| If you think of food preparation as an art and | | | | you can do detailed carvings. Animals, flowers, and |
| consider yourself an artist, you may be a candidate | | | | other intricate patterns are all possible with the hard |
| for culinary arts school. Culinary arts isn't just about | | | | fruits. The second category is reserved for designs |
| preparing and cooking delicious food, or even | | | | that need little detail and deal with the "soft" fruits. |
| courteous service at a restaurant. It's also about | | | | Soft fruits, like bananas and papayas, are more |
| food presentation, beautiful layouts, ice sculptures, | | | | difficult to carve into intricate designs because they |
| chocolate carvings, etc. | | | | tend to get mushy and lose their moisture. |
| And it can mean fruit designs. Fruit carvings began in | | | | Therefore, a fruit artist must work quickly. The soft |
| Thailand and the art form--called "kae-sa-lak"--has | | | | fruits require a more skillful artist. |
| been with us for centuries. Culinary art fruit designs | | | | It's not only the pulp, or meat, of a fruit or vegetable |
| were usually limited to royal meals, and the royal chef | | | | that the culinary artists use for their designs. They |
| had the greatest part in making sure that the meals | | | | also use skins as artistic garnishes and use them to |
| were beautiful as well as delicious. The ancient art of | | | | help design the overall presentation on the plate. If it |
| fruit and vegetable carvings was eventually permitted | | | | sounds like you would need a lot of tools to become |
| for special occasions like offerings to religious leaders, | | | | a fruit and vegetable artist, consider this-the |
| weddings and other special events, and eventually for | | | | professional culinary artists, and certainly those in |
| ordinary people. Today, even though the designs of | | | | Thailand, only use a sharp carving knife to create |
| Thailand are still the gold standard for fruit and | | | | their art. Remember, although some people are born |
| vegetable carvings, the art is now popular worldwide. | | | | with artistic skill, they are usually trained to apply it to |
| There are two categories of culinary art fruit design. | | | | food. |
| One category is the "hard" fruits. With a hard fruit, | | | | |