'Wizard' turns vegetables and fruits into works of art

Nguyen Anh Vu and his work used to decorate festivals and competitions - Photo: THANH NGUYEN

Passionate about food since childhood, the boy from Binh Dinh came to Da Nang to pursue a career in cooking in 2014. Mr. Vu has worked as a chef at leading resorts and hotels in Da Nang. With his natural talent, it can be said that he has created a new breeze for the job of trimming vegetables to decorate the dining table.

No matter what the material is, I think the most important step in creating a work is the composition and breathing life into seemingly inanimate materials to make them more vivid and eye-catching.

NGUYEN ANH VU

Silent efforts

Mr. Vu started practicing carving vegetables and fruits while working as a chef in Da Nang . After every shift, when he got home, Vu would display a pile of vegetables and fruits to carve. Many days, he sat until late at night and still didn't like the results he had created. Luckily, his wife always encouraged him. Mr. Vu smiled: "The house may lack this or that, but carrots and pumpkins are almost never lacking."

He has mastered the pruning technique and has created many patterns from fruits and vegetables to decorate the dining table, but he is still struggling to create elaborate works of art, human faces or animals, and still doesn't know where to start. To pursue this career, Vu used a month's salary to buy a set of professional pruning knives.

Dozens of small knives with different shapes and uses, bought but at first he did not know all the uses and how to use each one. "These knives are very sharp, because when I first started to practice shaping, my hands were still stiff, and I had to handle very small details, so getting cut by the knife was a common occurrence" - Anh Vu said.

The art of carving and shaping fruits and vegetables is quite diverse, and each type will require suitable types of fruits and vegetables. For example, to create animal or human faces, pumpkins and carrots will be suitable. Or fruits and vegetables with dark colors will be easier to show details than white ones.

At first, Vu could only create simple shapes such as dolphins, deer, and birds. With practice, Vu created more difficult works such as dragons, carps, and phoenixes with many meticulous and delicate details. But creating human faces required advanced techniques that he was determined to conquer.

After a period of practice and honing his skills, Anh Vu first participated in the fruit and vegetable carving competition at the Vietnam International Food & Hotel Exhibition held in Ho Chi Minh City and won a bronze medal. The following year, Vu won two more silver medals and was most successful when he not only won two gold medals but also won the championship cup of this competition in 2022.

Unique products

In practice, Vu prefers imported pumpkins and purple radishes, which are quite rare. According to Vu, foreign pumpkins are hard and crunchy, suitable for creating human faces, which is his favorite and most satisfying genre. Because of his love for them, each face Vu creates, inspired by a character in a horror movie, often has an expression that is sometimes very strange but makes viewers satisfied with its authenticity.

There are many ways to create patterns from fruits and vegetables, but creating human faces like Vu is pursuing is still quite rare, not many people pursue it. Also because it requires meticulousness and high detail, fruits and vegetables spoil quickly and easily wither, so when starting to create a product, Vu will "turn on" do not disturb mode to wholeheartedly complete the product.

Not only must you be quick, you must also be very careful and precise when creating shapes on fruits and vegetables because if you accidentally make a mistake, you can ruin the whole work. At first glance, the job seems easy, but in fact, it requires perseverance and the ability to withstand high pressure.

Because the finished products are only fresh for a few days, when he needs to make many works for competitions or receive orders for many decorative products for holidays and parties, Vu has to sit all day and night with piles of vegetables.

"In the past, I often made Western-style animal sculptures, trying to make them as realistic as possible. When finished, they looked very neat but felt like the work lacked spirit. I looked for animal images in ancient Chinese paintings to imitate and found the work more soulful," Vu boasted.

Passing on the profession

From a pumpkin, Nguyen Anh Vu created a strange human face that sometimes makes viewers shudder because of its authenticity - Photo: NVCC

Wishing for this art to be known by many people and develop into a large community, Nguyen Anh Vu is always willing to share his experience after more than eight years of working in the profession with those who share the same passion. He is currently opening a class to teach fruit and vegetable pruning at home for those interested in learning the profession.

Many people from all over the world have come to learn from him. Having experienced the initial difficulties of his career, Vu has published a book with detailed instructions on creating hundreds of works he has created for those who want to pursue this art.

Explore new directions

Self-taught, Anh Vu found a way to preserve vegetables to keep them fresh longer by soaking them in alum or ice water. However, the products he created still did not last as long as expected, which was always a concern for him. That was also the reason why he felt regretful because he created many works that he was satisfied with, put in so much effort but in the end only kept a few photos.

Vu cited also the image of a dragon, but a dragon in attendance is different from a dragon in flight. So sketching the right composition contributes greatly to the success of the work. "The soul of the work plays an important role, depending on the craftsmanship because some people create works that look profound, while others look majestic and fierce..." - Vu said.

Therefore, in parallel with improving his skills in carving vegetables and fruits, Vu is also researching and experimenting with using clay and bronze materials to create new works. This is a type of imported clay, safe with the desire to be able to create and preserve his dedicated works for longer.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/phu-thuy-bien-rau-cu-qua-thanh-tac-pham-nghe-thuat-20240316084815549.htm