Jeff Nebeker’s Ceramic Donuts: Reflections of Food Insecurity

Californian pastry chef and artist, Jeff Nebeker has recently found success by sculpting hyper-realistic ceramic donut pieces that sell out in less than 3 minutes. As a seasoned pastry chef, Nebeker is able to draw parallels between his culinary practice with his art-making practice. He sees connections between the act of baking, frosting and decorating pastries with that of hand-building, glazing and painting ceramic sculptures. His experience as a pastry chef also means that his ceramic donuts look good enough to eat. Their true-to-life sizes also further enhance this visceral viewer's experience. 

Yet, his choice of using ceramics, a fragile medium that can easily break and be molded, to create his donuts belies a darker truth. One that speaks of food insecurity in the United States and the world. Donuts themselves have often been at the forefront of food security issues as time-and-time again, big donut franchises such as Krispy Kreme are found discarding and destroying large quantities of perfectly consumable food because of company policy. This is why the ceramic donuts by Jeff Nebeker are relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Zero Hunger.

Feeding America, a non-profit focused on fighting food waste and hunger in the United States, has found that every year, 119 billion pounds of perfectly good food, much like Nebeker’s donuts, are thrown away. This could have easily covered 130 billion meals worth around USD 408 billion. Sadly, this reality is coupled with the fact that 34 million people face hunger and lack access to adequate food in the United States, a number that can be decreased if relevant stakeholders such as the government and corporations had procedures in place to prioritize getting food into people’s hands over turning a profit.

Jeff Nebeker’s hyper-realistic ceramic donuts are more than just visually stunning sculptures—they serve as commentary on food insecurity. By using fragile ceramics to replicate donuts, Nebeker draws attention to the wastefulness of food systems, particularly the mass disposal of consumable goods by large franchises. His artwork highlights the stark contrast between the excess food thrown away and the millions of people who go hungry daily. Through his pieces, Nebeker underscores the urgent need for policies and actions that prioritize people over profit.

Find out more about ceramics donuts and other pieces by Jeff Nebeker on his gallery, EFG Private Collections’ website www.efgprivatecollections.com or Instagram @efgallery.