How Lukian Wang aka CookingBoBo Recreates Your Favourite Anime Dishes in Real Life

Have you ever wondered what food from your favourite anime would look like in real life? Mega foodie Lukian Wang sure knows!

Since October 2017, Lukian has founded a living online recreating delectable meals found in anime films and TV series such as Attack on Titan, One Piece, Tokyo Gyoul, My Little Monster, and Food Wars, sharing the recipes online under her pseudonym, Cooking BoBo.

Nurturing over 1.3 million followers on Facebook, 500,000 on TikTok, and more than 78,000 on Instagram, the anime-fanatic cook brings to life what many only salivate over while watching their favourite cartoon.

Lukian began her Japanese-inspired culinary adventure five years ago, when the influencer was living in Macau, and sought to bring light to her life.

“There isn’t much entertainment [in Macau] unless you’re into night life and gambling, which I wasn’t,” she told The Beat Asia. “So, I just made simple recipe videos. After I moved back to Hong Kong, the pandemic began, and I had nothing but my cooking channel.”

“My videos remaking anime food became viral, one after another, so I was encouraged to continue. My Facebook page reached over one million followers within two years.”    

A self-described foodie from birth, Lukian recalls how she grew up in a “stereotypical Asian household,” where her mother would cook every meal, inspiring her to learn the craft of cooking, leading her to creating CookingBoBo.

“I grew up eating cereal for breakfast, which required no cooking, but I hated cereal. The only way I wasn’t going to eat cereal was to learn to cook for myself, something simple […] such as frying an egg or cooking noodles. I believe my love for cooking came to me as a survival skill and my hate for cereal.”

Lukian told The Beat Asia that her love and adoration for anime as a child in the U.K. inspired her to make her recreations.

“I feel that Japanese anime is timeless. Growing up watching anime instead of (popular British soap series) EastEnders or Friends, I often felt alone in school with no one to talk to, as my interests were very different. Nowadays, it seems so common. I am reliving my childhood sharing conversations with people who also watch anime.”

“I think food in anime is drawn very detailed, unlike regular animation or cartoons. [The dishes created] add to the character and storytelling, and I feel most people who are not familiar with Japanese cuisine yet watch anime [and] always wondered what the dishes were [like] in real life. Hence, my videos have become addictive to watch!”  

The process of recreating a dish for her online channels is simple, she says.

“I grew up eating many dishes [featured] in anime, so it was about plating [the food] to look exactly like the dish in the scene. Some dishes are fictitious, and I often test the recipe out or ask my chef-friends what a particular dish consisted of, in terms of a certain dish or ingredient. I think that’s the most fun part: figuring out the recipe and dish.”

“I think the most memorable [dish I have made] is the Scary Bento from Toilet-bound Hanako-kun. The bento was so detailed, and it took forever to film and make!”

"The dish that tested my imagination was the Asuna Sandwich from SAO, as the sandwich didn’t exist. I watched many other anime food creators' videos to see how they recreated that sandwich, but I felt I could do better.”

“I wanted it to taste delicious, and not just look like the sandwich in the anime. I dare say my recipe was the best out of all the recreations. I was proud of myself, as it looked the same and tasted amazing!”

Lukian has shifted focus to uploading and driving engagement on her YouTube channel, Instagram and TikTok accounts. She routinely travels around Hong Kong, sampling inspiration for her anime creations, but also trying top restaurants and the many cuisines on offer in the city.