USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Lifestyle
Home / Lifestyle / Food

Culinary specialists reveal the magic hidden away in ice

By Zhang Xuan / Mike Peters | China Daily | Updated: 2015-05-23 06:59

Culinary specialists reveal the magic hidden away in ice

Ice artists is creating his work Sheep Live.

But in the 1980s, environmental concerns led to a ban on cutting trees.

Hernes started a new career, turning to culinary school and learning to making pastries and sweets.

A decade later, however, the hotel industry was booming in the Philippines, and there was a fresh need for people "with the right skills". Although Hernes had not formally learned ice sculpting, hotel executives from Asia to Saudi Arabia found that his woodcarving skills made him a natural.

In 1986, Winston was sent to Japan for training ice-sculpting, and eventually led a team that won a silver medal in a snow-sculpting contest in Sapporo.

"I was very proud of this victory, although ice craving was pretty new to me," Winston says. He still remembers this 3-meter-square winning piece: "a guy squatting and peeling coconuts". He has not had a chance to visit China's famous ice and snow festival in Harbin, with its building-sized carvings of ice, but he'd like to have a look sometime.

Winston has devoted himself to ice sculpture now for more than 15 years, and also doesn't have much trouble making fancy shapes out of "other stuff ": fruit, chocolate, watermelon and even butter.

"Ice is easier to carve than wood," he says, grinning. "The only challenge for me is time," he adds.

Cao Jitong, a baking specialist from Beijing Sun Helen Bakery School, spent eight years with Hernes making culinary art at the Kempinski hotel, and more than 30 years in the trade.

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US