Face Food. The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes

Examines the Japanese phenomenon of bento boxes, lunch box food in the shape of cartoons.
All across Japan, parents come up with unique ways to bring attention to their children's lunch boxes. And what better way to make children eat than to turn their midday meals into a cartoon? With Face Food, NYC-based writer and designer Christopher D Salyers documents the very real phenomenon of crafting food into visually creative and appealing forms, such as Pikachu, Daraemon and Cinderella, bringing health, heart and imagination to the bento box.
How-to guides and interviews with mothers and designers accompany photographs, all of which illuminate the many dynamic reasons behind this wholly Japanese pursuit