Culinary carvers transform fruits, vegetables

Dawn Berlin and Yung Cohn grew up on separate continents, but as children they both loved to play with their food.

They'd bend, shape, dice and slice the vegetables on their dinner plates into flowers, animals and other magnificent fantasies.

Mrs. Berlin, 40, a Severna Park resident, personal chef and owner of Your Thyme, a successful catering company, decided to add carved fruit and vegetable displays, centerpieces and garnishes to her personal repertoire last year.

Mrs. Cohn, 57, of Gaithersburg, spent her childhood in Vietnam. In the United States most of her professional career has been as a systems tester for...