If You Thought People Were Obsessed with Sourdough, Wait Until You See Gardenscape Focaccia

Every day, Instagram users find new ways to bring creativity and beauty into the food world, and the latest expression of talent taking the internet by storm is gardenscape focaccias. Using the thick, oil-based Italian bread as the base — as recently popularized by Samin Nosrat on her Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat show on Netflix — culinary artists create floral scenes using vegetables. The poof-y bread makes for a blank canvas, the colorful produce represents the “garden” from which it came, and the combination is more than just something nice to look at. The results, both before and after baking, are stunning, captivating, and, of course, delicious.

Raleigh-based Instagram user Blondie + Rye, who dabbles in all sorts of mesmerizing and aesthetically pleasing breads, is a master of the art form, putting flowerpots on sourdough, wild windmill trees on spelt bread, and bouquets of tulips on cheese scallion garlic flatbread. Scrolling through her posts is like a stroll through a carb-based wonderland, something out of an edible painting. The green stems come from asparagus, scallions, green peppers, or even parsley, while petals can be made from cut bell or sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, purple onions, olives, baby beets, carrots, or anything else with a nice color.

But one of the best parts about this lovely bread-based art form is that it doesn’t require hours of time or an advanced degree in art — even far simpler scenes are clear and lovely, and taste good. Plenty of folks inspired by Blondie + Rye’s Instagram posts have gone on to create their own incredible gardenscapes (check out her tagged posts for more).

Redditor WarMaiden666 has been posting her work on Reddit’s “BreadIt” forum, along with helpful tips. Most importantly, she tells you the key to making the gardens work: adding your veggies after you stretch and shape the dough, but before the final proof. 

Have you tried making a gardenscape foccacia? Let us know!