Butchering Chef Portrait Wins Prestigious Art Prize

At right, a portrait by Melbourne artist Vincent Fantauzzo of Australian chef Matt Moran that won the Archibald Packing Room Prize. The Archibald is Australia's most prestigious award for portraiture, and comes with a prize of $50,000 (US$52,605).

Moran is the chef and owner of Aria, which has locations in Brisbane and Sydney, and is a frequent guest judge on Australia's MasterChef. He posed in a walk-in freezer for the portrait, and the artist says the concept for the painting was inspired by the fact that Moran "sometimes...has a bit of a crack at vegetarians and that kind of thing but it's just, you know, it's fun, kind of light-hearted look at Matt with that cheeky grin on his face." Trend prediction: chef portraits, with raw meat.

· Moran portrait a cut above the rest [ABC Aus.]
· All Food Art on Eater [-E-]