Replica: Food, Art and Illusion | With Loraine Senior and Christina Mellett-Smith
What happens when food looks good enough to eat, but isn't edible at all? And can a replica preserve something that history would otherwise have lost?
In this episode of A Curious Appetite, Dr Alessandra Pino is joined by Loraine Senior (also known as Loraine Krell) and Christina Mellett-Smith from Replica Ltd, specialists in creating extraordinarily realistic artificial food for museums, historic houses, film, television and exhibitions.
We explore the fascinating art of food replication, from its connections to Japanese food displays to the challenges of recreating historical dishes using recipes, paintings and surviving kitchen equipment.
Along the way, we discuss elaborate Tudor banquets, the spectacular culinary architecture of Carême and Francatelli, the importance of colour and translucency in creating convincing illusions, and the unexpectedly uncanny world of artificial food.
We also consider what happens when food escapes its usual fate of being eaten or decomposing. Can a replica give lasting physical presence to something inherently ephemeral? And why do we sometimes find artificial food so irresistibly convincing, or even disturbing?
Replica Ltd is also a proud sponsor of Serve It Forth Food History Festival 2026, taking place online on Saturday 17 October. During our conversation, we discuss why supporting the food-history community matters to Loraine and Christina, and how their work helps bring culinary history to life.
Come along and join us for a day of fascinating talks, demonstrations and conversations about food history!
Festival information: https://serveitforthfest.wixsite.com/info
A video version of this episode will also be available on YouTube soon, so you'll be able to see some of Replica's incredible creations for yourself.
Find out more about Replica Ltd: https://replica.co.uk/
A Curious Appetite
Contact: acuriousappetite@gmail.com
Artwork: @medusazzz
Audio Production: @thedeliciouslegacy
Music: @manu_pino_1111
Special thanks to Haints & Hollers Apothecary for their support of A Curious Appetite! They are generously offering our US listeners 10% off their teas with the discount code CURIOUS10.
Visit https://haintsandhollersapothecary.com/ and enter CURIOUS10 at checkout to enjoy your discount. Offer valid for US customers only.
