The smoothie bowl art all started with a happy accident.
“I was trying to garnish my soup with coconut cream swirls, but it didn’t turn out as planned, so I added some pesto and created a tree,” the New Zealand based artist told Vogue. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The artist’s name is Hazel Zakariya, and she creates stunning masterpieces just like any other artist, but with an important twist – her canvas is a smoothie bowl. The edible creations take about one to five hours each to make, and are usually made with table knives and wooden skewer sticks.
The subjects of her smoothie bowl art often include different animals, movie characters, celebrities, and other elements of pop culture. Sometimes she even does recreations of famous, more conventional art pieces, adapted to a more delicious medium.
The ingredients in her smoothies vary from bowl to bowl, but they all have one thing in common – they’re all natural. Zakariya doesn’t use dyes or food coloring; she prides herself in using all natural colors.
For example, this gorgeous Wonder Woman smoothie bowl art is made with a base smoothie containing blueberries, mango, apple, oat milk, coconut cream, butterfly pea powder, spirulina, and Kapowder blend.
Meanwhile, the decoration consists of coconut cream, pitaya powder, activated coconut charcoal, raspberries, and mesquite powder.
She often uses ingredients such as pitaya powder for those bright pinks, butterfly pea tea for deep blues, matcha for a pop of green, and activated charcoal for a jet black.
As a result of her determination to use all-natural ingredients, her smoothie bowls not only look great and taste delicious, they’re actually also really good for you!
Since Zakariya started posting her creations on her Instagram account back in 2016, she has amassed more than 30,000 followers who all eagerly await to see her newest smoothie bowl masterpiece. On her account she posts pictures of her final creations, behind the scenes videos of her artistic process, videos of her smoothie bowl art jiggling as she shakes the bowl, and reversed videos of her destroying her smoothie bowl art, which is as heartbreaking to watch as it is satisfying.
When Vogue asked why she would spend so much time on artwork that is only going to be destroyed, she responded, “I say that life is transitory and that we should savor every moment.”
One might assume that Zakariya has a formal background in art or perhaps food when looking at her phenomenal smoothie bowl art, but in reality, she works in research and market analysis and has a background in business and science. Her desire to create stems from a passion for creativity that is completely separate from her career. All of her skills in art and nutrition are self-taught, making her all the more impressive.
You can check out more of her designs on her Instagram.