It's been a whole week since I wrote this little ditty on Takizo Iwasaki, largely credited as the father of Japan's robust fake food replica industry. A refresher: In Japan, shokuhin sampuru ("food goods sample"), made of wax or plastic, are constructed as likenesses of actual food. They're frequently displayed outside restaurants to entice people walking by.
And here, above, is a totally enchanting video detailing the creation of some fake cabbage from wax. The video's just over a minute long, replete with some very mutable strumming guitar music, and it shows the delicate hands of a man working his magic. The process is clearly intricate and beyond my capabilities, and the outcome resembles a brain. No matter—it's a very pretty brain. I'd like to eat it.
Mayukh Sen is a James Beard Award-winning food and culture writer in New York. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Bon Appetit, and elsewhere. He won a 2018 James Beard Award in Journalism for his profile of Princess Pamela published on Food52.
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