A Bridge Over Troubled Breakfast Cereal

The Veteran’s Memorial Bridge has seen a lot in its short life. Protests and rallies alike are drawn to the site. It became a symbol of the Red River’s full-on assault of The Valley, as onlookers watched its waters rise within feet of meeting the roadway, its steps left awash. And now, the bridge will make its debut on the Food Network, in the form a giant, rice-cereal treat no less.

Stevie Famulari has been called a wild card and a drama queen, received hate e-mails, even phone calls, all thanks to her pieces of edible art (See Flambé). Her work has received praise as well, “I would work with Stevie any day, over 99.9% of the folk out in the world,” said Adrienne Touebeh, who helped Famulari create the bridge.

Now this tattooed, slightly eccentric, even temperamental artist and New York City native may soon become the face of the FM area, at least to Food Network fans.

This Sunday, August 30, Famulari’s rendering of the bridge will appear on Food Network Challenge, a show that pits four contestants against one another in culinary competition.

Famulari has been on the show three times before, to varying levels of success and disaster. Speaking of which, have you ever seen a flaming cake? Because that is just what happened during her third appearance. Her cake, now lovingly referred to as Flambé, burst into flame shortly after completion (A moment that made this particular episode one of the highest viewed in series history).

“I was doubled over with laughter,” Famulari said, “I tasted fire extinguisher; I was this close to the cake.”

During her second appearance, her creation began to topple, and during her first appearance she wrapped an entire Christmas tree with edible cling wrap.

When Food Network called her back the fourth time, during the middle of the flood, Famulari agreed to appear again, but only if she could render the Main Avenue Bridge here in Fargo.

“I actually chose that in some ways to top a flaming cake, which topped a collapsed bridge, which topped a wrapped cake,” Famulari said.

Now this part might require you to think back to your last art class. Maybe that was in high school, or even middle school. Remember one-point perspective? All lines leading back to, you guessed it, one point. That’s just what Famulari does with her bridge, but in three dimensions, leaving the onlooker feeling like they are just about to walk down the bridge.

With the added touch of milk washing over the steps, you find yourself on the bridge as the Red rises around you.

All this with Rice Krispies.

“Pastry art is stuck in the 1910s,” Famulari said. Left behind when the rest of the art world began to embrace new forms, from cubism to post-modernism, pastry art remains a “one-liner,” a rose is a rose, a bridge a bridge. Famulari refuses to fall in line with this standard.

“In some ways [the bridge is] a one liner from the front. But when you get the flood, and you get the history behind it, and you get the blizzard, when you get its moment in time, it’s this multi-layer celebration of where I live,” Famulari said.

For those that can put off watching the show just one day, a special showing of Sunday’s Food Network Challenge, and an encore of the episode featuring Flambé, will be hosted at the Fargo Theatre. Famulari, Touebeh, Mayor Walaker, and several engineers who designed the bridge will be present at the event. The doors are will open at 5:30 p.m., refreshments and rice krispies will be served.

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