My critique on the Fellow submission arrived this afternoon so I thought I'd share it with you. You never know, it might help any future candidates out there to be successful! Reading it gave me an even greater "High" than the email telling me that I'd made it! OK...enough prattling on...here it is:-
Positive:
Outstanding use of accessories.
Some of the most realistic food I have ever seen. Thoughtful & powerful variety & presentation.
Truly exquisite work. The pastries are making me hungry-fabulous crust on pie & the croissants are amazing. Love the asparagus.
Lovely to look at. Colors re unbelievable.Shading is perfect.
Clams are well done & love the sea urchin.
Absolutely love the cherry pie-cherries with pits! Very nice asparagus. Wonderful variety & presentation.
There is a sense of scale with the tiniest details that I don't often see in foods. Delicacy of berries, cherry pits, croissants-wonderful!
Beautiful shading & colours on most-lovely food choices/variety. Catch of the day-nice choice.
Areas of improvement:Leaves in the fruit basket need more variation of shape & color & are too thick. The blackberries are a little large compared to the apples & the apple stems are too fine.
Diameter of the asparagus is large in scale, but borderline to the largest we've ever seen. Lemons on asparagus crown are too bright.
The fish seem to be an odd color. The fish are poorly detailed compared to the other pieces. The lobster is too bright blue & the body seems too narrow.
The seafood is the weakest part of the submission.
All the pastries, though lovely scale, look "burned" in the oven. The pastry dough seems too dark brown.
When you read the areas of improvement it's amazing that I ever "made it"!!! The committee have obviously never seen my homemade croissants!!!!