It may look delicious, but don’t try to eat the food at this new exhibition

When people go to the new exhibition at Japan House in Los Angeles they may think they walked into one of the greatest restaurants in the world.

They’ll see hundreds of delicious looking dishes including bowls of thick, rich pasta, juicy hamburgers stacked with multiple patties, sizzling steaks, fresh sushi rolls and perfectly sliced sashimi, plus desserts like ice cream sundaes piled with strawberries and other mouth watering treats.

But no matter how tempting, don’t try to take even a single bite out of anything, because none of these dishes is real. All of the food here isn’t actually food but rather handcrafted replicas that make up the new exhibition dubbed “Looks Delicious! | Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture.”

“You will certainly feel hungry when you walk in here because everything just looks so real,” said Yuko Kaifu, president of Japan House Los Angeles, an organization that highlights all forms of Japanese culture.

The exhibition, which runs through Jan. 25, includes hundreds of lifelike food replica displays which are known as shokuhin sampuru in Japan, where the artform began as a form of restaurant marketing more than a century ago.

Originally made from wax, the models began appearing in the 1920s at department store restaurants in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka to showcase their expanding menus in restaurants that were serving more American style food to entice diners unfamiliar with the dishes.

“When Japanese people started getting into more Western food they didn’t know exactly what they were getting into. They were curious but cautious so restaurants started to visually display these food items,” Kaifu said.

The models are still widely used as marketing tools but have evolved to become an iconic artform showcasing incredibly realistic dishes now made from synthetic resins.

“They’re all still handmade but the materials they use have improved, they way they look has improved so that sometimes you can’t really tell the difference between real food and replicas,” she said.

The exhibition dives deep into the history of these models as it explores the evolution of food replica culture, how they’re made and displayed, and also gives people a chance to create their own bento box replica.

While the food replicas look delicious, one thing people will not be able to experience is the aroma of the dishes since organizers decided not to add food smells as part of the exhibition.

“We decided not to do that because we were afraid there would be people who would mistakenly try to eat them,” Kaifu  said with a laugh.

Looks Delicious! | Exploring Japan’s Food Replica Culture

When: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. through Jan. 25

Where: Japan House at Ovation Hollywood, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles

Cost: Free

Information: www.japanhousela.com