History Main / MessOnAPlate

* In ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' the fairies decide to make a dress and birthday cake for Aurora. Having sworn not to do magic, they quickly start to fumble everything up. The cake is made with ''whole'' eggs (shells still on) and when decorated looks like The Leaning Tower of Piza if it were painted by Picasso. They finally decide screw it and fix everything with magic.

* Usagi in ''Anime/SailorMoon'' is usually just a general LethalChef producing only food that both looks and tastes awful. However in the second season she pulls off making a curry that looks literally like a mess on a plate but that actually tastes pretty good. In the third film her daughter Chibiusa makes some badly decorated cookies that taste lovely, Usagi herself in this instance does the reverse... her cookies look nice but are burnt.

'''Howard Taylor:''' Oh what horrors hath been wrought by my careless pen...

--->'''The Old Wolf''': I happen to like both of these things on their own, so I'm willing to take a chance, and - oh golly, that looks hideous.

* Asuna's first cake from the first anime adaptation of ''MahouSenseiNegima''. The second came out looking much better. Appropriate, as she's an{{Expy}} of the above.

* Frequently produced by Calvin's mom in ''CalvinAndHobbes''.

It could take several forms - maybe it's collapsed into an indistinct brown or grey glop in a bowl. It would be a misshapen mound that vaguely looks like a cake. Random tentacles and [[EyesDoNotBelongThere eyes]] could be mixed in. If it's a cake, expect the decorations to be something out of the wildest imagination of a NightmareFetishist (whether or not the cook is actually one). The appearance of the dish is no indication of it's taste, and the most common outcome of this trope is that the food is actually delicious. Those wary of the dish at first may even find it OrgasmicallyDelicious when they screw up the courage to try it.

* Ryo from ''{{Otomen}}'' can occasionally (usually with Asuka's help) produce food that tastes decent. However, it will invariably look terrible.
* Naru from ''LoveHina'' is known to produce food that looks awful but tastes good.

* Akane of ''RanmaOneHalf'' combines this with LethalChef - she creates food that is both inedible and hideous to look at. The only exception is her curry, which is edible (if bland)... but still hideous to look at.

* Sora from ''DownloadAppGirl'' makes food that looks downright frightening. Somehow, it still manages to taste really good.

* The Cook from the ''{{Sturmtruppen}}'' will often serve this. It was once exagerrated when the mess came alive as a BlobMonster in a parody of Frankenstein.

* In one of the ''MythAdventures'' stories, Skeeve, having never seen spaghetti, describes it as white worms or snakes covered with blood red sauce.

* A popular classic ''SesameStreet'' skit has Ernie making a plate of mashed banana with ice cubes and gravy on it. Bert is disgusted by its mere appearance, but guess what Oscar thinks?

-->'''Morbo, WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'''

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]
* Tina from ''AiYoriAoshi'' - as Taeko discovered, Tina's inability to make anything ''looking'' good did not stop her from making food that actually tastes good.

* ''AxisPowersHetalia'': [[LethalChef England's]] food is mostly portrayed as an indeterminable black mess. Sometimes it even gets [[{{Pixellation}} pixeled out]] to emphasize this.

* {{Foxtrot}}: Surprisingly, ''not'' [[CordonBleughChef Andy's cooking]], though it frequently involves tofu. The cafeteria glop qualifies, however.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has a restaurant chain that serves '[[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-08-08 smutto]]', a combination of corn smut (basically mold), and natto (fermented soybeans). It's so vile that even Schlock (who'll eat pretty much anything) hesitates before eating it.

* Usagi in ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' is usually just a general LethalChef producing only food that both looks and tastes awful. However in the second season she pulls off making a curry that looks literally like a mess on a plate but that actually tastes pretty good. In the third film her daughter Chibiusa makes some badly decorated cookies that taste lovely, Usagi herself in this instance does the reverse... her cookies look nice but are burnt.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' occasionally has food that is unappetizing to behold. The Klingon dish Gahkt comes to mind, though Klingons are ProudWarriorRaceGuys and it may be meant as showing how tough they are that they eat things that look frightening to most sentients.

* {{Foxtrot}}: Surprisingly, ''not'' Andy's cooking, though it frequently involves tofu. The cafeteria glop qualifies, however.

* The Hawaiian islanders have a dish called "poi," which is made from the root of the taro plant. It is purple, and has the consistency (and taste!) of Elmer's glue.

* Usagi in SailorMoon is usually just a general LethalChef producing only food that both looks and tastes awful. However in the second season she pulls off making a curry that looks literally like a mess on a plate but that actually tastes pretty good. In the third film her daughter Chibiusa makes some badly decorated cookies that taste lovely, Usagi herself in this instance does the reverse... her cookies look nice but are burnt.

* Sora from DownloadAppGirl makes food that looks downright frightening. Somehow, it still manages to taste really good.

* In ''Disney/SleepingBeauty" the fairies decide to make a dress and birthday cake for Aurora. Having sworn not to do magic, they quickly start to fumble everything up. The cake is made with ''whole'' eggs (shells still on) and when decorated looks like The Leaning Tower of Piza if it were painted by Picasso. They finally decide screw it and fix everything with magic.

** Also from the series, Pervian food is described as being difficult to keep from crawling away from your plate. The rest is left up to the reader's imagination.
* In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', there is "a dish full of eight-legged insects covered in a pink sauce." The boy wrinkling his nose at it quickly finds it's delicious and goes BigEater on it.