Asymmetrical Plating - Enough Already?

[huiray]

Looks like the server got his whole hand in it!

 

 

I am not so sure. Look again.

 

It looks like the print belongs to whatever who did not have opposable thumbs.

 

dcarch 

 

Photo #12 in this set.  :-)

[weinoo]

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BU3QTI6CcAElBBf.jpg:large

 

http://cdn.cheftalk.com/6/63/500x1000px-LL-633d5405_ASp1.jpeg

 

http://cdn.cheftalk.com/c/c2/350x700px-LL-c2e48c0e_IMG_3933.jpeg

 

http://cdn.cheftalk.com/e/eb/500x1000px-LL-eb7a525a_image.jpeg

 

http://www.yammagazine.com/test-site/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/MG_0003.jpg

 

dcarch

 

Those are the ones, dcarch!

 

who cares if it's cockeyed or smeared?

 

Oooooh! Me. Me. Me - that's why I started this thread. I think food should be visually pleasing, texturally pleasing, smell good, and taste good.

 

 Five years ago or so chefs were seeing how high they could stack stuff and how this.  I want a chef with a PHD....Pile it Higher and Deeper

 

Actually, it was more like 30 years ago; Alfred Portale at Gotham Bar and Grill in NYC.

[Tri2Cook]

Photo #12 in this set.  :-)

I remember that episode, it doesn't make it look any nicer but it makes a little more sense in context. It was supposed to have shock value. They were supposed to make a gothic horror feast for an evil queen (Charlize Theron was the guest and the dinner was an homage to her role as the evil queen in Snow White and the Huntsman).

 

[huiray]

I remember that episode, it doesn't make it look any nicer but it makes a little more sense in context. It was supposed to have shock value. They were supposed to make a gothic horror feast for an evil queen (Charlize Theron was the guest and the dinner was an homage to her role as the evil queen in Snow White and the Huntsman).

 

Yes, that's right.  I remember comments about the bits of food representing everyone and everything cowering at the edges of the forest, whatever, trying to escape from the evil queen represented by the "bloody handprint"...and also remember Paul Qui remarking that he was having difficulty himself keeping things from falling off the edge of the plate, before he got them to the judges!  So, there was a context - but it wasn't needed - the plate with the black chicken leg, claws and toenails and all (photo #8; chef Grayson Schmitz) - perfectly centered on the plate -was just as "horrifying" (and more elegantly gothic, I thought) and I seem to recall that Eric Ripert was pushing for her plate.  I myself thought Qui's plate was a little too unbalanced and would have preferred Schmitz's plate.  (Paul Qui won that episode) 

 

In a "more usual" restaurant scenario asymmetrical plates also have that "shock value" in a related sense but there are other ways to catch one's attention.  (((Shrug))) Eh, asymmetry makes things more interesting but there is such a thing as going overboard with it, especially when there is vast empty acreage left on enormous plates.

Edited September 11, 2014 by huiray (log)

[nickrey]

Those examples make it look like something is missing (like a big steak or pile of chips).

 

I looked back over recent meals and realised that a few dishes were plated with blank space. In these, however, it seems that the plate is more a canvas for the meal than a hole that needs to be filled.

 

 

 

This type of problem always seems to happen when the less able imitate what has been successfully done by others.

[gfweb]

Here are some photos from Lacroix, which charges big bucks for cold half plates.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.phillymag.com%2Fimages%2Fuploads%2Fgalleries%2F1296_gallery_image.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.phillymag.com%2Frestaurants%2Fdisplay%2Fthe_philly_mag_50_restaurants_1_to_20%2F%3Fgallery_idx%3D65%26row_position%3D0%26photo_idx%3D1296%26thumbnail_num%3D2&h=406&w=315&tbnid=694NcO9zvUm1lM%3A&zoom=1&docid=A4IoYiWb_SLyWM&ei=RlUTVNKYBs-YyASem4KYAQ&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a&ved=0CCcQMygJMAk&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=413&page=1&start=0&ndsp=21

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.anidori.com%2Fxx%2F892_1005.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fphiladelphiarestaurants.com%2Fphotogallery.cfm%2Frestaurant%2F892%2Flacroixattherittenhouse&h=400&w=600&tbnid=BtSrGMlXMbhUIM%3A&zoom=1&docid=oAGFLNIRlqdgmM&ei=RlUTVNKYBs-YyASem4KYAQ&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a&ved=0CCQQMygGMAY&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=459&page=1&start=0&ndsp=21

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia-cdn.tripadvisor.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto-s%2F02%2F65%2Fbf%2Fb0%2Flacroix-at-the-rittenhouse.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tripadvisor.com%2FLocationPhotoDirectLink-g60795-d433446-i40222640-Lacroix_at_The_Rittenhouse-Philadelphia_Pennsylvania.html&h=450&w=252&tbnid=PSy4690Knx_G0M%3A&zoom=1&docid=dZF0bZ_kxcZa3M&itg=1&ei=z1UTVKDJLtS3yATYioLYAQ&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a&ved=0CBkQMygRMBE4ZA&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=631&page=5&start=100&ndsp=28

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fassets3.thrillist.com%2Fv1%2Fimage%2F674032%2Fsize%2Ftl-horizontal_main%2Frittenhouse-tavern-fond-and-lacroix-team-up-on-epass&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thrillist.com%2Feat%2Fphiladelphia%2F19148%2Fwill-byobs-collab-dinner&h=434&w=640&tbnid=aOnPpeJXxVCBSM%3A&zoom=1&docid=RqGOI9DSoBa5RM&ei=91UTVKqwOM6iyAToqYCIAg&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a&ved=0CCAQMygYMBg4yAE&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=3311&page=9&start=213&ndsp=28

[pastrygirl]

Here are some photos from Lacroix, which charges big bucks for cold half plates.

 

 

I actually like those photos, they look composed and well balanced, but I agree that asymmetry can be over done and done poorly.

[gfweb]

They are pretty, but eat badly. Little pieces cool quickly.

[Beebs]

I am less bothered by asymmetrical plating with a completely blank part of the plate, than if it is occupied by a smear of something.  I have an overwhelming urge to wipe up the smear with my napkin.

[rotuts]

just send it back.

 

Soooooooooo  stupid.

 

Well you went there , didn't you ?

 

then its your own fault ?

 

 

[gfweb]

just send it back.

 

Soooooooooo  stupid.

 

Well you went there , didn't you ?

 

then its your own fault ?

 

 

 

Who knew till the plate got there? Place had been great under its eponymous prior chef.

 

Now its tweezer-town and I've not been back in a few years.

[dcarch]

I am not one to make a negative comment about asymmetrical plating.

 

Because I am guilty of having done one once myself.

 

dcarch

 

Edited September 13, 2014 by dcarch (log)

[huiray]

I had deleted a "commentary" I appended to my previous (last) post in this thread but perhaps I will recreate it, especially in the light of what querty asserts.

 

Asymmetry is a common feature in a great deal of visual representations, with some cultures incorporating such things very well.  Japanese arts, in particular, and Chinese arts to a lesser extent; while Western art also has the concept expressed in many ways.  The issue often involves (and circles back to) what is visually pleasing, whether it provokes disquiet or serenity.  The concept of "balanced asymmetry", well-developed in Japanese art particularly (but by no means limited to it), is something that folks have incorporated into their own development of their concepts of how art is to be expressed.  Transfer of such concepts to the culinary arts is nothing new - but it takes a skilled artist-chef to pull it off successfully.  Unfortunately, many of these folks lack the skill to do so.  The best achieve it.**  The rest decry the fuddy-duddy-ness of people who find their "creations" to be less-than-inspiring.

 

** Whether that is done with tweezers or not as the case may be.  ;-) 

[gfron1]

For the more academic of the group, you might want to check out one of my favorite website that happens to have a number of articles on plating right now.

[gfron1]

In case you're not up for a research perspective here's a snip from an article on the Golden Ratio:

 

The calculations applied here are supposed to satisfy what is known as the golden ratio, the ratio whereby the relation of the greater part to the sum of the two parts equals that of the two parts. To have the most aesthetically pleasing curry, then, the supposition is that the rice must be approximately 1.61 times wider than the circle of curry that is laid on top ((√5 + 1)/2, to be exact). Of course, here one needs to grant Dr Hadley the right to extend the concept of the golden ratio, usually meant to apply to rectangles and ellipses, to the relation between the radiuses of two circles. It is also not meant to explain the aesthetics of three dimensional objects, and apply to the height of objects, like here.

This is where I say, "Shut up and eat!"

[Anna N]

For the more academic of the group, you might want to check out one of my favorite website that happens to have a number of articles on plating right now.

Interesting. If nothing else it does encourage one to think about plating and not just slop stuff wherever it falls.

[Kerala]

 

This is how we've always done it.

 

[Tri2Cook]

This is where I say, "Shut up and eat!"

It's funny how often I think that when people complain about things like the precise shade of green of their pickle or the number of seeds on their strawberry slice.

 

[huiray]

Y'know, I've had plates of food before of carefully composed food in a pleasing asymmetrical and patterned layout - which I then proceed to eat in a patterned manner, deconstructing the elements of the plate as I go, scooping up stuff in a way that amuses me and pleases me as I demolish the food in sequential strokes of my fork and knife.  Then arranging the remnants, if any, in a pattern with my fork and knife.  Modern American food and Japanese food comes to mind in certain places.  :-)  (Naha in Chicago is one place where I do this with a curl of a smile on my face) (Certain sushi/sashimi plates I get in some places also undergo this treatment, heh)

 

ETA:  I've had "omakase sashimi" plates before, as a more detailed example, where the plate arrives with "balanced asymmetry" in its arrangement of the components - I then eat "selectively" and in effect rearrange the remaining items (and even moving pieces around) to reformulate the "arrangement" in a new, ever-changing composition as I eat my way through the plate.  :-)  :-D  Why do I do it?  It amuses me.

 

ETA2:  I've never been afraid to play with my food, as occasion arises, at least in adulthood.

Edited September 15, 2014 by huiray (log)