Food

TRES PETIT PLAT: TRES JOLIE!

Two real fingers hold a miniature sculpture of orange carrot surrounded by other mini yellow & orange fruits and vegetables arranged to form sun.

Artworks are by Stéphanie Kilgast. Courtesy of Petit Plat.

STÉPHANIE KILGAST

Sometimes things grow in beauty as they shrink in size. While the foods we eat in real life can be very beautiful, miniature replicas can be gorgeous jewels. Whether they are tiny edibles, like those featured on Tiny Kitchen, or inedible sculptures, like Stéphanie Kilgast, of Petit Plat, creates, tiny tidbits can be tremendously satisfying.

Chefs like Hèléne Darroze create especially beautiful little amuses bouches, hors d’oeuvres & petit fours to delight our palates, while food-focused artists, like Kilgast, delight us with their whimsical mini-munchables sculptures, doll’s house furnishings -- as well as serious works of art.

Kilgast’s tiny cakes, sweets, and savoury creations are made of clay. They are hyperrealistic miniscule versions of the real things.

Hundreds of Kilgast’s cakes, pastries, fruits, veggies, meats and meals -- each unique, each lilliputian-lovely -- offer feastlets for the eyes.

Kilgast is a genius at sculpting and painting these tiny treatlets. Without seeing them next to something lifesized, it is hard to tell that they are not real.

Tiny sculptures of fruits and vegetables are arranged in blocks of color in a rectangle on a table, with tweezers and fork to show scale, by Stephanie Kilgast.

Rather than a time warp, it feels like a size warp. We feel like giants. How is it possible that these edibles aren’t real? How can they be so tiny and so perfectly rendered out of clay?

Miniature sculptures of pink layer cake wedge with strawberry on top, pink macarons, and caramel candies, by Stephanie Kilgast.

Fancy cakes, cookies, candies and pastries look especially sweet super-small. Even a common fried English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans and toast becomes poetic expression when reduced to sit in the palm of a hand.

Two paintbrushes sit next to Stephanie Kilgast’s miniature sculptures of loose and crated red and green apples

Although they are small, Kilgast’s tiny foods take longer to make than cooking life-size versions. On average, each of her works takes around two to three hours to create.

Miniature sculpture of a pale blue box of raspberry, lemon, lime, and chocolate macarons, sitting on tip of a real copper 50 pence coin.

Art and design have always been Kilgast’s passions. She has a Masters degree in architecture from Ecole d’Architecture de Paris La Villette. When she became interested in the world of miniature art and then paired it with her love for food, she found a new obsession.

Stephanie Kilgast sculpture of tiny assorted fruit tarts atop a lace doily with white tipped matchstick to show scale.

Life-sized coins, matchsticks, utensils, tools, and human hands are often included in Kilgast’s photos to show relative size. Her sculptures are typically on a 1:12 scale.

Lilliputian sculpture of pink salmon steaks and prawns with sprigs of green seaweed and a real sized white tipped matchstick to show relative size.

Everything from a fresh fish platter: to a continental breakfast - with croissants with butter and jam, and a black coffee; to chocolate eclairs, profiteroles and fancy cakes is carefully painted with acrylic paints. Kilgast uses a magnifying glass to help her with the intricate designs.

Stephanie Kilgast tiny sculpture of tiny cauliflower, pineapple, lotus root, fennel, coconut, garlic, daikon radish and celeriac with life-sized fork.

“Life fascinates me. Textures and patterns exalt me,” Kilgast says. “Sculpting makes me happy.” She uses scalpels, blades, art knives, and toothpicks to shape her polymer clay creations.

Hand holds a mini sculpture of cutting board with bananas, oranges, pears, lemons, strawberries and knife, by Petit Plat.

“My work is an ode to life, where plants and fungi meet insects, animals and minerals.

These encounters develop in a colorful vortex of diversity, and this erratic growth develops on found objects, in a dialogue between humanity and nature.”

Tiny fruits and vegetables sculptures arranged by color with life size fork by Petit Plat.

For the past 2 years, Kilgast has worked with a “daily veggie challenge” -- she has sculpted a different miniature vegetable or fruit every day as an exercise to show people how many beautiful edible plants we have to enjoy, while encouraging everyone to reduce our meat and animal products intake for environmental reasons.

Hand hold tiny Petit Plat sculpture of realistic cheese board with green grapes.

Kilgast’s work has been exhibited across Europe and Asia.

Kilgast has now started to turn her tiny food art into charming earrings and brooches, the ultimate playful jewelry for foodies.

You can purchase Kilgast’s tiny beautiful creations and prints at her Etsy shop.

Tiniest mini donuts ever! Miniature sculpture by Stephanie Kilgast of Petit Plat.

If you’d like to try your hand at creating tiny beautiful foods, you can learn Kilgast’s techniques in “Miniature Food Tutorial Book - Party Food in Miniature.” It includes 21 projects centered around celebrations and holiday times throughout the year.

Incredibly tiny Christmas cookies with mini gingerbread man sitting on a real sized finger. Mini sculptures by Stephanie Kilgast of Petit Plat.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

Mini sculptures of fruits and vegetables with copper 2 cent coin to show scale. By Stephanie Kilgast of Petit Plat.

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Stephanie Kilgast tiny sculpture of assorted holiday cookies.