Food as Art, Chef as Artist

With much ado about art (See: Can we become sculptors...?) there have been many (including me) who defended the "food as art, chef as artist" notion. Sooo... I'd like to hear about some of your creations that you felt were art! I wouldn't want this to be a jury thing (response="That's not art")but as I said in a previous post, there isn't a great deal of longevity in the medium of food. Maybe it would be good to hear some people toot their own horns and tell why they thought a particular thing was art. There's no harm in being proud of accomplishment, why not share it?

Gord

By W.DeBord on Friday, October 15, 1999 - 07:52 am: Edit

For me Gord I'm not a great pastry chef and never will be. My food is fine craft it doesn't cross over to art. But I think I create works of art in my display pieces. I could describe them but their visual pieces. The quality is visual only.

They tend to be cute verse serious show pieces. It would be like Walt Disney verses Picaso. Yet it fits the dictionaries definition of art over craft.

I cross the line of artist and chef. I'm really an artist who works as a pastry chef (right now). Pastry is just another medium.

This seems to be common, no? I always hear "the last pastry chef was an artist too".

By Charmaine on Friday, October 15, 1999 - 02:47 pm: Edit

(Pardon the pastry references but it's my passion)

I took your question literally and looked up the definition of art:

"the production of what is beautiful, appealing or of more than ordinary significance...subject to aesthetic criteria...the principles or methods governing any craft or branch of learning"

I agree with this definition and it seems obvious why pastry would fit into this definition. What makes a pastry display beautiful depends on what people would consider beautiful. We have certain methods and principles that we follow. For example, wedding cake should have a base cake, filling, icing, decoration and top ornament. Of course, you can modify these principles to suit your situation.

By Charmaine on Friday, October 15, 1999 - 02:48 pm: Edit

And even though the food may not have physical longevity, it has emotional longevity. People always remember a good meal(or unfortunately a bad meal) and these meals are often linked to a memory. This is where we come in as artists. We have the ability to influence people's emotions and create memories. Just like a person would look at a painting and remember their childhood, they may eat a chocolate cake and remember where they were and how they felt the first time they ate chocolate.

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, October 19, 1999 - 09:38 am: Edit

I wish this field wasen't so lopsided. It's seems like it's always the pastry chefs who are providing the artist presentations in this field. Of course, I understand the limitations of different foods' adaptability(SP?) and I would agree that there are limited times when chefs artistic interpretations are appropriate. When it would be good timing and well recieved holidays such as easter or halloween I never hear of chefs rising to the occasion.

I'd love to hear (non-pastry) chefs answer to Gords' question.

What happened to the art of garnishing? Is thin sliced veg. surrounding platter still interesting to anyone?

By Ciara O'Shea on Friday, October 27, 2000 - 02:32 am: Edit

People don't sell yourselves short. I am a professional photographer and my love of food has brought me to this site. My favorite subj matter for still photos is food. I have shot Food photography for many clients. One you may have in your library is ART CULINAIR MAGAZINE. What you do is most definately art. Longevity is not a requirement for art. Consider performance art and instulations which are temporary and ice sculptures, dance. Photography once was not considered art am i wrong but is your profession not in the Culinary Arts realm?

By Ciara O'Shea on Friday, October 27, 2000 - 02:33 am: Edit

People don't sell yourselves short. I am a professional photographer and my love of food has brought me to this site. My favorite subj matter for still photos is food. I have shot Food photography for many clients. One you may have in your library is ART CULINAIR MAGAZINE. What you do is most definately art. Longevity is not a requirement for art. Consider performance art and instulations which are temporary and ice sculptures, dance. Photography once was not considered art am i wrong but is your profession not in the Culinary Arts realm?

By Dpconsu (Dpconsu) on Friday, October 27, 2000 - 03:32 am: Edit

Yes food is often art, who of you out there who had some classical training didnt find that the ice sculpturing and the fruit and vegetable displays and chaud froid work to be art? not to mention the sugar work being done, and the wedding cakes ect. I personaly spent five months in Kobe, Japan at a private businessmens club, (I was there to teach European food to the chefs there) and came away having learnt more about the artistic presentation of food and the art of ice and vegetable sculpturing that surpasses anything that I learnt at colledge in Europe during the late sixties.

I believe that we as chefs pratice organic chemistry that is then presented artisticaly, so what if it dosnt endure, thats why God made Cameras isnt it?

Thats my quarters worth!

By Chefrick (Chefrick) on Friday, October 27, 2000 - 11:12 am: Edit

I AM NOT A PASTERY CHEF BUT I DO CONCIDER MY DISPLAYS 'ART', I USE THE ORIENTAL STYLES,CARVING VEGTABLES AND FRUITS,BUTTER AND TALLOW SCULPTURES,FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS,FROM FRUITS AND VEG. FREE STYLE DISPLAYS, THE ONLY LIMIT IS YOUR IMAGINATION! I HAVE DONE SOME FOOD STYLEST WORK,AND IT SHOWS IN MY WORK.