People Create Amazing Dishes That Look Like They Just Came From A Fancy Restaurant, And These Are 50 Of The Best Ones

They share their works of art in a group that has more than 21 million members.

Damjan

Published in Interesting
21 Jul 2021

People Create Amazing Dishes That Look Like They Just Came From A Fancy Restaurant, And These Are 50 Of The Best Ones

These homemade dishes look like they came straight out of a high-end restaurant kitchen, but every single one was made at home. That is part of the fun, because the photos show just how far creativity, patience, and a little obsession can go when people really love cooking and baking.

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The collection comes from r/food, a huge online community where home cooks share their best meals, desserts, and edible showpieces. Some posts are playful, some are unbelievably polished, and a few are so detailed they barely seem real. Together, they make a strong case for why homemade food can be just as impressive as anything on a fancy menu.

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Here are 50 of the best examples, and the competition is surprisingly fierce.

1. "Homemade Bento Box Of My Cat And I"

cloudberry14

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2. French Macarons

sugardevotion

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3. French Macarons

sugardevotion

4. Hand Painted Citrus Macarons

ragsy1224

5. Lemon Cupcakes With Blueberry Buttercream

anorexicpigg

6. Homemade Donuts (Filled With Guava, Vanilla Custard, And Chocolate Ganache)

CaptainCasals

7. "The United States Of Christmas Cookies"

hawkypunk

8. Pumpkin Shaped Sourdough Bread

midwifeatyourcervix

9. Monster Book Of Monsters

Lydia_San_Dayo

10. "Vanilla Birthday Cake"

cat_pene

11. Homemade Fresh Tagliatelle, Butter Poached Lobster, Morel-Lobster Cream Sauce

awcadwel

12. Dumpling Bento

Giraffe_Truther

13. Baklava

cnskrsln

14. Cactus Cupcakes

Dermatoloid

15. "Breakfast Sugar Cookies"

ooogy

16. Smoked Meat Smorgasbord

DonovanMD

17. Apple Pie

Kookalka

18. Blueberry Meringue Drops

cmerksmirk

19. Apple Pie

503Oregonboy

20. Sourdough Bread

fatburger86

21. Focaccia

MissChienIK

The greatest challenge for the group moderators is dealing with the comments. The community is enormous, and some negative occurrences are bound to happen.

That is where the tone of the subreddit starts to matter.

“Outside of the never-ending stream of heated arguments and insults found on posts about non-traditional recipes, the community does have its toxic quirks. One long-running abusive trend that we are trying to rein in is the divisive topic of a grilled cheese with additions.

Users who come to the community to share a simple grilled cheese, containing additions that are not just cheese, often face public shaming in the form of ‘corrections’ from users quoting a toxic copypasta. We have also had to act on an influx of Swedish users who flood iced cinnamon roll posts with rude sexual comments.”

22. "5 Shades Of Crispy Chicken"

mawcopolow

23. Croissants

yekdoofis

24. A Whale Of A Cake

Qua0ar

25. Churro With Dulce De Leche Cake

CakeanSteak

26. Kraken Pie

GypsyWitch05

27. "Independence Day Jello"

phione

Jessica also mentioned that she is a big fan of Reddit. “I love Reddit. It is a completely different universe from Instagram or any of the other usual social media outlets for food artists… I can be a bit cheekier on Reddit-it’s safer to let more of my natural sense of humor shine through. I meet different kinds of people there and have different kinds of conversations. It’s more immediate and (sometimes brutally) honest.”

The thing she likes most about the ‘Food’ subreddit is the communication with the people there and everyone’s eagerness to talk about everything associated with food. “The r/food sub has some amazing contributors, and I’ve had some of my best conversations about the nuts and bolts of pie baking there. Even when my work front pages, I try my best to respond to every comment, or at least every question.”

However, Jessica also pointed out that food artists shouldn’t use it for self-promotion. “That’s not really what Reddit is about. And it’s certainly not what r/Food is about!” she said.

This is like the cousin who opened a restaurant after refusing to share a secret meatloaf recipe, sparking a family feud.

28. Blackberry-Lemon Cheesecake

aybrah

29. Vanilla Toffee Scrabble Birthday Cake With Chocolate Buttercream, Caramel, And Banana

Bridgeface87

30. Focaccia Landscape

shawneffel

Redditor Sun_Beams, one of the r/food moderators, says there’s an ongoing discussion on r/food about whether cooking should be more traditional or creative. Sun_Beams believes a mixture of the two is best. “The core of cooking for me is a mix of traditionalism and creativity.”

When asked about the best way to achieve good results every time, the moderator pointed out that following a precise method is essential. But that’s not the only important aspect. “As moderators, we find a lot of conflict between the Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons in ‘Whiplash’) purists and the Willy Wonkas (Gene Wilder in ‘Willy Wonka’) creators on the sub, who are often found fighting over changes to Carbonaras or other classical dishes. The reality is that all recipes had to go through some chaos and development to reach that dependable recipe.”

Sun_Beams also mentioned that in the last year, the entire r/food squad has been trying to “overhaul the sub to keep up with the times.” They hope to “alleviate some of the frustrations our aging rules and lengthy guidelines have created over the years.”

31. Cherry/Blueberry Bunny Pie

Unqualified2Live

32. Korean Cream Cheese Garlic Bread

EcstaticEarth

33. Homemade Origami Crane Rangoons

thecookingofjoy

34. Succulent Cupcakes

kaseroni23

35. Macarons And Ma-Raccoons.

hm8g10

36. Poached Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

thecookingofjoy

37. Lemon Pie

dosbuster

38. Tonkotsu Ramen With Chashu Pork

Skipperrutts

39. Pancakes. Perfect Color

lilblacksmurf

40. Honey Macarons

ragsy1224

41. Buttercream Succulent Cupcakes

dashberlins

One of the group’s biggest fans is Jessica Clark-Bojin, the founder of ‘Pies Are Awesome,’ whose Baby Yoda raspberry pie is one of the top posts on r/food of all time.

Jessica says that she had a lot of fun creating the Baby Yoda/Grogu pie while watching The Mandalorian. She shared a video with tips for creating a similar pie and regularly publishes advice for people wanting to create their own works of art.

“Roll your dough out on a flexible cutting mat rather than directly on the table or counter. This gives you the ability to pop the whole project into the freezer whenever the dough starts to warm up-you can extend your working time indefinitely this way without having to worry about the fat in the dough melting and making your crust tough,” Jessica shared.