Food is an artform—and quite literally when you talk to Harley Langberg.
The 35-year-old creative took his experience of growing up around both food and art, and turned it into a successful side business, which has just kept growing in size since its inception.
“I had an early passion for cooking at age five and have literally been cooking since that day,” says Langberg. “And just growing up in New York City with some of the greatest museums and galleries, and then taking art history classes later on in high school, and then at Northwestern, I’ve always had such an appreciation for art.”
Now dubbed Harley’s Food Art (which can be viewed both on his website and Instagram page), the venture officially got its start 9 years ago when Langberg saw a food art photography exhibit.
“Food art at that time was just emerging into the mainstream, but not quite yet. It was still relatively a new form of art that a lot of people weren’t doing,” he says. “When I saw it, [I thought] let me give it a shot—I’m in the market already, let me get some ingredients. So I got some ingredients that night and I created my very first piece, which was inspired by Banksy’s Flower Thrower.”
As Langberg describes, the momentum was natural and he just kept creating more pieces. And with his day job being in finance, he wanted to find a way to monetize it. And he did, in 2013, with his first brand partnership with Refinery 29.
“They commissioned me to do six influential fashion figures in food for New York Fashion Week—Kanye, Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, and a couple of others,” Langberg remembers. “And [since then] I’ve done hundreds of pieces over the years. I’ve done a lot of portraits, I’ve done almost every animated character multiple times, I’ve done recreations of famous paintings but in my own style, and I’ve done almost any kind of animal.”
And although he doesn’t quite have one specific favorite (“But I do really like the graphic look of those where I use the eggplant and then the pop of color with some fresh produce”), Langberg does list some specific pieces as among the most memorable including his portraits of Ed Sheeran, Simba from ‘The Lion King’, Chewbacca, a couple of central figures from horror movies and even Winnifred Sanderson from the ‘Hocus Pocus’ franchise.
Langberg’s custom work also spans items for different brands (over 75 to date), and most recently, he worked on a piece specifically for Pride Month. But the art of food art does have a science, and there are certain ingredients that Langberg has learned to stay away from when creating his designs.
“I can’t really use condiments and I can’t use spices, and there are some other ingredients that kind of change in texture and appearance the longer they’re out of the fridge. So it’s tricky,” says Langberg. “[It was learning] which ingredients worked really well, which were my go-to ingredients, and which ingredients I really need to avoid.”
Langberg continued: “I definitely noticed over the last nine or ten years, I’ve really become better at adding more details, more dimension. My pieces have become a little bit more 3d versus 2D, and I’ve used a lot more ingredients that I would ever think to use originally. I tried to push the boundaries there. And also my photography has got gotten better…phones have gotten better, so the quality has gotten better.”
Harley’s Food Art prints (which span in size and price) are available to purchase through his website (harleysfoodart.com), but the artist notes that his Instagram (@harleysfood_art) is likely the quickest and easiest way to view his work and what’s new. He’s also on TikTok.
For the future, Langberg’s creations will be seen through work with clothing and entertainment companies, including Ripley’s Believe It Or Not both through the brand’s book and social media channels. He also noted he recently finished making a 3D foot out of food for an espadrille company.
But, Langberg also notes that his art has made some recent changes, mostly from his daughter.
“Two years ago my daughter, Blake, came into the picture. She’s kind of become a little bit a part of the process and the end result. She really loves to help me with the finishing touches and also likes to look at the piece, and eat it,” Langberg finishes. “I’m now inspired by a lot of the books I’m reading to her with children’s characters from her TV shows and from her books. So that definitely has influenced my food art.”
To learn more information about Harley’s Food Art, visit harleysfoodart.com, All of Harley’s Food Art are available on prints only of different sizes.
