bringing whimsy to everyday ingredients
Artist Laila Gohar is often pictured surrounded by food. As a columnist for the Financial Times, How to host it, reveals in snack-sized bites her approach to being a master food craftsman. In a piece of 2022, Yes, we can! An Ode to Anchovies and Other Canned Wonders, waxes poetic on the oiled and salted creatures of the sea. She talks about her childhood in Egypt, a former Spanish lover, and the migratory habits of the particularly delightful nice north ton. Looking through her horn projects reveals that her whimsical approach to food is a tasteful and historical tribute to a medium near and dear to her heart.
Laila Gohar Armchair Loaf. Photo by Brian W Ferry.
Butter sculptures in classical forms
The most figurative form that appears in her work is the butter sculpture. When in solid form, the fats from the luxurious dairy spread take on the appearance of a milky marble or perhaps wax to be melted down for a bronze statue. Given the flexibility of the material and its ability to maintain a shape at room temperature, Gohar he has cleverly adapted the ingredient to create sculptures that seemed plucked from the classical era. In silky off-whites, her clever culinary creations of Ionic columns, female nudes and fragments of Michelangelo’s David add an ornate touch to her compositions. In the super-literal image of architectural forms, Gohar momentarily disguises the spread’s true nature before removing it (as intended) over a delicious piece of rye.
Laila Gohar Armchair Loaf. Photo by Brian W Ferry.
Fruits and vegetables larger than life
At the 2026 edition of Milan Design Week, Gohar also appeared, but not with an edible sculpture. Instead, alongside clothing brand ARKET, he created an elaborate revolving carousel where the pony and zebra seats were replaced by a piece of cabbage with longer-lasting products. Visitors could sit on a purple cabbage, radish or eggplant and spin around the Giardino delle Arti. For an event with Sotheby’s he had also made these huge apple and rose cakes that looked like they came from a surreal painting. Scale is often something Gohar plays with to create intrigue in her work, often feeling like you’ve got the magic eat me cookies or Drink Me potions in alice in wonderland.
Butter sculptures. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.
Butter sculptures. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.
Trompe-l’œil of lobsters and swans
Apart from flora and fruits, Gohar is also known to work with fauna. He has created another cake in the form of a lobster, framed but the bright green of lettuce leaves. The crustacean is so convincing in its mottled red shell that its true nature is revealed only by the lit candle displayed on its back. To showcase her mother’s bean spoon and plate sets, made by an atelier in Vietnam, Gohar presented them in a powder blue set with a white sugar composition of meringue swans perched in the background. As the food takes the form of creatures, the artist animates the dishes she puts on the table.
Butter sculptures. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.
Cake chairs. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.
bright red chairs that ask, Is it cake?
The now age-old question is it cake is something Gohar must have heard years before the popular Netflix show aired. In 2022, for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Exhibition in Paris, he created two bright red chairs. At first reading, set on plinths, they look like typical boardroom seats, covered in chenille fabric. But slice by slice, it’s revealed that the cushions and back rest are actually frosting-filled confections. This tromp l’oleil is a recurring technique in Gohar’s work. He has made shrimp towers for Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées, a jelly fish for Simone Rocha and plinths covered in snacks for Hermès. There is a sense of awe and wonder when one of her pieces is sliced open to reveal a sweet dessert.
The ARKET installation was designed in collaboration with Laila Gohar during Salone del Mobile 2026. Courtesy of ARKET.
