Most shops that sell food in Japan have one thing in common: sampuru. These fake food samples are carefully crafted by artists to display the food options of the restaurant.
It seems menial, but it’s actually a huge business. In fact, it’s recorded to be a $90 million industry.
They do this to market themselves to the public. It’s basically a great way to advertise what you have and to also draw in any customers.
If someone is hungry, and they see something that makes their mouth water, they are more than likely to walk on in to get the real deal! Seeing the food is much better than reading about it, so it helps boost the business as well.
The way they do this is pretty crazy. The restaurant who wants the sampuru have to make the dish and then freeze it in order to ship it off to an artist who then uses that as a mold. From there, they craft and paint it to look as real as possible.
Why isn’t this a common practice in America? Seems to work on East Asian countries pretty well!