Food artists using slices of bread as their canvas! | Hindustan Times

Your everyday slice of bread has got a delightful makeover, with food artists using it as their canvas!

Raising a toast has got a new meaning in the new normal, where many food artists have indeed raised the bar of creativity and brought forward some amazing looking, delectable bread toasts. Radiating exuberance, positivity and cheerfulness in these gloomy times of Covid-19, it’s the breakfast suitable for connoisseurs of both food and art.

For Japanese artist Manami Sasaki, food art is a gateway to a sensory journey in her everyday life. Known for her ode to Picasso and Mondrian through slices of bread, she says, “I have eaten bread every day since I was born, so expressing it on toast was a natural progression. I wanted to get up early in the morning and create a routine that would make me look forward to the day. That’s when I started the toast art for breakfast.”

Not only these pieces look appealing, but taste delicious too, thanks to a range of exotic ingredients used in their preparation. “I believe that food art must first and foremost be delectable. My toast art is not artificially coloured and I don’t unnecessarily process solids into a paste. I try to make an appetising combination by using multiple ingredients like blueberries, sesame cream, sour cream, and chervil, and maybe just top it off with honey drizzle. This is because I don’t want to destroy the beautiful colours, shapes and flavours of the ingredients,” adds Sasaki.

No wonder, from presidential candidates and celebrities to film franchise favourites, the examples of toast art vary from the small to the grandiose.

Netherlands based food artist, Susan Belleter, says, “Everyone loves food, and it’s very nice to make something pretty out of it. And of course, the eye eats first! So if something looks pretty, people will find it more interesting to eat, and it’s also more fun.”

Back home in India, baker Sumod Tom, creates some charming, patterned motifs on toast using spinach, beetroot, pumpkin, blueberries, oranges, cocoa and potato. “Along with enriching bread with the natural goodness of healthy vegetables and fruit and enhancing its nutritious value, toast art also allows one to top it off with a gourmet look. It’s a perfect veggie substitute for the new generation fussy eaters, who don’tt like vegetables in their diet.”

For Sumod, toast art and its possibilities are just endless. He adds, “A simple staple food has been converted into a classic food art piece, and with the best of natural ingredients, no added colours, chemicals or enhancers, so who would not love it?”

Readers, you can no longer pull the slice of bread out of the toaster and plop on your favourite topping. Toast art is surely reinventing our most important morning meal.