Fruit Carving with Chef Armando

Throughout Superior Pastry, we have two classes with Chef Armando Baisas, a fabulously talented chef who is so world-renown for his ice carving that he usually is asked to judge competitions, rather than compete in them.  (He has been recognized by two national governments for his achievements in the art!)  The two classes we have with him teach us fruit carving and “ice carving,” which my class will do with humongous blocks of lard, since it will likely take place at the end of May (and even in Canada, it isn’t cold enough to carve ice that late).  This past week, we were lucky enough to have our fruit carving class, and I was SO excited!

Chef Armando hard at work on a honeydew melon basket

Class was on Monday, and my friends and I arrived even earlier than usual.  Chef Armando is a pretty laid-back, quiet guy, so he let us in the classroom and tamely did a roll call while we waited for the last few students.  He had a huge industrial-grade tool box on the counter, and another Tupperware container full of small chisels.  I recognized the carving tools:  Justin Willmert and I used almost the exact same ones to carve stamps in high school Art class.

Once everyone was in attendance, Chef Armando began the class by explaining his tools and a few basic techniques.  He started by showing us some fruit and vegetable sculptures that are mostly made by attaching different pieces together and merely accented by a little simple carving.  He made a funny little bird’s head, a palm tree, and a dolphin out of a banana and a grapefruit.  He progressively introduced more carving with each piece, moving to a swan, turtle, and butterflies made from green apples, then an ingenious way to carve a quarter pineapple so that it becomes a pineapple-serving vessel.  He carved the core of a pineapple into a seahorse that stands on its own!  He then moved to melons, carving a (kind of scary) rat from a cantaloupe, a basket and a swan from honeydews, and beautiful flowers and a bird from half-watermelons.  Watching him work was captivating; it seemed effortless, but it was just so lovely.  He often commented that we were being too quiet, but really I think that we were all impressed.

Only about a third of what Chef Armando made!

Just grab a slice of pineapple and go!  Way faster than cutting
it the conventional way, prettier, and smarter.

Honeydew basket filled with melon and grapes

Now THAT is a fruit salad!

Granny Smith the swan

This seahorse is made from the core of a pineapple,
and he can stand on his own.  Impressive!  The butterflies
are each made from an apple slice

Granny Smith the turtle

A swan made from a honeydew that doubles
as a fruit basket: pretty and functional!

This funny little bird is the first thing he showed us

His eyes are made of peppercorns

This is what I was looking forward to!  I have seen
so many of these beautiful watermelons on cruise ship
buffet lines, and I was sure he would teach us how
it is done.

Some people think he's a rat, some people think he's
a koala, Alyson thinks he's Stitch...I just think he's
a little freaky

Our practical was right after the demo, and this time we had three hours rather than our usual five.  We loaded boxes and boxes full of fruit into the room (enough for our section and the next), then began to work.  Chef Armando encouraged us to try to reproduce his work, and said that we had to take home everything we cut in to.  We were each allowed one honeydew, one cantaloupe, half a watermelon, one pineapple, and an unlimited supply of oranges, grapefruits, bananas, carrots, zucchinis, grapes, strawberries, and apples. 

I had some trouble right away, and when I asked the Chef to lend me a hand he rolled his eyes at my carving tools (fresh from the boutique downstairs) and took them to sharpen them.  Evidently the factory doesn’t like them as sharp as he does.  As soon as he returned, it was a lot easier, but definitely nothing like he made it look!  I started with the palm tree, which turned out well, then worked my way through the apples, melons, watermelon, and finally the pineapple.  It was so fun, and at the end, Chef Armando said that I “definitely have potential, but [I] need to practice.”  I think I will practice: fruit carving would be welcomed in my future.

Concentrating on my watermelon.  Thanks again to Quinn for
taking an artsy action photo!

My watermelon!  Not perfect, but pretty good for
a first try!  As soon as watermelon is in the grocery
store again, this will probably be a pretty common
sight around our apartment.

Honeydew swan!

I'm glad I got this one figured out -- I'll never cut a pineapple the
conventional way again!

Apple swan with a strawberry rose and the base of my palm tree

My work from the practical.  You can imagine the fruit salad
that came from it!

My palm tree.  He is now in a fabulous vegetable
soup that I made to use up the carrot.

Chef also made this melon basket in the demo as
a good way to use up the other half of the melon
that is used as the "leaves" of the palm tree.

Quinn and I were the only two in the class who used our honeydew
melons to try the swan!

Chef Armando and me.  And my palm tree.
I felt like Lady Liberty.

As required, I carried all of my fruit home (in two large bags that I brought to class).  I cut them up and made a huge fruit salad, but it tasted so great that Chad and I had it cleaned out in a few days.

To experience Chef Armando carving fruits and vegetables, click here.  It's a short video shot in our class room by Health Check, part of the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.