viz.

Image credit: From Fancy Fast Food
H/T to The Daily Dish

In an earlier blog post on viz., I sent readers to a web site exposing the vast difference between photographs used to market fast food and the reality served in restaurants. Today's entry is a bit different: it points us to a blog, Fancy Fast Food, with pictures of what happens when fast food value meals are transformed into gourmet delights (along with the recipes used to make them). Obviously, these intrepid food stylists are having some fun at the expense of fast food (one recipe recommends organic chives "for garnish, and a touch of irony"). The picture above shows a Napoleon made from a Wendy's "Baconator" value meal (including fries, drink, and ketchup).

The site's guidelines state that submitted photos can't be extensively retouched, so in this case all the visual magic happens in the kitchen rather than Photoshop. At first glance, the blog's effect may be ambiguous, using impressive alchemy to transform food that can often appear unappetizing into something visually pleasing. But perhaps the art here lies in the clever commentary on the concealment process: by their very disguisedness, the images call attention to what is usually hidden--in this case, 2280 calories and 123 grams of fat, not to mention the origins of some of the ingredients. When it comes to fast food, the questions prompted by these dishes--What is it? and Where did it come from?--are not necessarily ones we always want answered.