Learn How To Carve the Best Pumpkins from the Master Himself: Ray Villafane [VIDEO]

Ray Villafane’s affair with pumpkins began early in his life. Born into a poor family, he found himself having to whittle his own toys out of wood. As things got worse he was forced to give up using wood to create his toys and eventually had to make them out of pumpkins as the precious wood was needed to heat the small farm house during the winter. Because his creations rotted in a week or so after making them, Ray found himself carving nonstop.

Throughout his academic career, Ray’s classmates and teachers also recognized his natural artistic abilities. Ray graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1991.

Despite all of the big name products Ray was sculpting, the public seemed to be most intrigued with his on going pumpkin carvings. Ray has won back to back Food Network Challenges for his pumpkin carvings and has been featured on many TV shows and news broadcasts including The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. In 2010 Ray was even invited to carve pumpkins at the White House!