Chef James Parker

Teaches at The Center for Kosher Culinary Arts

The idea for Veggy Art emerged as James Parker watched busy chefs struggle to find time for creating garnishes and realized that most home cooks abandoned final touches, due to lack of time and know-how. That was in 1998, shortly after Parker started his job as Sous Chef at the Ronald Reagan Building/International Trade Center, in Washington D.C. Parker recognized the potential for a “ready-to-use” garnish company, and decided to launch his own, which has blossomed into the successful Veggy Art that it is today. Since Veggy Art‘s beginning, Parker has led demonstrations, sold garnishes, and held classes all over the country. The White House, Bloomingdale’s, the U.S. Marine Corps, Penn College, C’est Si Bon Cooking School in North Carolina, the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Los Angeles, Dean and Deluca, Lacademie De Cuisine, Balduccis in New York, Sur la Table, Holiday Inn in Chicago, The Sugar Art Show in Tulsa, and Silverlining Caterers in Ft. Lauderdale Florida, just to name a few. Parker has been featured twice on The Food Network’s “Sugar Rush”, The Food Network Challenge, Fantasy Fruit Sculpture, and more recently (Feb. of 2008), the Food Network Challenge, Fantasy Fruit Sculpture REMATCH, All of which can be viewed on his home page. Also in 2008, Parker was featured in The New York Times, along with fellow carvers and friends, Jimmy Zhang, Ray L. Duey, and Michael Verno for their “knife skills”. As Chef Parker adds more projects to his plate, he continually encourages people to discover the ancient art of fruit and vegetable carving, and what has kept it very much a part of other cultures around the world for hundreds of years.