When Harry Fujita moved to the United States 25 years ago to launch a food replica company, he was in for a bit of a surprise. Individually-owned restaurants are just 30 percent of our clients and of those only 1 percent would be Asian restaurant owners. There are several reasons. And entire displays normally need to be updated every five years, as sun and bright lights can fade the colors of replicas. And that is just for a restock.
Japanese restaurants have a detailed menu so their menu requires more food samples.
Fujita said that the prices reflect the high cost of manufacturing the faux foods. If the clients were buying bulk it would work out much cheaper. Iwasaki makes food prototypes in California, and the copies are usually manufactured in the company's 100-employee factory in Ensenada, Mexico. Everything is hand made. First you need to make a mold from real food, then cook and grind the plastic, paint and shine it.