We are once again convinced that you can bring your own unusual features into the culinary field, which will attract the close attention of the audience to the establishment and make it popular far beyond the borders of one city. We have already written more than once about non-standard ideas for the culinary and restaurant business on our website. This is both unusual and Japanese.
Today we will talk about another Japanese miracle. Why miracle? Because this is not just another idea for implementing a restaurant business, but a real culinary talent that not everyone can master.
Mini dishes in the kitchenette
In children's toy stores you can find such sets for girls - a small kitchen with small furniture and utensils. Many in childhood played with such toys and tried to feed their dolls and teddy bears with imaginary soup, or had a tea party with them. From the outside, the talented Japanese chef's equipment looks very much like a toy - everything is so small that you can't believe that it's all real. Pots, pans, plates, knives - all the size of a matchbox. And the dishes that are prepared using such utensils are also incredibly small. But, apart from the size, they are no different from normal dishes - they are made from real products and can be eaten.
One compartment of the micro-fridge can fit one whole berry. On the kitchen shelves there are miniature jars in which real spices and seasonings are stored, only in very small portions. The stove on which the cook cooks is powered by a candle placed inside the structure. The micro-kitchen has everything you need to prepare a wide variety of dishes - pots, grill pans, pancake spatulas, baking tray, molds, stands and much more. We can say with confidence that cooking in such conditions is a real piece of jewelry work.
How can you make money from this?
Indeed, it is not easy to immediately find an answer to this question. Who might be interested in this kind of cooking? Who will agree to pay for this? One of the options is to hold unique show programs in restaurants, during which the chef will prepare mini-meals in a mini-kitchen right in front of visitors. The food itself will no longer play the main role here. Clients will pay just for the show, for the emotions they received while watching such an unusual skill of the cook.
But the Japanese chef decided to take a simpler path. He started his own channel on YouTube, called it Miniature Space, and began posting videos there about the processes of preparing his micro-masterpieces. Such an unusual channel immediately attracted the attention of users. Watching how a miniature dish is created according to the principles of real cooking using all kitchen tools is truly interesting and exciting. Every day the videos are gaining more and more views, and the channel is growing with more and more subscribers. If there are subscribers and views, there is also income from advertising. Moreover, it is very big.
One of the latest dishes prepared at Miniature Space is a strawberry cake decorated with real berries and jelly beads. At the time of writing, the video had 879,840 views in four weeks. Think about it, if the video earned so many views in just one month, what will happen next?
Do you like to cook beautiful dishes, but don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen? Then pay attention to this hobby.
Culinary miniature is a hobby that is ideal for those who see creativity in cooking, and not just the process of cooking. Looking at many times smaller copies of vegetables, desserts, snacks and hot dishes, you just want to put them in your mouth - pizzas, sandwiches and cakes are so plausible that the digestive system works on a subconscious level. However, toy food for dolls is absolutely safe for the figure!
What is inedible food made of?
To sculpt food in a reduced size, you can use almost any materials:
- with or without baking;
- plasticine of any kind;
- paper.
We have already talked in detail about each of these types of modeling, so we will not repeat ourselves. If these types of needlework are not familiar to you, follow the links. There you will also find recipes for preparing the mass and features of working with it.
The most popular among creative types is sculpting culinary miniatures from polymer clay. The advantage is simplicity - the material is already ready, does not require mixing or coloring, easily acquires hardness (especially self-hardening plastic), and is stored for a long time. Ready-made souvenirs are not afraid of moisture and are not fragile - they can be used as keychains, refrigerator magnets and souvenirs.
Salt dough and cold porcelain are attractive due to their cost - you can prepare them from what you have in the kitchen. Working with such raw materials is, of course, more difficult, but no less exciting. By learning how to mix shades, you will get believable foods, fruits and dishes.
Plasticine is an affordable and easy-to-work material, but such crafts do not last long and quickly lose their luster, becoming covered in dust. We recommend starting to master a new type of needlework with this one. With a small expenditure of cheap plasticine, you will learn all the necessary techniques and acquire the skills of sculpting toy food with your own hands, which you will successfully transfer to creating “goodies” from more expensive plastic.
How to learn to create mini food
It is no coincidence that the sculpting of culinary miniatures is singled out into a separate direction, because not every master who creates jewelry and decorative items from plastic will be able to create a copy of a banana, a cut orange, a bun, a sandwich, scrambled eggs or ice cream. Here, as in another hobby related to miniatures, it is important to maintain proportions in each line.
Masters working in this popular technique have their own secrets for obtaining various effects. For example, to make cheese with holes, polymer clay is mixed with salt; during baking, the salt evaporates, leaving holes characteristic of real cheese.
Miniature salt dough crafts are dried only in the open air, as they are too small to heat. As a last resort, you can place the products next to the battery, but under no circumstances use the oven. I coat the salt dough rolls with varnish, adjusting the intensity so as to get the shine that pies and buns from a professional pastry chef can boast of.
How to learn how to make doll food? First, get inspired by photographs of experienced craftsmen, see how they breathe life into plastic and make plasticine juicy and appetizing. Every detail is important - there is no need to strive for perfection, a real fruit always has a small natural flaw that emphasizes its natural origin, and a pancake cannot have perfectly smooth edges.
To obtain maximum similarity, it is important:
- carefully approach the choice of color - the more shades of the same tone, the more natural the toy food will turn out;
- strictly observe the proportions not only in one product, but also in those that are planned to be placed nearby;
- acquire tools that help create fine details - barely noticeable stripes, dots, dents;
- Make group crafts in parts, but don’t try to make all the apples or oranges the same size and type - let them all be individual, because twins are rarely found in nature.
Start with simple culinary miniatures that don't require a lot of color. Start by making tea cups and saucers, a piece of cheese or a banana. You can get ideas from nature or photographs. A good direction for beginners is confectionery: pies, cakes, gingerbread. There is always room for imagination and creativity here.
A list of products, but also effectively contributes to the prevention of diseases of civilization - cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular diseases. This was confirmed by researchers of the “blue zones” - five places on Earth with the longest life expectancy. Here's what they found out about the benefits of turmeric, tofu and sweet potatoes when visiting Okinawa.
For two whole days I persuaded Godzei Shinzato to show me his arsenal of nutritional supplements that promote longevity; she finally agreed. In front of me lay at least five products that could explain how this vigorous centenarian managed to avoid age-related diseases and live to 104 years old, maintaining the flexibility of a yogini and the restless energy of a chihuahua.
Godzei showed me one supplement that was high in carotenoids, flavonoids, and saponin, and then another that prevented breast cancer by reducing estrogen in the blood.
She also pointed out a well-established anti-malarial that supports stomach health, and another supplement for regulating metabolism and maintaining low blood pressure, which, incidentally, removes gallstones and is used to prevent hangovers.
Godzei then bent down and picked up a blood sugar-lowering and diabetes-fighting product. As it turns out, three of these products have anti-aging effects.
Perhaps, reading my description, you imagined that we were in a well-stocked doctor's office - but in fact, Godzei and I were standing in her garden. And the role of “food additives” she showed was played by foods such as sweet potato, soybean, wormwood, turmeric and goya (bitter gourd). All this grew in neat rows fifteen steps from the woman’s house.
The day before, I arrived in the village of Gozei in northern Okinawa, accompanied by two longevity specialists. We spent the day asking Godzei about her diet, learning about her lifestyle, and watching her prepare traditional Okinawan dishes.
We learned that this woman's life consists of a blessed routine. She lives alone in a house of three unfurnished rooms separated by rice paper doors. After waking up, she wraps her petite body weighing less than forty kilograms in a blue kimono and usually makes offerings to the ancestors in her living room, lighting incense at a small altar on which old photographs, a tortoiseshell comb, an urn and other relics left by her ancestors are placed.
During the cooler parts of the day, Godzei works in the garden, reads comics or watches baseball on TV in the afternoon, and then takes a short nap.
Every day after lunch, Godzei's neighbors visit him, and a couple of times a week (to drink tea with wormwood and talk) the moai come - four women who, in their youth, together with Godzei, promised to support each other throughout their lives. Whenever Godzei's life fell on hard times (a period of lack of money or the death of her husband 46 years ago), she could rely on their help and on yimaru - social obligations in the Okinawan sense.
Okinawa is a kind of Japanese Hawaii, a group of exotic islands with a warm climate, palm trees and snow-white beaches. For a thousand years, this Pacific archipelago has maintained a reputation as a region with a very high concentration of centenarians.
Okinawans who are 65 years of age or older have the highest life expectancy in the world, with the average for men being 80 years and for women 88 years. It is believed that men in Okinawa have a good chance of living to 84 years, and women - up to 90 years. Among the inhabitants of Okinawa, there are the most centenarians in the world: approximately 6.5 out of 10 thousand people reach the age of 100 years or more.
They are also less likely to suffer from the diseases that kill Americans: Okinawa suffers five times less from heart disease, breast and prostate cancer, and cases of dementia are half as common as among Americans of the same age.
All Okinawan centenarians were born between 1903 and 1914, and for the first third of their lives, until about 1940, most of their calories (about 60 percent) came from one food item, the Okinawan sweet potato imo.
Purple or yellow sweet potatoes, related to our orange sweet potatoes, came to Okinawa from America about 400 years ago and did well in the local soil. On the eve of World War II, this vegetable became a real salvation for the population of Okinawa - without it, they would have starved. Rich in flavonoids, vitamin C, fiber, carotenoids and slow-release carbohydrates, sweet potatoes are one of the healthiest foods on the planet.
The traditional Okinawan diet consists of 80 percent carbohydrates. Before 1940, Okinawans also ate fish at least three times a week, along with seven servings of vegetables and one to two servings of grains per day. They also ate two servings of flavonoid-rich soy, mostly in the form of tofu.
The Okinawa diet did not contain much fruit, and eggs were consumed only a few times a week. Dairy and meat products accounted for just three percent of daily calories.
A typical traditional meal of the period began with miso soup, a local recipe made with seaweed, tofu, sweet potatoes and green leafy vegetables. The main dish was champuru - fried vegetables (goya, daikon radish, Chinese okra, pumpkin, burdock root or green papaya), sometimes with a small amount of fish, meat or noodles, seasoned with herbs, spices and oil. Drinks included freshly brewed sanpin (jasmine) tea and perhaps some awamori, a local alcoholic drink made from brown rice.
Three foods in the Okinawan diet of that time (turmeric, sweet potato, and seaweed) provided an additional benefit that we now understand much better: they mimic calorie restriction, providing a digestive diet that promotes longevity.
Fast food invasion
As healthy as Okinawan food traditions were, some of them were somewhat forgotten in the mid-20th century. After the war, the United States established a military base in the center of the island. Western influence and the country's economic prosperity have affected the traditional life of the Okinawans, leading to changes in their gastronomic habits.
According to detailed studies conducted by the Japanese government, between 1949 and 1960, sweet potato consumption dropped from 60 percent to less than 5 percent of daily calories. At the same time, Okinawans doubled their consumption of rice and also began to eat bread, which had previously been virtually unknown. Consumption of milk, animal meat, eggs and poultry increased almost sevenfold. Not surprisingly, rates of lung, breast and colon cancer have nearly doubled.
Today, there are many fast food restaurants in Okinawa that serve hamburgers and other meat sandwiches. From 1949 to 1972, Okinawans' daily calorie intake increased by 400 calories. They started consuming 200 calories more than they needed, just like Americans. And medical statistics reflect the consequences of these changes. In 2000, Okinawa ranked 26th among Japan's forty-seven prefectures in male life expectancy, while Okinawans, whose diets developed before this period, are among the longest living people on the planet.
Some traditions never die. It is clear that old culinary customs allow Okinawans to live long and healthy lives even in the face of modern fast food culture.
9 Longevity Products from Okinawa
Chinese bitter gourd- This is a long, lumpy fruit, a bit like a cucumber with pimples. In Okinawa, bitter gourd, known as goya, is often cooked with other vegetables stir-fried.
According to recent research, Chinese bitter gourd is a powerful anti-diabetic remedy. Using it in food helps regulate blood sugar levels no less effectively than medications.
Tofu. Tofu is to Okinawans what bread is to the French and potatoes are to Eastern Europeans—a daily habit. Research shows that people who eat soy products instead of meat have lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Sweet potato. Okinawan Imo is a dark purple-colored sweet potato, related to other varieties of sweet potatoes, yellow and orange. Although this variety has a pleasant sweet taste, its consumption does not lead to a sharp increase in blood sugar levels, unlike regular white potatoes.
Like other sweet potato varieties, Imo contains the antioxidant sporamin, which has anti-aging properties, but the presence of antioxidants in purple potatoes is still higher than in related varieties.
Garlic, sometimes eaten pickled in Okinawa, is one of the most powerful natural medicines. Daily consumption of garlic can either prevent or reduce the incidence of serious chronic diseases caused by age-related changes in the body, such as atherosclerosis, stroke, cancer, immune disorders, brain aging, arthritis, cataracts and many others.
Turmeric, a golden relative of ginger, occupies an important place in Okinawan cuisine both as a spice and as a base for tea. According to clinical and demographic studies, the curcumin contained in this product slows the progression of dementia. In all likelihood, this may explain why Okinawans are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease than Americans. And the islanders’ habit of adding black pepper to turmeric increases the bioavailability of curcumin a thousand times.
Brown rice Okinawan brown rice, which is tastier than the brown rice we know, is sprouted until it sprouts, releasing enzymes that break down sugar and protein and give the rice a sweeter taste and softer texture.
Green tea. Okinawans drink a special type of green tea; they call it xiang-ping, which means lightly flavored tea, because they add jasmine flowers and a little turmeric to this drink. Green tea contains unique substances that can protect a person from many age-related problems, including various cardiovascular diseases, stroke, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer and mental decline.
Shiitake mushroom. In Okinawa, these mushrooms are used to flavor traditional miso soup and stir-fried vegetables. Shiitake contains more than 100 different substances that have immunomodulatory properties. You can buy dried mushrooms, soak them in water, or cook them in soup or sauce. When cooked, shiitakes retain almost all their nutritional value.
Seaweed (kombu and wakame). All seaweed is a filling, low-calorie, nutrient-dense food. Kombu and wakame are the most common varieties eaten in Okinawa, added to many soups and stews. Rich in carotenoids, folic acid, magnesium, iron, calcium and iodine, they also contain at least six complex substances - highly effective antioxidants at the cellular level, found only in seaweed. Nowadays, wakame is available in the United States in dried form. The kombu variety of kelp has also long been used in Asian countries as a staple product and is also sold in the United States in dried form.
Recipes according to which children “cook” mini-meals in a toy dish are of little interest to anyone, perhaps only their parents. The case is different if recipes for miniature dishes are presented on the YouTube channel in the form of attractive animated videos, as 24-year-old Californian Jay Baron does. In them, he demonstrates the masterly preparation of tiny, but truly edible dishes. His art is international, universally understandable and attracts the attention of people from all over the world: in just a year, Baron gained about half a million subscribers.
When Jay Baron (Jay Baron) decided to become a blogger on a YouTube channel, then for some time I could not decide on a topic. The decision came to him when, rummaging in the pantry, he came across a souvenir - an antique cast iron mini-stove left over from his grandfather. This gave him the idea to create a cooking show in which he would cook mini meals. Having acquired the appropriate miniature dishes and the same Lilliputian kitchen equipment (half of which he made with his own hands), Jay began making videos with recipes for various popular dishes presented in miniature form.
The first video recipe called “ Mini Spaghetti! he published in March 2016. As a result, the video received more than 700 thousand views on FB and YT.
Agree, the process of preparing miniature food is striking in its realism, and tiny products and kitchen utensils give it a cheerful, slightly fairy-tale touch.
Absolutely everyone likes the funny form of videos. Children enjoy watching how water boils on a mini-stove in a tiny saucepan, and how something is fried in a tiny frying pan, and adults admire the complete correspondence of the prepared mini-food with its real recipes in the “real world”. That's why Jay Baron's videos are very popular. For example, recipes for miniature dishes " Eggs and bacon" And " Pie" have several million views.
MINI BACON & EGGS
By the way, the author of funny short films does not consider them works of art. " “I consider myself a storyteller,” says Baron. I just tell people interesting stories and try to make them happy with these videos... ." And it seems that he succeeds quite well. Although, apart from ten years of experience as an artist and a couple of unfinished courses, the young man has no special education in this field.
MINI CAKE
Gradually, Jay collected a whole series of colorfully edited videos where he prepares mini-foods according to recipes from different countries of the world. True, in his case, it would be more correct to say microcosm. And this is why the process of preparing familiar dishes looks so surprising and fascinating. Moreover, regardless of the complexity - be it a regular omelette, lasagna or apple pie.
MINI Omelette
MINI LASAGNA
MINI APPLE PIE
Video recipes for miniature copies of dishes from all over the world have become the basis of the Internet resource " Walking With Giants" But its young author admits:
I created the Walking with Giants channel to attract people, to entertain them, but it should be a springboard into larger projects that I want to create on the channel in the future. Walking With Giants won't be showing mini food forever. I have much bigger plans for him.".
By creating mini food video graphics like this, Jay is certainly not the pioneer of this “kawaii” style. (Kawaii (可愛い) - translated from Japanese means charming, cute, adorable). The style originated in the 70s in Japan and became part of Japanese pop culture. It affected the appearance of toys, clothes, food and even behavior. Elements of kawaii can be found anywhere among the Japanese - in government publications, public service announcements, in institutions, shops, and in transport.
But this seemingly infantile aesthetic attracts the Western, pragmatic viewer. For them, this is an element of a show and a fairy tale at the same time. This is an opportunity to return to the world of childhood for a minute or two. And Jay gives his audience this opportunity - the mini-food recipes on his videos are more like everyone’s favorite animation.
In conclusion, please note that the videos are shown accompanied by stylish soundtracks from such popular music artists and groups as ProleteR, Mr. Woox, Jesse James, Floppy Circus, etc.
24-year-old French artist Stephanie Kilgas creates miniature food models on a scale of 1 to 12, which are no different from the original. She uses scalpels, blades, toothpicks and polymer clay to create her delicacies. Stephanie made her first miniature in 2007, and today her collection includes more than 600 dishes.
1. Continental breakfast: croissants with butter and jam and black coffee. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
2. . Stephanie creates her polymer clay creations using scalpels, razor blades, utility knives and toothpicks. One such job takes up to three hours. The first miniature was created in 2007. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
3. Chocolate eclairs, profiteroles and cakes. The details are made from simple acrylic paint. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
4. Traditional English breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausages, beans and lots of toast. For sophisticated designs, Stephanie has to turn to a magnifying glass for help. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
5. Baskets of pears next to a nickel for comparison. Since starting her business in 2007, Stephanie has already made about 600 models of cakes, baked goods, meat products and other “goodies”. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
6. She sells her work online. “I started this activity without a specific goal, after finishing my drawing lessons,” says Stephanie, who currently lives in France. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
7. “I just wanted to explore the world of miniature art, and my subject became food. Gradually I liked it and started selling them.” (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
8. Stephanie started working on her mini-masterpieces out of boredom during the summer holidays. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
9. “Creating a miniature sweets buffet can take a long time. But if I make a regular breakfast tray, it takes about three hours.” (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
10. Lately, Stephanie has started making earrings and clips out of her masterpieces. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
11. Stephanie's main clients are dollhouse lovers. (Stephanie Kilgast/Barcroft USA)
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