As an artistic form of decorating food, food sculptors mainly use cutting, chopping, digging and hollowing to create beautiful designs containing high aesthetic value as exquisite crafts. Food sculptures cover diverse subject matter, involving paintings, sculptures, modeling and decorating. The food sculptures always demonstrate the skill and artistry of the cook.

Chinese food sculpting is an extensive and profound art with a long history. It is said food sculptures evolved out of offerings. And according to historic records, food sculpturess burgeoned and became fashionable in the Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD).

Development of Food Sculpture

The themes of early food sculptures mainly involved flowers, subject matter later broadeded to include portraits, fish, birds, worms and flowers. The famous Yangzhou melon sculpture was a perfect example of the creativity and exquisite techniques of food sculptors.

Today, more and more food sculptors are gaining recognition. They decorate dishes and banquets while transforming people’s cognition of food sculptings. At some pricey banquets, food sculptures show not only the exquisite craftsmanship of Chinese cooking, but also the extensive and profound nature of Chinese culture, this is highly commended.

Sculpting Techniques

Rounded sculptures

Rounded sculptures are also known as solid sculptures, where materials are sculpted into a three-dimensional sculpture. Only experienced cooks can accomplish such work easily.

Embossing

Sculpting on the surface and showing a picture is called embossing. There are two kind of embossing. One is intaglio, which means the pattern is lower than the surface of materials. The other is rilievi, which means the pattern is higher than the surface of materials.

Hollowing

Hollowing is based on embossing but it involves cutting through the spare parts, helping to better pronounce the theme.

Cyclic sculpture

Cyclic sculpture is a way of sculpting that synthesizes a rounded sculpture by embossing and hollowing. It is the most difficult type of food sculpture. The finished articles can vary from vessels to hold soup or decorative lighting like a watermelon lantern.

Incision with mould

Cooks use moulds of special shapes or outlines to create small food sculpts, which are always used as decoration on the flange of dishes.