumber flowers and swans to use as garnishes for plates.
Food Carving Tips
While there are some spectacular pieces of food art that can only reasonably be accomplished by
experts, there are also opportunities for anyone with an artistic flair to give it a try.
If you want to have a go at vegetable carving or to try fruit carving, these tips will help:
 Stay sharp
Be sure to start with very sharp knives. Use knives that have stainless steel blades.
While these can be more expensive, ordinary steel blades in less expensive knives will cause
the vegetables or fruits that you plan to carve to get discolored.
 Wash Vegetables before carving
All vegetables have some bacteria on the outside of them. Dragging a knife over the skins will
transfer that bacteria to the flesh.
 Be careful of bruising
Fruit that has been badly handled will bruise and this ends up with discolored areas on the
flesh much like our own bruises. This is not the look we want on our vegetable art creations!
Improve your concentration, the first step:
 Draw straight line slowly
 Draw left slant line
 Draw right slant line
 Draw oval shape
 Draw the circle
Good vegetable and fruit choices for food carving
Firm, fresh vegetables and fruits work best. Those that resist wilting give great results. Smaller
carvings made from small, firm vegetables will hold up better than a whole watermelon sculpture.
 tomatoes  beets
 cucumbers  shallots
 radishes  pumpkins
 onions  melons
 potatoes  watermelons
 carrots  squas
Prepare the vegetables for food carving
In addition to washing the vegetables and fruit before carving, there are some other things that
should be done for best success.
Soak tomatoes in water and lime juice to prevent browning. Onions should also be soaked so that
they won’t irritate the eyes as much when carved. Soaking beets in salted water will help to reduce
the loss of color. And wash potatoes both before and after carving to prevent browning.
Carve late
Start carving as close to exhibition time as possible and refrigerate your carvings to reduce spoilage.
Once carved, fruit and vegetables will start to break down and the carvings will lose structure. The
firmer your vegetable or fruit is before carving the best success you will have.
The elaborate fruit carving pictured above used whole watermelons and watermelon slices which are
carved into a large scene worthy of any food carving competition.
Becoming a fruit carver
 patience and concentration
 watching art related carvings
 visiting art exhibition
 need a lot of practice in drawing
 one should not forget his carvings
Types of Display
1. vegetable carving 5. butter sculpture
2. fruit carving 6. gelatin carving
3. thermo cole carving 7. chocolate carving
4. ice carving 8. sugar work
Equipment’s required:
1. paring knife 7. reinforced vegetable cutter (rabbit,
2. potato peeler rooster, flower)
3. scissors 8. double lemon peeler
4. parisiene scoop (oval, hearts, ribbed) 9. zucchini corer
5. grover 10.chisels
6. scooper 11.ice pick

Knife handling techniques

 A proper knife and tool should be used at all times. Be sure that all knives are sharp to obtain
best result.
 The holding of the knife depends on the type of carving and the vegetable.
Vegetable Carving- is commonly done in vegetables like pumpkin, tomatoes, beetroot, radish, and
carrot etc. but a well experience carver can create designs over any kind of vegetable.
Fruit Carving- the fruits like watermelon,
papaya, apple and some more fruits are also to
do the fruit carving presentations.
 Ice Carving
The carvings done in ice blocks.
Types of Ice Blocks
 Transparent ice block
 Non transparent ice block

Ice carvings Requirements

In our country we use only chisels and ice pick
for doing ice carvings but, in abroad there are
special new modern equipment that are used for
ice carvings.
There is also a need of a cold room for ice
carvings.
Steps for Ice Carving
Ice block (plain or colour)-size is according to the
model.
Step-I
(Select always simple diagram unless you get the perfection)
 Keep the ice block vertically
 Check whether it stand properly or not
 Draw the outline of the diagram you wants on the blocks.

Storage of Ice Carving

 Preparation is done in a cool area, a room, specially designed for ice carving
 Temporarily stored in a deep freezer before being used
 Never try to reuse an Ice carving for display