Your New Favorite Cooking Show Is Happening on Reddit

Check out the insanely creative dishes inspired by video games and miniatures

A Greek salad cube carefully constructed by user u/TheBeartrons for r/52WeeksOfCooking, a cooking challenge designed to help home cooks test culinary limits.

Reddit’s front page has been a go-to for breaking news, memes, and cat candids, but click past the most popular posts for a handful of communities focused on something we can all get behind: eating.

Subreddits like r/food and r/foodporn are highlight reels for elaborately plated meals, while r/cooking allows for recipe hunting and quick kitchen advice. Yet some users seek a more creative challenge: That’s where r/52WeeksOfCooking comes in.

Each week, moderators announce a theme — from a straightforward category like sweet and savory or French to out-there picks like inspired by video games and miniaturizing. Participants then scrounge the internet, cookbooks, and local culinary circles to find a recipe that earns recognition on the forum.

For a theme inspired by video games, user u/tmo308 put together a sushi spread in the shape of the infamous fish Pokémon Magikarp. And user u/J3ssicaR4bbit whipped up an adorable, though admittedly not very filling, short-stack of pancakes for the theme miniaturizing.

Marc Alperin is one of the moderators: A retail store manager and home chef in New York, he has been doing it for six years.

He’s been into cooking for a long time. He was a student at the Culinary Institute of America in…