Food Sculpture – Play With Food ll
From kitsch to the uber hip….everyone is getting in on some Play With Your Food action.
(101 Ways to Play With Your Food, ideas #17 to 30)
Gadget blogs seem to have a thing for enciting their readers to weirdness, and the latest craze has been food contests. Inspired by the mash potato mountain scene in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” MikeIndustries.com held an iPod food sculpture competition. Davin Risk won with his super slick and simply delicious looking Banana-Apple-Spaghetti Shuffle.
But last month Engadget.com readers truly went over the top to bake them a birthday cake in their attempt to win a hot new computer. The winning entry was a functional electronic Treo cake. Although you wouldn’t want to try and slip this baby into your pocket it’s outrageously cute nonetheless. Bonus points to Mr. Sutherland for caring enough to use cake with no transfat.
Fashion addicts should definitely dig into the fun and try their hand sculpting a scene for the Blogging Project Runway contest. The deadline is May 1st.
Of course food sculpting has been around for decades, but it never ceases to amuse and amaze.
Check out this article for a first-hand insider’s view on entering a spam carving contest. Spam art was made famous by the annual contest hosted at the now defunct Ruby Montana’s in Seattle. Unfortunately their website is no longer live and I wasn’t able to dig up any photos, but the legacy lives on with spam carving competitions popping up in just about every city
Remember that Ipod Food contest? Of course there was a little spam Shuffle.
If you love to read the International Edible Book Festival will certainly entertain…and you don’t have to worry about staining the pages while snacking. That Book of Pi certainly looks filling, although Kung Foodie fans might prefer nibbling on Masaaki Tatsumi’s rice and nori books.
But what is the most popular ingredient of master food artists around the world?
BUTTER!
Enter one Nora Lyon, also know as the “Butter Cow Lady“. She loves working with butter, and although she’s done everything from Elvis to the Last Supper, her signature sculptures are life size dairy cows. Check out Nora doing her thing on video. Jim Victor also uses butter for sculpting along with cheese, chocolate, and even pizza dough. He’s been creating food sculptures since the mid 90′s.
Want to have a go at it?
The Australian Rosehill Lodge website has a margarine carving tutorial, and also features info on Jean Margaret Hill’s marzipan art.
Personally I’m a chocolate fan…and if I was going to hand out Oscar’s for food sculpture I’d have to declare artist Prudence Emma Staite the winner. Her life size chocolate rooms (all edible, even down to the lickable wall paper) are the ultimate food kitsch masterpiece. She also makes chocolate jewelry and chocolate board games like her giant chocolate Jenga.
Willy Wonka would be proud!
