To garnish or not to garnish ..

[FunJohnny]

The answer to your question on garnish gadgets...

how I lived without this thing, I'll never know!!!

Love This website! That Pumpkin better look out next Halloween.

But seriously folks -- I agree that anything used on a plate as garnish outa be edible. My favorites are scalllions, radishes, etc. carved up to resemble another member of the plant kingdom. My wife, who is Chinese, does wonderful things with chiles to garnish her noodle platters when we entertain.

What about the actual sculpting of the food as in a "turned" vegetable??

[Abra]

andiesenji - assuming I don't want to pop for that gorgeous $150 garnishing set (and I don't, cuz I know I'd never master all the tricks before I get too old to hold a knife), can you tell me the info on that German gadget, enough to find it online? I can't see the details from the picture.

A chef I know does a thing he calls "random internal garnish", where he makes a few beautiful veggie shapes, steams them, and then tosses them into a cooked dish before serving, so that in your bowl of beef stew you get a carrot wowie, like the one pictured above. I think that's a cool variation - hot garnishing.

And I'll be the one to admit it - I eat the mint. I love mint, and it's a kind of mouth freshener, at the end of the meal, especially after coffee. Please don't kick me out of eGullet!

[Suzanne F]

The answer to your question on garnish gadgets...

how I lived without this thing, I'll never know!!!

I'm used to seeing him ("Chef Harvey") at all the food shows I go to at the Javits Center -- but earlier this week, he was out at the corner of Fulton and Nassau Streets at lunchtime, set up on a corner, demoing his stuff. And causing foot traffic tie-ups.

[andiesenji]

andiesenji - assuming I don't want to pop for that gorgeous $150 garnishing set (and I don't, cuz I know I'd never master all the tricks before I get too old to hold a knife), can you tell me the info on that German gadget, enough to find it online? I can't see the details from the picture.

The maker is Westmark. A Cooks Wares has it.

http://www.cookswares.com/individual.asp?n=7212

So does Chef gadget. http://www.chefgadget.com/GadgetsGarnish.asp

Anyone else eating mint is fine with me and I like it in moderation. I just don't like it in a sprig.

[fifi]

I fall into the edible and integral garnish only category, if you please. Though I will try to dress up a serving platter for a special occasion. For dishes, I fall into the plain white and lots of clear glass category as well. But I will pay attention to final arrangement for special occasions. For example, a birthday dinner for a friend had a white LeCreuset individual gratin dish of Coquille St. Jaques to one side of the plate with asparagus carefully arranged at the side. The slices of French bread on the bread plate were also "arranged". I also paid attention to the arrangement of all of the pieces on the table for four. I don't pay attention to such things that often.

I also cook a lot of stews and braises and those are a real challenge. I have been known to use little individual porcelain pots on the plate with something on the side. Last time I did this it was a pot of chili with a mango salsa off to the side presented in a bib lettuce cup. That was pretty.

I don't think of anything like that as "garnishing", though so I guess I don't.

One thing that does amaze me to the point of standing and gawking is the elaborate food carving that I have seen in some Thai and other oriental buffet presentations. I really love looking at that stuff, knowing that I could never achieve anything that beautiful.

[Randi]

I hate garnishing with something that cannot be eaten, or would be unpleasant to eat. Like a goddam rosemary sprig...what the hell am I supposed to do with that?

...Pick it up and sniff it. Thats what I do! I adore rosemary, and the fragrance is divine. When it is used as a garnish, I love to smell it!

[Bicycle Lee]

touche...

I can dig that, but not necessarily sticking straight out of my dish..

[markk]

I think that we absolutely "eat" with our eyes, and I find that a beautiful visual stimulates my enjoyment of a great meal even more, although nothing makes up for lousy food. But when I entertain, I use that to my advantage - I like to get my guests as "excited" as I can before they even get to eating the food. As for garnish, I don't put anything on the plate other than the actual components of the meal, but I try to cram as many things into one main course as I can whose flavors complement each other and also look good on the (plain white) plate. Here's a duo of duck (leg confit and rare breast) that I served the other night as an example:

(Crispy Duck Leg Confit with Thyme-Scented French Lentils, Purée of Yam and Turnip; and

Pan Roasted Duck Magret with Truffled Mushrooms, Champagne Mangoes with aged-sherry vinaigrette and Maraschino Liquer)

I also fussed a little extra with the table setting just to get people in a festive mood:

I always also print up a menu for this kind of dinner; all together, the anticipation has people thinking it's delicious before they even start eating; this works on me, so I figure why not use it to my own advantage when I'm cooking.

All of the photos of this dinner are here:

My Duo of Duck Dinner

Incidentally, many years ago I did one of these table settings and included foodstuffs that looked pretty and got the table filled in - and one of the things I used was large sun-dried tomatoes. When I found one of my guests eating one, I told him he shouldn't, and he said that in that case I shouldn't have set the table with them. He was right, and I've never again set out anything that wasn't edible.