Monica Aprilia Hermawan

Contributing to the Culinary Industry Through Food Replica Business

Monica Aprilia – UPH’s Faculty of Tourism graduate cohort 2015 is one of those people who turns their hobby into their career. Her unique and creative business started in 2016, Lemon Miniature, catches the public interest as she makes food and product miniature from clay.

“When I was in 6th grade, I saw a rebroadcasted Japanese television show making miniature crafts. From then, I was interested and decided to make it into a hobby. When I finally contributed to the food and beverage industry through the same miniature craft I saw on television, my clients were kind enough to trust me to make their products. Thus, making this field into a business,” she says.

In doing her business, Monica holds a number of principles and values inspired by her years of studying at UPH. “When I undergo my education at UPH’s Faculty of Tourism, I was taught to consider customer service important. This is proven to be useful in my business – I maintained my product quality through the good relationship I built with my clients. Another value I consider important is Godly Character – it has taught me to always rely and trust God in whatever to God, including all this business I’m working on,” Monica admits.

As an UPH graduate, Monica has proven her contribution in the creative industry through the many creation she’s made for food and beverages companies like Nestle Cerelac, Pepper Lunch, and Kokumi. She further admits that she do everything hands on – one to which can take her 2 to 3 weeks of work for one client.

“To tell you the truth, the process of creating food replica like this is not as easy as you think. Let’s say I’m making a fried chicken replica – I had to shape the clay, make the crispy textures like the original chicken crisps, wait them to dry, and then paint them. The coloring process are also done layer by layer, so I had to go from light to darker colors on top,” she explains.

Monica sees the replica crafts business as a promising business inspiration. “A business like the one I do in particular is still rare, especially to the fact that I hand-made all of them rather than machine-based as others did,” Monica closes.