Worldwide active latte artists Mattsun aka Kohei Matsuno and George aka Kazuki Yamamoto attended the event Latte 1 Grand Prix Championship, held on Feb. 25 in Tokyo and confidently exposed their best latte art works. The beautiful latte art appearing one after another on the screen kept the gazes of the audience locked.
George’s Profile
Japanese latte artist. He was making various works with designed cappuccinos (latte art) when he found himself gathering attention from in and outside Japan after creating the first 3D latte art in the world. He became a freelancer after quitting the restaurant he worked at in 2014. He makes visits to Hong Kong, Macao, and Sweden, and in Japan, he holds latte art courses and makes collaboration art with companies.
Mattsun’s Profile
Japanese latte artist. He drew his first latte art in 2009 at the Italian restaurant he was working at. In 2011, he became a topic after publishing all the latte art he had created until that time on the Internet. Afterwards, he didn’t stop with just Japan; he was also introduced in various countries by media including ABC News, The Huffington Post, and Yahoo! France. He is active worldwide at present.
The Latte 1 Grand Prix Championship is an event where the participants compete with their latte art workmanship using various motifs, but mainly anime and manga for their works.
The students of Wako University’s Department of Economy and Management had planned and organized the event as a part of their practice in industrial-academic collaboration. Similarly to the first time, Mattsun and George––who are friends even in their private lives––appeared onstage at Tokyo Culture Culture, an event house in Odaiba run by Nifty Corporation, and competed in various latte art projects.
Before the event started, George commented, “This event will be an important step in spreading latte art culture.” He also added, “I’m doing latte art activities because there’s always something I want to publish. I want to do something that both people who are far away and people who actually come to drink my coffee can enjoy, and events like this are very important for that. I want there to be more chances like this.” Regarding his competition with Mattsun, he said, “There’s not a chance I’ll lose,” revealing his confidence.
Mattsun commented, “Since I am doing it, I’ll give it everything I’ve got, but rather than competing, I want everyone to have fun.”
The first half of the event also had a part of latte art instruction, where Mattsun told the participants, “You’ll get the hang of it in a minute.” When asked later, he answered, “When I was still a beginner, my latte art skills improved after I kept on using a home-use coffee machine for a few years. I think the biggest secret to improvement is to keep on doing it. Instead of thinking ‘Wow, amazing! I couldn’t draw something like this’ when first seeing our work, we would like you to be interested in our latte art and make them yourself. And if you have fun while doing so, all the better!”
After the conclusion of the latte art class, the showdown between George and Mattsun took off. Besides a latte art speed contest, they also made portraits on lattes after choosing an attendee to model for each. They also recreated Arale Norimaki, the protagonist of Dr. Slump: Arale-chan and Jibanyan, a popular character from the Yo-kai Watch series.
They competed in various categories, but their match came to an even draw. Mattsun’s shout “I’m not content with this!” finally gave the signal to start overtime. The showdown was drawing Detective Conan latte art, and they decided the winner by the number of hands raised in the air for each. Mattsun, who didn’t get one vote for his Conan, had his face covered in whipped cream as the loser’s punishment.
The event, which stretched out to two hours, ended when the cream-covered Mattsun wailed, “I’m so sad that I’ve lost!” It was a great evening to enjoy the newest latte art.
The two artists who fueled this event will also be opening a new coffee shop together in March.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.