Chris Foltz has been working as a chef in professional kitchens since he was a teenager, passing on decades of culinary know-how to students at the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute in Coos Bay. He can also wield a chainsaw as deftly as a chef’s knife to carve works of art out of 5,000-pound blocks of ice.

As news station KEZI previously reported, Foltz recently won first place in a team event at the 2022 World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska, for a 16-foot-tall sculpture of a warrior mounted on an elephant ready for battle. He also brought along students from the ice sculpting course he teaches at the culinary institute, and partnered with one of them to win third place in another competition event. With us now is Chris Foltz, a senior faculty instructor at the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute and world champion ice sculptor; and Nick Graham, a student at the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute and novice ice sculptor.