"Instant Hit Upon Debut"...Who First Created Food Court Sample Foods? [Delicious Story]

Who made the plastic “fake food” displayed in the glass showcase of department store food courts, and for what purpose? Also known as “food samples,” these models are not just simple promotional props-they are recognized as a legitimate craft.

Plastic food samples placed in the glass display window of a department store food court. Screenshot from the Diningcode website.

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Food samples are commonly seen in lounges or department store food courts. The range is diverse, from rice, soups, pork cutlets, and tempura to rice cakes-all made of plastic. Food samples are crafted in plastic workshops, and there are many artisans in South Korea who have dedicated themselves to making food samples. One representative figure is Hong Kyungtaek, the founder of Duri Model, who has been featured in various media and has over 40 years of experience as a food sample artisan.

However, the origin of food samples is Japan. Since the early 1900s, Japan has been making food samples from wax and other materials, and now, food models are valued as part of culinary art, on par with actual cooking.

Takizo Iwasaki, founder of Iwasaki Manufacturing (left), and the first wax omelet rice he made. Iwasaki Be-I website

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The first person to commercialize food samples in the world was Takizo Iwasaki of Japan. In 1932, Iwasaki established “Iwasaki Manufacturing,” the first food model workshop in Osaka, and produced a variety of food samples for restaurant supply. According to local media reports in 2013, Iwasaki Manufacturing held about a 70% market share in the Japanese food sample industry, reaching an oligopoly.

In Japan, since the late 19th century, there was already a promotional strategy of displaying food samples outside shops. At that time, they put out real rice balls, sushi, and rice cakes, but the problem was that foods made from grains would spoil easily. Iwasaki came up with the idea of using wax, which would not spoil, to make food models as samples. In 1932, he created the first “wax omelet rice model.”

According to the Japanese food media “ByFood,” during the early 20th century, Japan had just completed industrialization, leading to overcrowded urban populations, but the illiteracy rate was high. Although demand for restaurants was high, there were few adults who could read, making it difficult to use text-heavy menus. For this reason, Iwasaki’s wax food samples, which allowed customers to instantly recognize dishes by sight, became explosively popular.

Food sample artisans replicate food texture and color using only plastic and paint. Iwasaki Be-I homepage

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Iwasaki Manufacturing reportedly grew large enough to establish a dedicated factory in the 1950s for mass-producing wax samples. Later, as wax melted easily in sunlight, it became common to use plastic for samples, and today there are numerous food sample artisans across Japan. There are even shops specializing exclusively in food samples, much like ingredient marketplaces. In Kappabashi Dougu Street, Tokyo’s largest kitchenware shopping district, there is even a separate food sample section.

Although plastic molding technology has advanced to an astonishing precision today, most food sample artisans still insist on handcrafting. This is because the shapes of food requested by customers are so varied that they are difficult to replicate by machine. In the case of premium dishes meticulously prepared by chefs, artisans are said to perfectly reproduce even the plating and the shape of each grain of rice to match the original.

The types of foods that can be represented with plastic are virtually limitless. Artisans who have honed their plastic crafting skills for decades can capture not only the stretching texture of sticky rice cakes, but also the freshness of lettuce or the juicy look of a hamburger patty-all using just plastic, silicone, and paint.

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