All moms know the struggle of tiny fussy eaters, most likely resorting to cheese-covered veggies and fantastical stories of how the plants in their stomach need certain food to keep growing.
Que Phuong Tran, a Vietnamese-born, France-based mom has just taken the food rouse to a new level, creating the most beautiful food art for her son, Liam. The kind you just have to see to believe. It's almost too good to eat!
A business operations planning specialist by profession, Que told Parent24 how she got started with making her food art:
"One day I made Maki rolls for my son. While cutting and serving it, he was staring at the plate and said it [looked like] a flower. He was super excited and finished them all. So I decided to surprise him the next day with Peppa Pig, my very first food art creation. Plating fun foods is becoming my hobby now, it helps me to unwind after a long working day and it unlocks my creative side."
What 'tricks' have you resorted to so that your child eats fruits and vegetables? Tell us by emailing chatback@parent24.com and we could publish your letter.
Que uses children's cartoons, nursery rhymes and stories as the source of inspiration for her plates of art, accurately and stunningly replicating Mickey Mouse, Bambi, Winnie-the-Pooh and Snoopy.
And on occasion, her son's latest obsessions, which currently include cars and tigers.
But how long does it take to get it all done? According to Que, not longer than it would take to make the average meal.
"It depends on the complexity of the plate but normally it takes me roughly 1 hour to complete one from scratch, including 45 minutes for cooking and 10 -15 minutes extra for decoration. I usually sketch down my idea on paper before making it into food, it allows me to organise the sequence of my actions and prevent food waste."
When asked where she had picked up her skills, Que told Parent24 that her hobby is thanks to both her inherited talent for drawing, and watching video tutorials online.
"Tutorials, tips and tricks for food art can be easily found on the Internet, watching others plating is immensely beneficial for building your own skills and practice leads to improvement. I'm not a professional food artist... but I'm feeling deeply honoured and thankful to be named an artist. I haven't attended any art-related courses, but I inherited my mother's love and passion for drawing, that helps a lot."
You may have stumbled across Que's art and not have known it since the mom's work has been featured on a number of websites, and we can easily see her plates of art being featured in her own cookbook.
But Que says her cookbook won't be the regular kind.
"A book of recipes is not in my plans as my cooking skills still have room for improvement, but a beautiful picture book for children, why not?"
Could you see yourself following along with Que as she shows her followers how to make her unique designs?
Coming from a generation where the rule was, 'finish every single thing on your plate, no exceptions', all we can say is Liam is one lucky little boy. Que says before her art works, he used to hate cabbage and pumpkin, but now loves both veg.
The only problem we can see him having is not wanting to eat his mom's food because why would you want to destroy something so beautiful?
Check out more of Que Phuong Tran's work via her Instagram account: napu88 or Facebook page: Liam's happy meals.
What 'tricks' have you resorted to so that your child eats fruits and vegetables? Tell us by emailing to chatback@parent24.com and we could publish your letter.
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