One of the most exciting parts of Halloween is all the creepy decorations carved from a pumpkin that we are eager to make and show off. But for some people, Halloween is every day of the year. They say anything can be art, so Italian artist Valeriano Fatica chose food as his medium. In his talented hands, watermelons, pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, avocados, cheese, truffles, and even tiny coffee beans turn into incredibly detailed sculptures that look just too good to eat. We’ve previously shared some of his most fascinating sculptures of the Night King from Game of Thrones and a terrifying dragon carved out from a watermelon, but needless to say, there is nothing Fatica can’t sculpt.
Fatica spends hours playing with food and we’ve collected his best works. I hope you are hungry, because on today’s menu, you’ll get a delicious watermelon Gollum, a cheesy Jesus, an avocado Pikachu, a potato Cthulhu, a pumpkin Joker, a coffee bean Hulk, and many more. Don’t forget to upvote your favorites and pick up your jaw after you finish!
More info: Instagram | Etsy | Facebook | valerianofatica.com | youtube.com | patreon.com
#1 Pikachu – Avocado
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
“I started to get interested in art basically since I was born, since my father is an artist. And since my family owns a restaurant, I started making art with food,” the 32-year-old artist told Bored Panda how it started. Today, Fatica is one of the best food artists you’ll meet and has titles of the world’s first and only truffle sculptor and the sculptor of the world’s largest watermelon carving to his name.
#2 Turtle – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#3 Gollum – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
Fatica says he loves classic Roman and Greek sculpture, but he mostly draws inspiration from Japanese manga and points out Kentaro Miura as his main source of inspiration.
We asked the artist what inspires him to create his sculptures that are often infused with pop culture, horror, and fantasy. “For my invented sculptures I don’t think too much of it; inspiration comes on its own. It happens that I get up in the morning, have a thing in my mind, make a sketch, and have it done,” Fatica said, adding that bringing his ideas to life is actually the most challenging and the most rewarding part of his job.
#4 Coffee Bean Thanos
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#5 Dragon – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
Fatica can work with almost any food and turn it into something amazing you’d have to look twice at to notice it’s actually made from edible material. We asked what food is Fatica’s favorite to work with.
“I don’t really have a favorite, but I like watermelon because it’s the most difficult fruit to carve; cheese, because I get to eat the parts that remain; the coffee because it doesn’t decompose, so I can keep it forever, or also sell. The one I love less is pumpkin because it’s the easiest and the most popular vegetable to carve.”
#6 Dog – Pumpkin Carving
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#7 Night King – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
Carving realistic sculptures from food is not the most popular form of art—nevertheless, it requires the same dedication and time. We asked Fatica how long the carving process takes.”
It always depends on which material and subject I choose. It can take from 6 to 30 hrs. The only thing that stops me from using more time is the fact that food decomposes. On materials that are different from food, such as stone, wood, etc., it depends. The process is divided into 4 parts: getting the idea, making the sketch, doing the sculpture, and making the video.” The artist shares time-lapse videos of his sculpting process on his Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, so check them out to see how it’s done.
#8 Monkey – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#9 Chansey – Avocado
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
Fatica says one of his favorite sculptures he has made is a Marvel character, Venom, carved from watermelon: “It’s a real show to watch. I love it because you could immediately see it was a watermelon, but at the same time, you could realize it took a lot of work for its details.”
#10 The Mount Rushmore, 1,5 Kg Truffle Carving
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#11 Drogon – Parmesan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
Fatica has built a following of 43.3k people on Instagram, almost 20k on Facebook, and has 29.7k subscribers on YouTube where one of his videos went viral with 2.6M views.
“I usually get a lot of positive feedback from people who admire and support my art. Just a few times it happened that someone was saying that it is a waste of food.”
If you appreciate Fatica’s work as much as these people, make sure to support his art by visiting his online store and purchasing his sculptures.
#12 Joker – Pumpkin Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#13 Rabbit – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
Lastly, Fatica had some personal advice for any upcoming artists: “In the first place, if you want to make it, you have to work hard, constantly, all the time. And most of all, you have to think about a good marketing campaign, especially on the internet, because you could have the best idea in the world, but if you don’t know how to sell it, you won’t go far.”
#14 Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#15 Venom – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#16 Snorlax – Avocado
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#17 The Orange Walker – Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#18 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#19 Anger – Carrot
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#20 Cthulhu Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#21 Tyrion Lannister – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#22 Groot – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#23 Dracula – Cheese
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#24 Minion – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#25 Eating Beauty – Parmesan Wheel
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#26 Santa Claus – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#27 Jesus Christ – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#28 Watermelon Eye
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#29 Cheese Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#30 Iron Man – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#31 Cthulhu – Potato
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#32 Perfect Cell – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#33 Attack On Watermelon Titan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#34 Dragon – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#35 6 Watermelons Fusion
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#36 T-Rex – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#37 Nick Fury – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#38 No-Face – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#39 Dargen D’Amico – Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#40 Banana Dragon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#41 Parmesan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#42 Potato Woman
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#43 Elderly – Banana
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#44 Wolf – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#45 Hulk Hogan – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#46 Old Man – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#47 Jesus Christ – Grana Cheese Carving
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#48 Death Note – Cheese Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#49 The Night King – Cheese Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#50 Doraemon – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#51 Goku SSJ3 – Potato
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#52 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#53 Watermelon Rose
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#54 Eddie – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#55 Watermelon Unicorn
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#56 Leonardo Da Vinci – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#57 Mickey Mouse – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#58 Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#59 Dragon Egg – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#60 Woman – Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#61 Gastly – Avocado Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#62 Heart – Cheese
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#63 Parmesan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#64 Totò – Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#65 Hulk – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#66 Child – Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#67 Elegant Alien – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#68 Parmesan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#69 Parmesan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#70 Potato Kid Buu
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#71 Guy Fawkes – Cheese
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#72 Hellvisback – Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#73 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#74 Truffle Lannister
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#75 The Fiend/Bray Wyatt — Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#76 Zombie – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#77 Darth Vader – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#78 The Devil – Watermelon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#79 Crazy Man – Melon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#80 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#81 Kyojuro Rengoku – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#82 Dargen D’Amico – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#83 Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#84 Green Melon
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#85 The Friend – 20th Century Boys – Cheese
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#86 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#87 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#88 Pumpkin
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#89 Adam – Coffee Bean
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#90 The Mouth Of Truth – Parmesan
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#91 True Detective – Cheese Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica
#92 Beherit – Berserk – Cheese Sculpture
Image credits: ValerianoFatica