Fruit and veg carving

One of the coolest nights in culinary school so far.  We did fancy carving into fruits and veggies.  First we watched a video demo by a woman from Singapore who is one of the world's best decorative carvers.  Then chef demoed an ornate floral pattern across the side of a whole watermelon.  Then we each got a turnip, peeled the white half of the turnip, and mimicked a part of his design on our turnips.  Chef was cool, very supportive, emphasizing the therapeutic quality of fruit carving.  We were cracking jokes, asking him if next Friday we could do basketweaving.

After we practiced the flower on the turnip, we did it again on a honeydew melon.  The larger surface lent itself to larger petals and the space to do cool leaves.  After honeydew, we got two roma tomatoes.  The first one, we peeled in one long strip (nailed it my first try!), then rolled the peel up to look like a rose bloom.  The second tomato, we cut in half the long way, then took one half and finely sliced into many small pieces.  Then, we spread the pieces out into one fine, long line of tomato slices, then curled it into itself over and over, making yet another tomato rose.

After tomatoes we cut swans out of granny smith apples.  Parallel patterns for the wings, spread them out far, then popped in a little head. 

He also let me practice more on a cantaloupe but I was getting tired so I just diced it and ate it instead.  I also ate a couple tomatoes, some honeydew, and my friend P's amputee apple swan.  That's more fruit than I've had all week; I need to wear a Depends this weekend.