Italian chef honors Chinese artist by creating vivid dishes on canvas

A flower painting inspires a colorful dish at Barolo in Beijing. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

With a picture frame as the canvas, incredible culinary creations were hatched at Barolo's dining room as Italian chef Amedeo Ferri made the last course, the dessert, for his guests.

The creation was vivid and colorful, and all the "paint" he threw on the glass was eatable. Black was the Valrhona chocolate, red the raspberry jam, pink the strawberry ice cream, white the yoghurt, green the mint, and pistachio paste.

Not only was Ferri presenting his new creation, he was also saluting the late Chinese artist Zhu Danian (1916-1995), a master in Chinese meticulous painting with heavy colors and pioneer in modern porcelain.

He was approached by Zhu's grandchildren as the family was looking for ways to remember the artist on his 100th birth anniversary. Ferri had previously worked with artists to create food menus, but he knew he needed time for research.