Who Is I Dolci di Gulliver?
I Dolci di Gulliver, or The Desserts of Gulliver, is the creation of Matteo Stucchi. A pastry chef by day, by night he builds the fantastical worlds that populate his Instagram page. His sugary delights provide the ideal backdrop to the miniature protagonists placed carefully in each scene. These little plastic people find themselves navigating the rocky terrain of a particularly chocolatey cake, or wade across a sea of raspberry syrup contained within a tart.
Named after the Lilliputians, the society of tiny people who memorably appear in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Stucchi playfully pokes fun at the more serious food photography so often posted to Instagram, and offers a gateway to childlike imagination with his carefully composed images. Cocoa powder, fresh fruit and dollops of cream are all transformed into building materials for his mini workers, as they set their construction vehicles and tools to work.
Why Should You Follow?
Stucchi’s images reveal how our eyes are easily deceived by a simple adjustment in size and scale. I Dolci di Gulliver also highlights how Instagram can be used to distort fact and fiction, with the appearance of perfection that is presented rarely borne out in reality. In Stucchi’s case, this fiction is laid bare immediately, but it doesn’t stop us from being carried away by the fantasy worlds presented. Just imagine surfing in a chocolate lake, you might think, or climbing mountains made of meringue.
If Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory had been crafted for the Instagram age, it might have looked a lot like I Dolci di Gulliver. Stucchi celebrates the whims and vivid imagination of childhood, and just goes to show that you’re never too old to play with your food.
What Instagram Doesn’t Tell You
Instagram is currently the only platform that Stucchi uses to share his images, but he hopes to open his own business in the future to showcase the sugary adventures of Lilliput in real life. Currently, he offers his desserts to friends and family once the staging has been completed and he has got the shot that he needs. If he were to open a new business, he would aim to sell his creations—miniature people and all—to creative customers with a fondness for ingenuity and play. Judging by his more than 220,000 followers, he would have no trouble finding an audience.
