The food samples used in Japan to display restaurant menus attract great attention with their realistic appearance. With nearly 95 years of history in the country’s food culture, the samples are also appreciated by enthusiasts as souvenirs. Yukari Yamaya, who has been working in a food sample shop in the Kappabashi district of Tokyo’s historical town Asakusa for 22 years, says, “Food samples are a part of Japanese culture because Japanese people care about the appearance of food as much as its taste. That’s why restaurants use these samples, which look like real food, to attract customers’ attention.”
When Yamaya first started this business, the food samples used to be made using wax, but with the development of technology, plastic became the main material in production. Yamaya adds, “Many sample shops were closed because there were no tourists for a long time during the Covid-19 pandemic, and restaurants did not need these shops to order products.”
Ryu Haneda, who stated that there are usually no pictures on restaurant menus in Japan, said, “As Japanese cuisine includes many dishes from foreign countries, Japanese people cannot get an idea by reading foreign dishes from the menu. That’s why restaurants prefer to use these food samples.” Emphasizing that the food samples are made of wax and sometimes plastic, Haneda said, “These samples make sense because we can fully understand what is on the menu.”
Marry Jane, who came to Japan as a tourist from America, said, “It makes sense. I was impressed by how realistic they looked.”