When life hands you lemons, make butterflies! This color illustrated guide for the beginning food sculptor explores different carving techniques and offers a broad range of projects simple enough for anyone to accomplish, beautiful enough to astonish any guest. Likewise, the experienced food sculptor will find this book a gold mine of ideas. It's packed with images and stencil templates for creating amazing table centerpieces, plus plate and platter garnishes. Trained in the capital of China, Yuci Tan brings Oriental design to edible food sculptures. Deli slices never looked so good, and who would ever have thought a honeydew melon could be so versatile. Simple tomatoes and cucumbers become works of art, and hard boiled eggs, apples, and eggplants are transformed into charming characters, tropical fish, and elegant flowers. And here, finally, is the solution to that annual conundrum - what to do with the garden's overabundance of zucchini. Explore the possibilities!

Yuci Tan took up the study of food sculpture in Beijing and has degrees from culinary art schools both in China and in America. She has applied her art at the Ritz Carlton and Marriott hotels in Philadelphia and in many country clubs including Saucon Valley. She teaches garnishing at several colleges and her work won awards at the 1998 International Hotel Olympics in London. She has also pioneered her own style of food sculpture, which is a combination of Chinese paper cutting, food sculpture, and American culture.