Presentation can be a little daunting when you think of it as a topic as a whole.
For me, it’s just being willing to turn up and give it a try that makes all the difference.
Taking a few extra seconds to care about how the food looks, is all it takes.
1. Failing to think about presentation.
Without a doubt, the biggest difference between cooks who present their food beautifully and those who don’t, is a little bit of pre-thought. It’s as simple as that. And we’re not talking hours of deep contemplation as to the various merits of one style over another. No, all it takes is a few seconds to visualise how the food will look on the plate before you start just slopping it on. That’s it.
If you’re following a recipe, start with the picture provided as a guide and then let your imagination take it from there. If your recipe doesn’t have a picture… then come over to The Stonesoup Virtual Cookery School and get a new recipe ;).
And when you’re eating out, take a second to appreciate the presentation, or critique it in your own mind. A great opportunity to get ideas for your own creations.
2. Overcrowding the plate.
This is one of the most common mistakes and thankfully also one of the easiest to fix. While it may seem more generous to serve plates piled high of food, it diminishes the chance of the food looking appealing. Think about how you can use the white space of the plate to make your dish look appealing.
3. Combining too many elements on the one plate.
Right behind the overcrowding problem, is trying to fit a little bit of everything on the plate. If you’ve ever been to a buffet, you know that no one’s plate looks great with a mish mash of bits and pieces. The solution is to serve only one or two components of the meal per plate or platter. So pop the pasta and sauce in the pasta bowl and serve the parmesan and salad separately.
4. Garnishing for the sake of garnish.
Garnish needs to have a flavour or textural purpose to be relevant. The old 70s trick of putting a sprig of curly parsley on the side just for appearance seems a little naff. Whereas a finishing sprinkle of parsley chopped so fine it resembles moss to freshen up a risotto or even a roast can add visual appeal as well as lifting the flavour.
5. Making the food difficult to eat.
While creating towers of food, like an 80s fine dining restaurant might seem like a good idea from a visual perspective. It can make life very difficult for the diner, which means any initial good impression from the visuals will be lost. Same goes for super tall burgers that need you to be able to dislocate your jaw just to take a bight.
Take the time to think about how easy the food will be to eat with the given utensils.
6. Using crockery and tableware that looks prettier than the food.
While decorative, flower patterned China can be beautiful on it’s own, to me it always looks a little sullied when it is holding food. Plain plates allow the food to be the star. Although this is a matter of personal taste, so if you like busy patterns, by all means go for it.
7. Striving for perfection.
To me, perfect food has an element of the unreal, something fake. I prefer to look for the natural beauty in what I have, rather than getting caught up trying to make everything look perfect.
8. Comparing your creation to the photograph in the magazine / website side by side.
A trick I learned early on is to almost disregard the photo once you’ve finished cooking. Its job was to inspire you and to give you an idea of how the dish could be served, but it’s certainly not gospel. Once you’ve plated up, the picture in the book is pretty much irrelevant – I mean you can’t eat a photograph – so do yourself a favour and close the book or shut down that screen.
_________________________
back to: Solve Your Dinner Dilemma [fresh ideas] Overview
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes