Culinary program carves ice into art
On Friday, March 7, students in the UT Culinary Arts program made ice carvings outside of the downtown Conference Center to be displayed at events over the next two to three weeks.
The Culinary Arts program is a twelve-week, non-credit program and according to Greg Eisele, executive chef and culinary director of the program, ice carving is a part of it.
Carvings that the students make are selected by master ice carver Ryan Spangler from Asheville, North Carolina. Eisele said the chosen forms are all “beginning stage ice carvings.”
Joseph Cakmes, Culinary Arts student, carved a dolphin during the event. Regarding his involvement, Cakmes said that culinary students have seen how to do different types of sculpting, such as salt sculpting, and are now “putting everything they’ve learned into action.”
According to Eisele, students spend roughly two hours on one carving, which then gets placed in a freezer until displayed as a centerpiece for buffets, banquets or cooking demonstrations.
One future event for the ice carvings will be displayed at the program’s alumni event. The Graduate is an event for Culinary Arts graduates of the past four years, in which four or five of the student’s carvings will be on display. Cakmes’s dolphin will be one of them.
The Graduate will take place on Friday, March 21 in the Conference Center.
Edited by Nichole Stevens
