Japanese Food Artist Uses Toast as Her Canvas for Edible Masterpieces

Since it’s the most important meal of the day, many of us are pretty particular about how we like our breakfast. Toast is a staple for most, but for Japanese designer Manami Sasaki, slices of bread aren’t just tasty snacks—they’re her artistic canvas. She meticulously tops toast with colorful ingredients to create edible designs based on Japanese art and geometric patterns.

These breakfasts aren’t the type of meal you can quickly prepare and eat as you run out the door. Sasaki spends hours cutting and positioning each ingredient on the toasted bread with perfect precision. For one eye-catching spring-inspired design, she arranged avocado, onion, orange peel, and dill into circles, squares, and arcs. “There is a wide range of shapes, tastes, textures, and aromas in a single piece of toast,” says Sasaki. “The sweetness and crunchiness of onions. The creaminess and soft texture of avocado. The fresh scent of orange and dill in the nose.”

Sasaki takes her food art even further with her toast designs inspired by traditional Japanese woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e). She pays homage to the traditional female figures in the prints by creating them as edible masterpieces. She uses squid ink to sketch out the outlines and details, and uses edible flowers and vegetables to complete the decorative details. In one piece, a kimono is made up of purple cabbage, paprika, and radishes. And in another, 3D hair ornaments are crafted from corn, microgreens, and enoki mushrooms.

Scroll down to see Sasaki’s latest toast art and follow her on Instagram for even more.