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Michael Laiskonis is executive pastry chef of New York City's famed Le Bernardin. His sweet artistry has helped Eric Ripert's restaurant maintain a four-star rating from the New York Times and three stars from the Michelin Guide, as well as earn him the Outstanding Pastry Chef award in 2007 by the James Beard Foundation.

Needless to say, he's mastered the art of dessert with the help of a little inedible inspiration.

Five Visual Artists Who’ve Inspired My Work as a Pastry Chef: Michael Laiskonis

See some of Chef Laiskonis's creations here

1. Alexander Calder
"Perhaps best known for his signature mobile sculptures, Calder also left behind a staggering body of work that included painting and illustration, as well as children’s toys. His work - both the static and kinetic - exhibit a keen sense of fluid movement, and his ability to marry both hard, geometric shapes with loose, organic forms continues to influence my visual approach to desserts."

2. Jackson Pollock
"To be sure, there’s a little Pollock in every squeeze-bottle yielding line cook, yet like abstract expressionism, there can lay a deeper aesthetic intent beyond mere squiggles. Rather than saucing a dish with indeterminate abandon, colorful (and flavorful) drips, lines, and smears of purées, reductions, and oils can provide a unifying, delicious form of movement, composition or tension."

3. Bauhaus
"The German Bauhaus school of the '20s and '30s has long been an inspiration. Its teachers and students comprised a great number of artists, designers, and craftsmen, whose vast portfolio represented a cool, timeless modernity. Whether in graphic design, or furniture, or architecture, equal attention was given to both form and function, resulting in elegant, yet economic expressions of line and shape. I liken the ergonomic structure of the iconic Bauhaus chairs or teapots to that of a dessert, also assembled in such a way that it ‘eats well’ in a pleasurable, practical sense."

4. Edward Hopper
"Hopper’s austere, representational style may seem an unlikely muse for a pastry chef, whose media is certainly more abstract and sculptural in nature. Yet, I admire the strong compositions of his paintings and the way he used shadow and space as a physical element, but also as a psychological device. In very small and subtle ways, I think I channel Hopper’s work a lot when playing around with scale and juxtaposition."

5. Frank Lloyd Wright
"It’s important to include an architect, because I’m fascinated by the similarities between these two seemingly disparate realms. Of course, there is an obvious architectural aspect of ‘building’ a cake or complex plated dessert - but beyond the visual, I also consider a dessert’s inner architecture. How the materials themselves - the flavors and textures - inform the structure, as well as how the end-user will experience each bite. Wright was exceedingly detail oriented, and his lines were clean and ultimately simple. Yet, they were always in harmony with the environment. It’s as if his drawings one day came to life and emerged from the ground - an effect that is fun to play with in pastry."

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