Plating Experiences

[Umar Abraham]

I remeber when I did a plating class in a haute cusine program at the Culinary Institute of Barcelona.I had no idea what I was doing because it was my first time doing it. I just started to plate what they thought us during the theory class and once we presented our plates well mines had a lot of problems, and after looking back at it now and comparing myself from then to now, I must say I have improved alot. Well this is what I learnt during this past year and like to share this knowledge with those who are struggling with plating.

 

1)Color: I learnt that try you are trying to highlight the main ingredient of the food, so find ingredients or color that highlights the main ingredients

2)Contrast: When you talk about the contrast you are talking about the texture of the food, experiment with different techniques and methods andcombine them and see how it workd out 

3)Height: when it came to plating I learnt height is something important in plating, Height is important because it draws the client or customer to it first so if you but something ontop of the main ingredient then the product ontop of the main ingredient and the product itself will be the focal point of the dish

4)Spacing: don't get me started with spacing, there a lot of info about psaicng and why is it important but for me the most important about spacing is that you don't want to lump your ingredients and product in one area because then you won't know which is the main ingredent and it will look messy. ''less is more'' is what one of my teacher kept saying to me

5)Placing: is one of the most important things in plating due to the fact that you have to place ingredients carefully so that the customers can tell which is the main ingredients and what are the supportive ingredients

6)Clean: before you plate, you need first clean your plate. After plating you need to clean the area around the dish like the sides of the plate so that they won't look messy

7)Plates: Plates, Plates and Plates! I think the first and farmost important thing to me is the plates, without the right plate you can't plate nothing. Having the right plate at your disposible will make your life much more easier then stressing and thinking on how should I plate this.

8)Draw:Before plating i suggest you draw what you want to do so it makes it easier to visualize 

[weinoo]

The founder of my alma mater, Peter Kump, was adamant about one thing...

 

leave the rim of the plate blank, like a frame.  Don't strew stuff all over it.

 

The dishes on this page follow that rule well...

Edited June 14, 2021 by weinoo (log)

[Kim Shook]

I know I've gotten better at plating over the years, but I still sometimes look at a photo and realize that I've got a blank space in the middle of the plate.  I really think that taking a picture and looking at it is a good exercise in truly "seeing" what you've plated.  I will see things in a photo that I miss looking at the actual plate.  I sometimes end up with an "all brown" food plate, too.  

Edited June 12, 2021 by Kim Shook (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

It's impossible not to notice garnish techniques that quickly become clichés, like the spoon dragged through a dollop of sauce.    Once "wow", now a negative.

[rotuts]

that spoon thing 

 

was terrible at the get go 

 

IMHO

 

""   what exactly slipped through the sauce ?

 

you are going to tell me , right ? ""

 

a few little dots , crescents, etc

 

fine.

 

MOMA  art , no.

 

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by rotuts (log)

[Tri2Cook]

On 6/12/2021 at 7:18 AM, Umar Abraham said:

''less is more'' is what one of my teacher kept saying to me

Less is less... but sometimes less is better.

[Tri2Cook]

12 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

It's impossible not to notice garnish techniques that quickly become clichés, like the spoon dragged through a dollop of sauce.    Once "wow", now a negative.

Food trends are like sports stars/teams... everybody loves 'em when they're the new kid at the top but when too many people get onboard (the sport star/team starts to win too much) there starts to be a backlash and it becomes cool to not love it. The cool kids want what's cool to be theirs and when too many non-members start to "get it" they have to move on to something else. 

[Umar Abraham]

17 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Food trends are like sports stars/teams... everybody loves 'em when they're the new kid at the top but when too many people get onboard (the sport star/team starts to win too much) there starts to be a backlash and it becomes cool to not love it. The cool kids want what's cool to be theirs and when too many non-members start to "get it" they have to move on to something else. 

True

[weinoo]

19 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

It's impossible not to notice garnish techniques that quickly become clichés, like the spoon dragged through a dollop of sauce.    Once "wow", now a negative.

 

19 hours ago, rotuts said:

that spoon thing 

 

was terrible at the get go 

 

IMHO

 

""   what exactly slipped through the sauce ?

 

you are going to tell me , right ? ""

 

a few little dots , crescents, etc

 

fine.

 

MOMA  art , no.

 

 

 

Don't forget Flay and his squirt bottles!

 

And I think Portale was pretty much responsible for tall plates.

[Kim Shook]

On 6/13/2021 at 5:37 PM, Tri2Cook said:

Food trends are like sports stars/teams... everybody loves 'em when they're the new kid at the top but when too many people get onboard (the sport star/team starts to win too much) there starts to be a backlash and it becomes cool to not love it. The cool kids want what's cool to be theirs and when too many non-members start to "get it" they have to move on to something else. 

I say this (much less eloquently) all the time about many things.  

[dcarch]

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, "Less is more", that is more or less true. It all depends on the recipe. Plate everything the recipe calls for. Don't hide anything just to be "less". Plate everything that is in a large dish for a family.

 

Another architect, Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Form follows function". Respect the natural shape and color of each ingredient. Don't tourne a potato to look like a football.

 

A well prepared sushi dish is "form follows function" as well as "less is more".

 

dcarch

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

Don't tourne a potato to look like a football.

 

Don't some potatoes actually look like footballs?

 

One reason to tourné, and why it's taught in cooking school, is to make all the veg the same size, so they will cook and be finished at the same time. Important to the finished dish, I think.

 

Quote

One such skill is the tournée cut. This technique turns fruits and vegetables into uniform elliptical shapes for even cooking. Hearty vegetables like carrots, potatoes and parsnips are perfect for the tournée cut. While this technique may be a bit time consuming for beginners, once you’ve mastered it, knowing how to tournée will add to the aesthetic and texture of sides, stews or roasts.