Carl Warner is an artist who doesn't use paint to create his masterpieces, he uses food!
I came across Mr. Warner's work for the first time this Christmas when I got his new book ''A World of Food''. The book was intriguing to me. He used everything from vegetables to candy and meat to bread to create landscapes that he photographed for the book. In this book, each scene was built around a color. White chocolate castles, pink candy house, yellow Swiss cheese pyramids and a chocolate brown train are a few of the astonishing food scapes in this book.
To learn more about how Mr. Warner creates these scenes I checked out his website at www.carlwarner.com. The website is really cool. It has a lot of samples of his work, pictures and videos - definitely check it out. The website gives a lot of information about how the pictures are created. He takes a series of pictures then overlays them into his final photo. The food can be tricky to work with so he has to work in stages.
It also said he was interested in children's nutrition and healthy eating which made me wonder. So, I emailed Mr. Warner in England. He was really nice and said it would be OK to interview him for my blog. Thanks Mr. Warner! Now I have a few new foods to try :)
Interview with Carl Warner
JTC: A World of Food: out of all the different foods you used, which top three do you suggest kids should try - even if they only try them once.
CW: 1) Curly Kale is an ingredient I work with a lot. If you ever have crispy seaweed in a chinese restaurant it's usually this. One of my sons hates vegetables and anything green but I chop the kale up finely and fry it off in some light olive oil with finely chopped onions or shallots and bacon or lardons that are cooked until crispy and golden. You can finish this off with a little lemon juice and cracked black pepper or a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. He loves it!
2) Butternut squash / pumpkin. Cubed and roasted in the oven with garlic, cumin and olive oil, also great on the BBQ!
3) Red peppers, crisp sweet and juicy raw or roasted in the oven in olive oil.
JTC: Were you a picky eater when you were a kid?
CW :A little bit, I had fads really but I also became bored with my mother's cooking because she cooked the same meal on each night of the week and she wasn't very adventurous or creative in the kitchen. This has a lot to do with confidence as well as enthusiasm, but also in the 1970's we didn't have the middle class food culture we have today with all the cook books, online recipes and TV shows we have today.
JTC: Which food have you found to be the most difficult to work with or which scene did you find particularly challenging to photograph?
CW: As far as ingredients go fresh herbs are the worst because they wilt so quickly especially coriander.
As far as scenes go it has to be the Fishscape as I didn't know if I could pull it off, and at one point in the shoot I was very doubtful as to whether it would work or not. Thankfully it did!
