This man carves fruit and vegetables into spectacular works of art
They say you can't have your cake and eat it, but it's more than possible to have your avocado and carve it.
Half of it, anyway.
Food sculptor and artist Daniele Barresi has proved it.
That finely sculpted avocado, which has been widely shared on social media over the last few days, isn't Barresi's first foray into the fairly niche world of food sculpting.
Using a combination of Thai techniques, embroidery, and a style he's developed over the last seven years, the 26-year-old Italian has built up a range of impressive vegetable-based creations. He now has a fanbase of well over 100,000 people, spread across his Facebook and Instagram pages.
Barresi first encountered fruit and vegetable carving at a wedding party seven years ago.
"From that day I tried to find more information about it and I started with an apple," he told Mashable. "I saw something which excited me. Day by day, pumpkin by pumpkin, I realised that it was time to participate in a competition to know what people and judges think about my skills."
Barresi won a bronze medal in Italy at his first competition. The next year he won gold at the World Championship in Basel, Switzerland, and a year later he took gold again in Luxembourg. He's since gone on to win more medals around the world, and has judged other competitors at a contest in Taiwan.
As well as taking part in contests and nurturing a steadily growing social media following, Barresi currently works as a pastry chef at a bakery in Australia. He carves fruit to decorate the cakes and pastries.
The time it takes to complete each carving varies depending on the size of the fruit.
"The avocado took me just 40 minutes," Barresi explained. "Yes it is complicated but it is a small size.
"A watermelon take me from 30 minutes to 6 hours. Same with pumpkin."
Judging by how much attention Barresi's been getting over the past week -- and the steadily growing size of his social media accounts -- it's time well spent.
You can see more of Barresi's work on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and his website.
