I started my study life at New Oriental Culinary School in September 2021. I enrolled in the Chinese food major, and during the first year of study, I learned a variety of home-cooked dishes, regional specialties, and Chinese cooking techniques and the distinctive aspects of China’s eight major cuisines during the Chinese cooking course. Next, we learned jam painting. We painted on a flat plate as decoration, and we learned to draw flowers, birds, and so on with jam. Most recently, we have been taking the food sculpture course. I have long looked forward to this course.
Practicing food carving techniques
Before the official food sculpture class began, our class began to practice carving techniques occasionally, learning to make basic moon flowers from radishes. The first time I used a carving knife, I didn’t have a good grasp of my power due to my inexperience: the blade cut my palm and I bled a lot. It was a carving knife that was not sharp. Yes, I was scared. I was afraid that when I used a sharp knife, it would make me bleed more. Do you think I’ll give up? No, I won’t. After this, I bought a sharp carving knife: a good carver must have sharp carving tools. I chose to overcome my fears. I want to go further down this path.
Last March, I posted the moon flower I carved for the first time in my study summary of our first year. When I see it now, I say, “This is terrible, my previous carving skills were really poor” Well, when I was a novice in engraving, that was the work after my efforts. That was the first step in my sculpting path, and I will remember this first piece. We have about 1-3 lessons a week to practice carving, and when one day, I find myself doing better than the last carving, I’m happy because I know I’m improving. I’m not a genius, I can’t sculpt the perfect piece all at once, I just wish I could make some progress after each practice so I could move forward. Only by maintaining a passion for carving did I have the motivation to keep going.
Start the sculpting class
In November 2022, we started our food sculpture course. The carving portion is only half a month, and the next half of the month is a plate course using several vegetables to make complete sculptures. The school arranged for a professional food sculptor to teach us carving. He is Teacher Guo. The main ingredients he uses are carrots, green radish, red heart radish, and long pumpkin.
Food carving is the process of determining the shape on an ingredient, then using a carving tool to remove excess parts, and then optimizing the details. If you want to make a complete carved plate sculpture decoration, then you need to use the technique of splicing. The volume of each vegetable is limited, so we cannot make a complete sculpture from one vegetable. So at this time we need to use glue to glue the parts together.
Mr. Guo’s carving skills are very good, and the radish in his hand can be transformed into various shapes, a flower, a bird, a cloud, a shrimp, a fish, or a variety of leaves and grass. The food carving course taught us a lot, and I am no longer a newbie who can only carve moon flowers.
Mr. Guo demonstrated carving techniques during the afternoon lesson. Then we carve in the next morning’s lesson, and we have to make almost the same number of works as the teacher. For example, the teacher made two flowers, a base, and some leaves in one demonstration. So, that’s our job for the next morning. Everyone has to finish.
In the beginning, I thought the half month would be easy because we just had to sit in our seats and sculpt. But I was wrong, unlike cooking, sculpting takes more energy and I have to pay my full attention. When I’m cooking, I only need to concentrate for 7-15 minutes. That’s the cooking time for 1-2 dishes. But when I’m sculpting, I have to concentrate the whole time, and that will be 3 hours or more. If I am distracted, then my fingers may be injured and the radishes in my hands may be damaged. Then I will not be able to continue this work. My class gets a lot of radishes a day, but there are 30 students in the class. So we can’t waste the radishes.
Some of my works during the food sculpture portion of the course
Students display their work from the food sculpture course
Work hard to sculpt
In the beginning, I was really a little irritated in sculpting because I couldn’t achieve the effect I wanted, and I spent a lot of time. I gave up my lunch breaks to spend more time sculpting. When I got home from school in the evening, I practiced sculpting before bed, because I found that in the school exercises, I couldn’t make a finished product. I had to practice hard after school. I want to do well, but first of all, I just need to be able to make a finished product during the class time.
Later, I got used to this new rhythm of life. During this half month, my hands belong to turnips, carving knives and glue. We use 502 glue, which is a strong glue that can bond instantly, and if it is stuck to the hand, then our hand will be glued. Thankfully, this glue doesn’t seem to be very harmful to the skin, and the glue washes off with water.
The day after the last engraving session, we started the final sculpture, this final project was very difficult and a lot of work. I tried to finish this piece as quickly as possible and then go home after school to rest because I was really tired. But I was wrong again. With only a half hour remaining, I had only finished 2/3 of the work, and due to the lack of other carving tools, the remaining 1/3 became difficult. I had to use a carving knife to do it, that was more work. So I worked through my rest period again. Thankfully, I finished my work before the teacher came to check the homework.
Thank you to Mr. Guo
I know it’s still not perfect, it’s still flawed, but it’s a work that I put a lot of effort and time into making. In any case, it is the best in my heart. My hand operated the carving knife to make the turnip extraordinary. It comes in all shapes. Radishes and carving knives also allowed my carving skills to grow. Thank you to Mr. Guo, for every radish I have used, and to the carving knife that accompanies me on every carving.
Summary
Although the food sculpture course is now over, my engraving technique still needs improvement. But at least for now, I can make a complete carved plate. It’s still not perfect carving, but I’m growing, there’s no end to carving, I’m always on the road, I’m always learning. Even if I don’t end up being a good carver, I hope that when people see my carvings, they will say, “Her carvings are beautiful, and if it appears on my table, I will become very appetizing.” This is a high rating! That’s my sculpting goal too!
Making people feel good when they eat, this is my common goal in cooking and sculpting! I am honored to let you witness my growth, thank you to everyone who follows me and follows “My Chinese Home Kitchen”!
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