3 Las Vegas pros share their pumpkin carving skills

With the exceptions of trick-or-treating and dressing in costume, few traditions are as associated with Halloween as carving a pumpkin. To celebrate All Hallow’s Eve this year, we asked three local food professionals to grab a pumpkin (or two), and wow us with their knife skills. As you can see, their inspirations and techniques varied. But they’re all shockingly good, demonstrating downright scary levels of talent.

Creator: Chef Leobardo Bracamontes

■ Works at: Special events chef at The Palms

■ Inspiration/theme: For the first pumpkin, it was scary, whimsical, funny — over the top. The second is a nod to Macallan Scotch, with a ghost coming out of the bottle.

■ Time to complete: 8 hours

■ Pumpkin carving tip or advice: Patience

■ Enjoy his work: Bracamontes’ carvings often can be spotted at larger special events at the Palms.

Creator: Cake decorator Brittnee Klinger

■ Works at: Freed’s Bakery

■ Inspiration/theme: My personal obsession with skulls. I have quite the collection at home.

■ Time to complete: It took me about 2 hours to whip up my new skully friend.

■ Pumpkin carving tip or advice: A super useful tip for pumpkin carving is to scrape away the inside of the pumpkin where your design will be until it is about 1 inch thick. This will make carving easier and will leave enough pumpkin skin for etching techniques.

■ Enjoy her work: You can find Klinger making spooky creations and other sinfully sweet cakes at Freed’s Bakery or at @brittneeklinger on Instagram.

Creator: Chef Casey Torblaa

■ Works at: Esther’s Kitchen

■ Inspiration/theme: The artichoke, a symbol of Esther’s and of Roman cooking, which represents the ecstasy and agony of all chefs.

■ Time to complete: About 8 hours

■ Pumpkin carving tip or advice: Give yourself a lot more time than you think you’ll need, draw it out, make sure you are ready to make a mess.

■ Enjoy his work: Order the Greek sausage-salumi-fennel-orange-pepper pizza or any of the other sourdough crust pies on Esther’s seasonal menu, and the odds are good Torblaa made it.