What started as a gag is turning into a promising side business for Waikiki businessman Vince Sortino.

Sortino makes and sells his own poke mix, Uncle Akoni's Poke Sauce, and he also reproduces vintage pictures of Hawai'i for sale at trade and collectibles shows.

But a little more than a year ago, Sortino got a photo scanner and began to scan just about everything he could get his hands on, including food. Before he devoured a tray of ahi poke, he decided to scan it.

"It looked so real and I thought I'd put (the photo) ... in cellophane and take it to work," Sortino said.

Sortino put the picture of the poke on a styrofoam tray complete with the store's price label. He brought it to work and colleagues were warning him that he needed to put the poke in the refrigerator before it spoiled.

Then he took his fake food to shows and flea markets as a way to attract customers. It worked.

"When I put it on the ground as a gag all of a sudden people would start wanting to buy them. So I figured I'll start making a few of them and maybe people will start buying them and I might as well make a little money on it too," the 49-year-old said.

Sortino's fake food trays caught the eye of friend A. Pake Zane of Antique Alley, which specializes in collectibles and nostalgia items. Zane asked Sortino to make more trays of food for sale at the shop. "They look hilarious," Zane said.

Customers at the shop have been fooled by the Photo-shopped food and are gobbling it up at $20 a package.

Sortino, a former employee of Technicolor and Kodak, said the bottled poke sauce and vintage Hawai'i photos are still his primary businesses, but that he will be increasing the production of the food trays.

"That'll be neat to make some kind of business out of it," he said.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.