how laila gohar sculpts meringues and butter into ephemeral worlds

bringing whimsy to everyday ingredients

Artist Laila Gohar is often pictured surrounded by food. As contributor to the Financial Times column, How to Host it, she reveals in snack-sized bites her approach to being a master craftsman of food. In a 2022 piece, Yes, we can! An ode to the anchovy, and other tinned-fish wonders, she waxes poetica on the oiled and salted creatures of the sea. She talks about her childhood in Egypt, a former Spanish lover, and the migration habits of the particularly delectable bonito del norte tuna fish. Looking through the cornucopia of her projects reveals that her whimsical approach to food is a gustatory and historically-based tribute to a medium near and dear to her heart.

Loaf armchair by Laila Gohar. Photography by Brian W Ferry.

Butter sculptures in classical forms

The most figurative form that appears in her work is the butter sculpture. When in its solid form, the fats from the luxurious dairy spread take on the appearance of a milky marble or perhaps a wax that will be melted away for a bronze statue. Given the pliability of the material and its ability to hold a shape at room temperature, Gohar has cleverly adapted the ingredient to create sculptures that looked plucked from the classical era. With its 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, for a moment, Gohar disguises the true nature of the spread before it gets swiped away (as its meant to) atop a tasty piece of rye.

Loaf armchair by Laila Gohar. Photography by Brian W Ferry.

Larger-than-life fruits and vegetables

In the 2026 edition of Milan Design Week, Gohar also appeared, but not with an edible sculpture. Instead, alongside the clothing brand ARKET, she crafted an ornate spinning carousel where the pony and zebra seats were replaced with a cabbage patch of larger-than-life produce. Visitors could sit atop a purple cabbage, radish, or eggplant and whir around the Giardino delle Arti. For an event with Sotheby’s she had also crafted these massive cakes in the shape of an apple and a rose that looked as though they came from a surrealist painting. Scale is often something Gohar plays with to create intrigue in her work, often feeling like you’ve taken the magical Eat Me biscuits or Drink Me potions in Alice in Wonderland.

Butter sculptures. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.

Trompe-l’œil of lobsters and swans

In addition to flora and fruit, Gohar is also known to work with fauna. She 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 speckled red shell that its true nature is only revealed by the lit candle that appears in its back. To present her mother of pearl spoon sets and bean dish, made by an atelier in Vietnam, Gohar presented them against a powder blue set with a sugar-white arrangement of meringue swans perched in the background. As food takes on the form of critters, the artist animates the dishes she puts on the table.

Butter sculptures. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.

Chairs made of cake. Courtesy of Laila Gohar.

bright red chairs that ask, Is it cake?

The now age-old question is it cake? is one that Gohar must have heard years before the popular Netflix show aired. In 2022, for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Exhibition in Paris, she created two bright red chairs. On first read, placed on plinths, they look like standard meeting room seating, covered in a chenille textile. But slice by slice, it is revealed that the cushions and back rest are actually a frosting filled confection. This tromp l’oleil is a recurring technique in Gohar’s work. She’s fashioned towers from prawns for Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées, a gelatine fish for Simone Rocha, and a snack-covered plinths for Hermès. There’s a sense of awe and wonderment when one of her pieces are sliced open to reveal a sweet dessert.

ARKET installation designed in collaboration with Laila Gohar during Salone del Mobile 2026. Courtesy of ARKET.