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Enchanting Animations Use LEGOs as the Ingredients for Entire Meals

By Emma Taggart on April 2, 2021

Those who love to cook know that every ingredient counts when it comes to whipping up your favorite meal. However, Japanese stop motion animation artist tomosteen is able to create an entire menu using just one ingredient: LEGOs. They might not be edible, but tomosteen’s meals are oddly tantalizing. The clever animator is able to make the solid plastic pieces appear just like delicious chocolate, frosting, rice, eggs, and more.

Tomosteen says he “likes to cook with strange things” and LEGOs are certainly unusual. He chronicles his process for making cakes, French toast, salads, breakfasts, and more using trick-of-the-eye illusions. Tomosteen moves the colorful LEGO pieces frame-by-frame to make them look like they’re being poured, mixed, sliced, and diced—just like real, edible ingredients.

Each color of LEGO brick has its place in cooking. Clear plastic is water, brown pieces resemble chocolate, and white bricks look just like cream or milk. When tomosteen cracks an egg into a bowl, the white and yolk pour out as plastic pieces that appear to jiggle like real, gooey liquid. And when “ingredients” are being mixed together, he uses clever editing to make different colored bricks appear as though they’re becoming one color. Who knew plastic could look so tasty?

Check out tomosteen’s fantastic stop motion animations below and find more from his portfolio on YouTube.