Plating; Attention to Detail

   Whether you are an amateur home cook or a seasoned Executive Chef plating is a skill often learned through practice, patience and pizzaz. One important concept that is developed by "good chefs" is an eye for negative space. Staggering, fanning, color contrast and textural appeal are all useful tools that should not be overlooked when plating beautiful dishes.

       

       Below I will walk you through some plates I have created and what tools I use to make them eye catching, unique and overall a "beautiful dish." Naturally, desserts are an easy choice to discuss plating techniques as they have many artistic components that make plating fun, and for the most part, easy. Starting off is a traditional Sacher Torte. These rich cakes have been around since the 1800s. So how do you plate something with such a stunning historical reputation? I would say, it is important to showcase traditional styles of presentation.

The Sacher Torte: Flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, creme anglaise, raspberry coulis, and whipped cream.

Plating techniques: Showcase the height of the slice by offsetting it from the other ingredients. Create flow with the swooping motion of the cream anglaise and raspberry coulis design. In order to achieve this design simply just pool the anglaise make a tight "S" shape with the raspberry coulis (coulis should be poured from a squirt bottle), then drag a toothpic right down the center of the "S" curves. Don't get too upset if it takes a little practice. Finally a rosette of whipped cream and tempered chocolate garnish act as a starting point for your eye to flow from cake, to berries, to the whip cream to the anglaise and back around in a circling movement. The berries serve as a splash of color to contrast the large brown chocolate cake. They also add a bright flavor to the richness of the other ingredients. 

      The Sacher Torte is a very classic example of traditional plating techniques. However, like with any form of art, the food industry is always evolving and developing new techniques for showcasing passion and talent. 

      In my next picture I will be discussing cannolis. I am from New Jersey and make frequent trips home when my schedule allows me. No trip home is complete until I have had atleast 5 or 6 cannolis from some of my favorite delis or eateries. However, when I can not make it home I have to settle for making my own traditional cannolis. One day imparticular when I was really homesick, I decided to take my craving to work with me. Here's how it went...

Cannolis: house made ricotta filling, candied orange peel, Grand Marnier chocolate ganache, and an espresso and pistachio powder. 

Plating Technique: This is a fun one. I started with just using a spoon to splatter the ganache. This gives the plate a modern look pretty much right away. However, through the concept of using pistachio powder instead of whole pistachios and miniature sized cannoli instead of full size, the entire plate comes to life with a modern, "deconstructed" personality. The candied orange peel help the flow of the plate while also providing contrast. Again, just like the fruit in the last picture the oranges also offer a contrast in flavors as well. They serve the purpose of breaking up the richness of everything else on the plate. 

       The last image is a couple years old but it is still a favorite of mine. I can not simply label it just a cake or a cannoli, because it is equal parts of many different components. However the base is a brown butter cake so we will start there. 

Brown Butter Cake: french vanilla ice cream, candied rose petals, candied basil, coconut sabayon, powdered chocolate, orange fluid jello, chocolate garnish.

Plating Technique: So with these ingredients I wanted to find a way to bring a clean, sharp appearance to the different deconstructed parts. Often on deconstructed dishes things will be assembled across the plate in kind of a "hop scotch" pattern. However, I wanted to challenge myself to re-consruct the concept by reassembling the pieces. Here we have a few examples of using "the rule of odd numbers" and highlighting the importance of negative space. In the culinary world odd numbers on plates are thought to be easier on the eyes and more appealing than positive numbers. The amount of negative space really gives the eyes a direct focus to the abundance of color on the plate. Lastly, the swirl of the chocolate garnish creates a pleasant flow for the eyes. We discussed this in the first image. 

        I hope you take something away from this and learn a little about dissecting your own food. Next time you are out think about the different techniques that go in to making your meals beautiful!