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Food Presentation Tips
If you own a food service business, you know that food presentation is crucial to marketing your restaurant on Instagram . Studies from Oxford show that a quality food presentation increases customers' perceived value of your meals, allowing you to raise your menu prices . Chefs tactfully arrange ingredients to curate flavor and textural complexity, and their creative plating techniques stimulate appetites before the first bite.
Read on to discover plating techniques, an instructional plating video, and the tools you need to create your own signature food presentation style.
- Plating Video
Plating Techniques
- Plating Ideas
Plating Tools
Food plating and presentation video.
An understanding of food plating techniques will help your staff improve your meal presentation and enhance the dining experience for your guests. For a visual guide, check out our video on how to plate food like a chef.
How to Plate Food like a Chef
While there are no fixed food presentation rules, there are several important concepts to keep in mind as you arrange your meals.
- Remember your plate is your canvas.
- Arrange food items using the rule of thirds .
- Entice the eyes with visual stimulants.
- Use the sauce as paint for your plate.
- Garnish to enhance both appearance and flavor.
Conceptualize plating as an art form: you are the artist; the plate is your canvas, and the food is your medium. Master the following plating techniques to perfect your craft.
1. Plate Presentation Techniques
Selecting the right plate for your meal is the first step in the food presentation process. Consider the following to choose the ideal plate for your food presentation:
- Plate Size - Your plate should be big enough to make your food stand out and petite enough to prevent your portions from appearing small.
- Light vs Dark Plates - Use light and dark plates to make your meal stand out. White plates are popular because they offer a neutral background for brightly colored foods. Dark plates lend beautifully to light-colored dishes, such as a whitefish or creamy polenta.
- Plate Color - A plate’s color can stimulate or reduce appetites. Red increases the appetite, so serving appetizers on red plates keeps customers interested in ordering large entrees and desserts. Professional platers consider blue dinnerware unappetizing because there are few naturally occurring blue foods.
- Restaurant Style - If you operate a fine dining establishment, classic China dinnerware pairs well with traditional plating styles. A trendy gastropub should invest in unique plates with unconventional shapes that facilitate maximum plating creativity.
2. Food Arrangement Techniques
How you arrange your food determines your meal’s aesthetic tone, structural integrity, and flavor dispersion. Here are a few of the most important food arrangement techniques:
- The Rule of Thirds - When applied to cooking, the rule of thirds prescribes placing the focal point of your dish on either the left or right side of the plate, rather than the center. Use white space by thinking of the rim as your frame and highlight your plate’s focal point(s).
- View Your Plate as a Clock - As you place your ingredients, picture the face of a clock. From the diner’s point of view, your protein should be between 3 and 9, your starch/carbohydrate from 9 to 12, and your vegetable from 12 to 3.
- Don’t Overcrowd Your Plate - Keep your design simple by focusing on one ingredient (usually the protein). Having a focal point helps you arrange your accompanying items to complement your standout item.
- Moist Ingredients First - Plate moist ingredients first and prevent them from running by topping them with other foods. For example, you can angle sliced meat against mashed vegetables.
- Create Flavor Bites - Flavor bites are forkfuls of food that combine all the ingredients in your dish into one bite. Flavor bites are essential to quality plating as they please both the eyes and the taste buds.
- Mix Textures - Contrasting a smooth vegetable puree with crunchy onion straws or topping a steak with crumbled blue cheese yields appealing texture combinations that are classic in high-end cuisine.
3. Visual Plating Techniques
Maximizing the visual elements of your meal is a key plating technique. While your arrangement develops around your protein, manipulating the colors and sizes of the other elements on your plate enhances your focal point and creates a gourmet presentation.
- Serve Odd Quantities - If you’re serving small foods like shrimp, scallops, or bite-sized appetizers, always give guests odd quantities.
- Color Diversity - Colorful dishes build the expectation of a flavorfully complex meal before your patrons take their first bite. Add green vegetables or brightly colored fruits that contrast with your focal point.
- Monochromatic Meals - Plating color-coded items together visually builds the expectation that the dish only offers one flavor. When the palate receives multiple textures and flavors instead, it surprises the tastebuds, causing them to engage with the dish.
- Add Height to Your Plate - Stimulate your guests' eyes by building height. While compactly stacking ingredients isn’t as popular as it was 5-10 years ago, building layers of food for guests to explore offers an exciting experience.
- Create Visual Balance - Balance your plate’s landscape by leaning long, flat items against taller elements (ex: leaning asparagus spears at a 45-degree angle across a stack of lamb lollipops).
4. Sauce Plating Techniques
With your principal ingredients plated, you’re ready to top your dish with delicious sauces that enhance your food presentation. Think of your squeeze bottle or spoon as a paintbrush, and your sauce as a medium. Once you're done adding your sauce, make sure you wipe down the edge of your plate with a towel, so no drippings distract from your presentation. We explain some of the simplest, most fail-proof sauce plating techniques below.
- Smeared Sauce Plating Technique - Fill a squeeze bottle with your sauce. Squeeze a thick layer of sauce and form a large, filled-in circle on your plate. Take a spoon or plating wedge and dip it into the middle of the sauce where it’s thickest. Quickly pull the sauce across your plate.
- Accent Dots Plating Technique - Fill a squeeze bottle with your desired sauce. Analyze your plate from the perspective of the rule of thirds, then add accent dots. Use multiple sauces to create additional color contrast.
- Smeared Accent Dots Plating Technique - Alternate between two sauce accent dots in a curved line along the side of your plate. Then, take a small plating wedge and place it at the center of the first accent dot in your row. Drag the plating wedge through the accent dots, creating a multicolored, single-sided edge.
- Swirled Sauce Plating Technique- Fill a squeeze bottle with your desired sauce. Place your plate atop a cake turntable. Point your squeeze bottle face down at the center of the plate. Spin your stand while simultaneously squeezing your bottle. Adjust your wrist to vary your swirled design. You can use multiple sauces to create more visual contrast.
5. Garnishing Techniques
In the past, chefs casually threw a piece of kale and an orange slice onto every plate. However, these garnishes added nothing exciting to the dish, and few guests ate them. Modern garnishes pair thoughtfully with the meal to create flavor bites. Follow these garnishing techniques and guidelines to master the last step of food presentation.
- Edible Garnishes - As you finish plating, remember that garnishes should always be edible and enhance the dish. To determine whether a garnish belongs, ask yourself whether you would want to consume it in the same bite as the meal it accompanies.
- Intentional Placement - Never heap garnishes in one corner of the plate. Instead, disperse them thoughtfully to add color or texture. For example, place crispy carrot shoestrings atop a delicate filet of fish nested in a curry sauce and decorate the plate with pomegranate seeds.
- Less Is More - Never clutter your plate for the sake of a garnish. If your plate is full, opt for a drizzle of flavor-infused vinegar or oil to enhance the taste and appearance of your dish without overcrowding your plate.
- Garnishes to Avoid - Avoid using unappetizing garnishes like raw herbs, large chunks of citrus, and anything with a strong odor. Also, avoid garnishes that take a long time to apply.
Food Plating Methods
There are three popular plating methods: classic, free form, and landscape. Master each method to create meals worth photographing . We provide ideas on how to plate food using each method below. We’ve selected a white square plate as our canvas. Filet mignon, potato puree, carrots, demi-glace, pea puree, lima bean and pea blend, thyme, and fried leeks are our materials.
Classic Plating
Pipe the potato puree onto the plate using a pastry bag.
Place the carrots next to the puree using precision tongs.
Garnish the carrots with thyme using precision tongs.
Plate the steak using precision tongs.
Garnish the steak with fried leeks using precision tongs.
Drizzle the demi-glace around the plate using a spouted saucier.
Wipe the edges of the plate with a clean towel.
Finished classic plate.
Free Form Plating
Pipe dots of potato puree onto the plate using a pastry bag.
Slice the steak into three pieces using a chef's knife.
Plate the pieces of steak using precision tongs.
Place the lima bean and pea blend around the plate using a spoon.
Plate the carrots using precision tongs.
Place dots of pea puree around the plate using a large squeeze bottle.
Place dots of the demi-glace around the plate using a small squeeze bottle.
Garnish the plate with fried leeks using precision tongs.
Finished free-form plate.
Landscape Plating
Paint the pea puree onto the plate using a brush.
Lean the steak against the puree and carrots using precision tongs.
Finished landscape plate.
Having professional tools is essential for commercial plating. We’ve rounded up the foundational items you need to create restaurant-quality food presentations.
- Decorating brushes aid in detailed line work and broad sauce strokes. You can also use decorating brushes to create a puree or coulis base for meats or vegetables.
- Garnishing kits come with everything you need to garnish your signature dishes, including plating wedges, tongs, squeeze bottles, and brushes.
- Molds keep plates clean and increase visual appeal by cutting ingredients to specific shapes and sizes. Ring molds help you develop height and structure when stacking ingredients.
- Precision tongs help you place garnishes or small, delicate items. Many tongs feature micro-serrations for improved grip and stability.
- Plating wedges come pre-cut with flat, round, or pointed edges and are perfect for smearing soft ingredients and creating sauce designs.
- Shavers allow you to top your dishes with shaved or grated chocolate, hard cheese, or soft vegetables.
- Plating Spoons in varying sizes are essential to the art of food presentation. Saucier spoons help you drag sauce across your plate and slotted spoons quickly separate solids from liquids.
- Squeeze bottles help you apply sauce and aioli to your finished plate. Many come with adjustable precision control tips.
Whether you own a fine dining establishment, gastropub, or eclectic cafe, thoughtful plating will attract customers and earn their loyalty. Even before they sample your meal, your guests will eat with their eyes. To test this theory, Oxford researchers plated the same meal two ways, artfully and without attention, and diners reported that the artfully plated version tasted better. By integrating basic food presentation techniques, styles, and tools, you can enhance your plating process and increase your menu prices without deterring customers.
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Home » Blog » Vegetable Prep Hacks
7 Basic Methods of Cooking Vegetables
Published: Mar 27, 2020 / Modified: Mar 27, 2020 by Lizzie Streit, MS, RDN / This post may contain affiliate links / Leave a Comment
Need a little help eating more vegetables? This post highlights the most common methods of cooking vegetables, all of which are healthy ways to prepare veggies that actually taste good! Say goodbye to soggy, bland veggies and hello to your new favorite food group.
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my affiliate disclosure .
Preparing more vegetables and cooking at home is a simple strategy that can greatly improve your health. And there’s research to back it!
A recent study in Public Health Nutrition found that those who cooked dinner at home 6 to 7 times a week consumed healthier foods and less overall calories than those who did not prepare their own meals as often.
What’s more, other research has reported that preparing food at home is associated with less fast food consumption and money spent on food.
Even if there wasn’t science to back this concept, it just makes sense that being in control of how you prepare meals and the ingredients you use can lead to better health. Not to mention, cooking at home can be a way to relax, be creative, or spend time with loved ones.
One of the first steps towards cooking more at home is learning different ways to cook fresh vegetables. These skills will enable you to make veggies the star of your meals, which in turn will provide you with tons of beneficial nutrients and lead to improved health.
To get you started, here are 7 basic methods of cooking vegetables!
1. Chopping
Chopping is about as basic as you can get, and it’s something that seasoned home cooks might take for granted. But not everyone learns how to slice, dice, and julienne veggies as a kid. That’s why chopping is the first and foremost skill to master if you want to become a better cook and eat more vegetables.
By definition, to chop is to cut something into small pieces. When a recipe calls for “1 onion, chopped,” it means that you need to cut the onion into pieces, usually in rough but mostly even squares.
If you see the word “dice,” it means the recipe is calling for more precise cuts that are usually smaller and more even than chopped pieces. “Mince” is to cut even smaller pieces. Unless you are making a dish that relies on precisely cut vegetables, you probably don’t need to worry about mastering a perfect dice or mince as a home cook.
However, mincing does come into play with garlic, herbs, and other aromatics that need to be cut into tiny pieces so their flavor can be spread evenly throughout a dish.
How to do it : The best way to improve your chopping skills is to practice! Make sure you have a sharp knife (I LOVE my Shen Cutlery knife ) and a cutting board that doesn’t slip on the counter (I use bamboo cutting boards ). If you really want to practice, try making a recipe that requires a lot of chopping, like the Vegan Stew with Winter Vegetables or Farmers Market One Pan Ratatouille .
2. Steaming
Steaming is an age-old technique for preparing veggies. Sometimes it gets overlooked, but it really gets the job done! Plus, research shows that steaming some vegetables may preserve their nutrients more than other methods of cooking.
To steam a vegetable means to expose it to hot water to soften the food and make it more tender.
How to do it : If you have a steamer basket (available on Amazon, Target, etc), place chopped veggies in it and put it on top of a pot with a few inches of boiling water. Cover the pot, and cook until the veggies are softened to your liking. If you don’t have a basket, you can also use a mesh sieve . Check out my post on steamed veggies for more information.
Boiling vegetables is one of the easiest ways to prepare them. How do you think mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving get made, after all?!
While boiling can cause some nutrients to leech out of vegetables into the water, that’s not the case for every type of veggie. Sometimes, boiling is the most effective way to cook potatoes and other firm root vegetables even if some nutrients are lost. And if you’re eating a variety of both cooked and raw veggies, you don’t need to worry about preserving the optimal nutrition of every single meal.
How to do it : Bring a large pot of water to a boil, drop your vegetables in it and cook until they are tender!
4. Sautéing
To sauté a vegetable means to cook it in some type of fat over heat. The most common fats used in sautéing are extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, butter, and even coconut oil. You can also add minced garlic , herbs and spices, and/or salt and pepper to a sauté.
How to do it : Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped veggies and sauté until tender. Sprinkle with seasonings as you go. The Turnip Stir Fry with White Beans , Chili Sesame Sautéed Broccolini , Parmesan Peas and Shallots , and Cast Iron Blistered Shishito Peppers are all great recipes to practice your sautéing!
5. Marinating
Once you start to get more comfortable in the kitchen, you can create marinades for vegetables! Brushing or soaking vegetables in a mixture of olive oil, spices, herbs and other flavorings before cooking them can increase their flavor and tenderness once they are cooked. Marinated vegetables can be sautéed, roasted, or grilled.
How to do it : Mix ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil with 2 cloves of minced garlic and a couple teaspoons of your favorite seasonings. Add this mixture to a plastic bag or container and let your veggies soak in it. You can also brush marinades on vegetables right before cooking. For a tasty marinated vegetable recipe, check out these Easy Italian Zucchini Kabobs . My Vegetable Seasoning Guide can also help you come up with marinade ideas.
6. Roasting
If you’re new to roasting veggies, you have no idea what you’re missing! Roasting completely transforms the flavors and textures of raw vegetables. Many people find that the veggies they absolutely hate to eat raw are some of their favorite ones to eat roasted.
How to do it : Preheat the oven to a temperature between 350 to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Chop veggies of choice, drizzle with olive oil, seasonings, and salt and pepper. Pop in the oven and bake for 20 to 40 minutes, or until tender. The cooking time will depend on how large you cut the veggies and what kind you are using.
My Complete Guide to Vegetable Roasting Times has all of the info you need for roasting veggies. And for an easy roasted veggie recipe, check out these Savory Roasted Root Vegetables .
7. Quick Pickling
Last but not least, quick pickling is a simple and fun technique to prepare vegetables. Even though pickling can sound intimidating, making pickled veggies (fridge pickles, not the shelf stable kind) is incredibly easy. With some vinegar, sugar, and spices, you can pickle just about any kind of vegetable.
How to do it : Slice or dice your desired veggies into small pieces and add them to a glass jar with approximately a cup of vinegar, a tablespoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. Seal the jar, put it in the fridge, and you’ll have pickled veggies in no time! Be sure to refer to some tested recipes for recommended types of vinegars, instructions, and proportions of ingredients.
To start, check out the Quick Pickled Radishes , Quick Pickled Red Onions or Pickled Red Cabbage .
What is the best way to cook vegetables?
Out of all the methods of cooking vegetables, roasting is my favorite! But I’d love to hear what you prefer. Have you tried all of the techniques on this list? Is there anything else you want to know, or is anything missing? Let me know in the comments below, and sign up for the weekly newsletter here .
Happy cooking!
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The Art of Styling a Dish: How to Create Envy Through Food Presentation?
Vision is the sense that makes us look insistently. This is the sense that reveals envy. The presentation of the dish becomes a paramount importance.
The keys of a great food presentation
Caterers, photographers and advertisers have understood this for a long time! Just look at a picture from a culinary magazine… There are techniques to embellish the dish, evoke emotion, stimulate appetite and encourage the purchase. Without studying the practices of marketers, I drew up some key points you can use to enhance your food presentations.
Here are the components of a great food styling:
- The support
- The focal point
- The garnish
Food Presentation: The support
he support’s function is to present and reveal the culinary preparation. Its patterns and colors should not interfere with food. Its size should be proportional to the food volume and not give the effect of excess or insufficient food. For these reasons, professionals use most often plain white plates to express their creativity.
Food Presentation: The focal point
The focal point is the thing that will mainly attract the eye. It may be the highest element of the composition. It will be located preferably at the end of the dish so as not to hide the lower items. It can also be the most voluminous. For a main dish, this place is often occupied by the piece of meat or fish.
In all cases, the focal point must be accessible without having to break all the staging.
Food Presentation: The colors
The color is very important because it creates the envy. Green brings coolness and calms down. Red stands for passion and excitement. Black is a sign of elegance. Blue is a natural appetite suppressant and makes food unappetizing.
Vegetables are so important with their contrasts of colors and shapes. Care must be taken to use their geometry and color wisely, in a way that presents them without hiding others.
Food Presentation: The flavors
The flavors can come together because they are close, because they complement each other, or because they confront.
Food Presentation: The textures
Texture is a critical component of good food presentation, just as is the pleasure of eating.
By contrasting firm and soft, silky and rigid textures, the whole dish takes a higher dimension and adds a visual interest. These contrasts are made by different preparation methods. A crunchy texture builds happily on a creamy and smooth cushion while a creamy ganache resting on a foundation of nougatine doubles the pleasure of tasting.
Food Presentation: The decoration
The decoration must be edible and remember the flavors contained in the preparation. It can be herbs, spices or ingredients used in another form. The usual sprig of parsley, leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes or lemon slice should not be exclusive in decoration!
Food Presentation: The garnish
The garnish increases the texture and flavor of a dish. It must be thought about with the two rules of culinary art. Finally, with all these considerations taken into account, the plate must have a balanced and clear appearance. At that time, the eyes “eat” the plate and silence reigns around the table. You have reached your first goal! After the food styling, the next step will be the tasting…
Here are some good accessories that help professional cooks in their everyday routine concerning food plating and presentations, every item is available via Amazon.
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- 1. Present Vegetable Dishes
- 2. 2. Professional Skills Ability to perform according to required standards 3. Visual Sense Effective food presentation depends on the understanding of techniques involving balance, arrangement, and garniture. 1. Good preparation and cooking techniques– Proper cutting and cooking of vegetables
- 3. Balance Select foods and garnishes that offer variety andcontrast. This should be applied to colors, shapes,text ures and flavors. Portion size Match portion sizes and plates Balance the portion sizes of the items on the plate Arrangement on the plate Many chefs display their creativity in platingpresentations. One important thing is, to keep in mindthe convenience and comfort of the diner when plating.
- 4. Plating Styles with Vegetable Dishes
- 5. 2. Main item in the center, with vegetabledistributed around it.
- 6. 3. Main item in the center with neat piles of vegetables carefully arranged around. 4. A starch or vegetable item heaped in the center, the main item slicedand leaning up against it.
- 7. Guidelines in Plating 1. Keep food off the rim of the plate. Select a plate large enough to hold food without hanging off the edge. 2. Arrange the items for the convenience of the customer. Always arrange the best side of food on plate to avoid letting the diner rearrange them before eating. 3. Keep space between items, unless, they are stacked on one another. Arrange vegetable on plate, that every item should be identifiable. 4. Maintain unity. Create a center of attention and relate everything to it.
- 8. 5. Make every component count. Garnishes are not added just for color, but sometimes they areneeded to balance a plate by providing an additional element. 6. Add sauce or gravy attractively on plate. Pour sauce around or under the dish or covering only a part ofthe dish. Always think of the sauce as part of the overall designof the plate. 7. Keep it simple. Avoid making food too elaborate.
- 9. Vegetable Purees 1. Cook vegetable until soft, then drain well. 2. In food processor, process vegetable to smooth puree. 3. Add melted butter or margarine. 4. Season with salt and pepper and process again. 5. .Add whipping cream. 6. Using ice-cream scoop or spoon, shape puree on heatproof plate and place in oven or microwave until hot. Ribbon Vegetables 1. With vegetable peeler, shred carrot, corvette and radish into long ribbons, about 2.5 cm.wide, pressing lightly with peeler so ribbons will be very thin. 2. Toss vegetables with melted butter or margarine. 3. Cook until tender –crisp
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Tips Techniques And Vegetables
30 Creative Ideas For Food Presentation
Food presentation means the art of food arranging , processing, modifying and decorating food to enhance its appeal or to make it eye-catching in many various events. Food presentation depends on the way how the meat, fruits and vegetables are cut, sliced or chopped and also the decoration of the plate or the decoration of the food itself. You can make your food looks in visual delight as the proper food presentation could help in your digestion. The presentation of the plate should be well decorated, full of the five components Vitamins, Vegetables, Protein, Garnish and Sauce, then you will feel the pleasure of experience eating this plate.
To make a creative idea of food presentation, follow these tips:
- Use colorful foods as the more colors you have in the plate, the better.
- You can add colorful garnish such as a fresh herb to a plate of meat.
- Shape your food by using a cup, a spoon or some basic tools of your kitchen.
- Choose the perfect dish which suits your meal.
- Get creative by adding sauce on food or you can squeeze some sauce on the dish before putting the food.
You can add your creative ideas which you prefer to apply in your plates in different events such as Christmas, Birthdays, Ceremonies or regular lunch for family or kids.
18 Images of creative ideas for your kids
12 Creative ideas of food presentation for various events
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- 8 Modern Food Plating & Presentation Styles
- Hospitality & Foodservice Marketing
8 Modern Food Plating Trends & Presentation Styles
In the restaurant business, food plating can be critical, especially when guests are ready to post and share on social media. Our chefs curated a list of the top food plating techniques that helps to elevate the guest experience.
1. Landscape Technique
Taking inspiration from landscape gardens, this linear arrangement of food is usually kept low and long.
3. Food on organic materials Technique
Using organic materials such as wood, slate and stone as a plating device lends a more rustic and back-to-nature feel to dishes.
5. The Nordic Look Technique
Make ribbons or chunks of vegetables and scatter herbs on a dish to garnish for seemingly effortless style. ‘Gone Fishing’ by the Danish chef and food stylist Mikkel Karstadt is a good place to look for inspiration; follow him on Instagram
7. Bathing Technique
Bathe fish in broth or sauce. For example, these tortellini with a shellfish sauce or coquilles with chicory, truffle foam, goat cheese and shrimps.
2. Free-form Technique
Like many modern paintings, free form plating may seem carelessly strewn across a plate, but each stroke and food placement is carefully thought out to create an abstract yet intriguing “painting” on a plate.
4. Futuristic Technique
Making use of sleek materials like metal, glass and steel, futuristic plating creates a cutting edge and futuristic plating like the example below.
6. Hide and Seek Technique
Layering adds an element of playfulness and surprise to the dish. Think a puffed rice cracker covering crab meat, thinly sliced radishes hiding a yummy sea bass tartare...
8. Super Bowl Technique
Bowl food is a massive trend, with cookbooks and restaurants to match.
Try a more elegant styled bowl; used for smaller dishes, like starter or entremets.
FINDING THE RIGHT PLATE
Which plate you choose can make or break your dish, says South African Chef Jack Coetzee. Try to avoid symmetry, it’s not very interesting. And you need to create some height on your plate. However, if you are blatantly going for symmetry, then you can get away with it because it’s your intention. But the plates do look very average if you’re trying to do something and you end up with it looking symmetrical. You can follow his course on plating in our UFS Academy for a more visual explanation.
Here are a couple of take-outs he shares on the different shapes of plates you can use and their possibilities to present your food.
Rectangular or elongated plate
Using a rectangualr plate is effective if you have lots of small little garnishes that can wind their way through the length of the plate, making it look like a garden.
Square plate
This is not the easiest shape to work with. You have to use the Rule of Thirds, which is a theory dictating how an image (in this case your plate) should be composed in order to create an aesthetically pleasing result. You basically break your plate up into a grid system of 9 block and try to avoid using the bull’s eye itself because that’s a so-called dead spot. Also try not to use any of the spots in the corners.
Round plate
These are most commonly used. The same rule applies to your grid system on this plate, except you don’t have to worry about all the dead corners. Try not to get anything in the middle unless it’s deliberately in the middle.
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Top Chefs Share Their 10 Food Plating and Presentation Tips
- by Susan Johnston Taylor
minute read
In short, yes.
The way you present your food is what tempts customers to try a dish. We eat with our senses: what we see, smell, and feel. And in the age of Instagrammers and food bloggers, food plating and presentation matters more than ever.
A study from Oxford gastrophysicist, Professor Charles Spence , suggests that the food presentation can actually make a dish taste better.
In the study, Spence gave 60 people 3 salads and asked them to rate each one before and after they ate them. The salads each used the same ingredients but presented them in different ways. One salad was put together with no regard given to presentation, one was neatly arranged, and the third was plated to resemble a painting by artist Wassily Kandinsky.
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Can you guess which salad diners liked best?
It was the salad that resembled a painting.
Diners thought it tasted better (29% tastier to be precise), even though it used the exact same ingredients. Spence’s study concluded that consumers were willing to spend as much as three times more on a well-plated dish.
Even basic dishes like a salad can benefit from thoughtful presentation—it makes the dish seem more appetizing and valuable.
So how can you use that information to your advantage?
We talked to chefs Daniel England, Joyce Tang, Tanner Agar, Jim Solomon, Michael Welch, and Brian Poe to learn their favorite food plating and presentation techniques. Each technique focuses on five key food presentation factors: color, arrangement, balance, texture, and how easy it is for guests to eat.
The top food presentation and plating techniques
- Create height on the plate
- Cut meat horizontally
- Play with textures
- Use contrasting colors
- Match presentation to the restaurant theme
- Choose the right plates
- Serve smaller portion sizes
- Use edible garnishes and decorations
- When in doubt, keep it simple
- Express yourself
1. Create height on the plate
Daniel England, corporate chef with San Diego’s OMG Hospitality Group , likes to create height as he plates food.
“It’s important that you don’t separate the food trying to fill the plate—build from the bottom up,” he says. “If you could use a little structure, you can always purchase a ring mold to start with a base. Simply pack some food in the mold and gently lift it up. Now you have a base to build on.”
2. Cut meat horizontally
England also recommends “fanning” or shingling out slices of meat to show off its quality.
“Slice your meats on a 45-degree bias, and also slice against the grain of the meat for a more tender cut,” he says. “Show off that perfect medium-rare steak!”
3. Play with textures
Joyce Tang, chief baking officer at Oakland, California’s La Chinoserie , suggests playing with textures, foams, and sauces to make the dish look more interesting.
“I like to play up contrasting textures on my plate,” she adds. “Foams are usually really helpful in plating and can be really easily done, playing around with different sauces and textures.”
4. Use contrasting colors
Tang also stresses the importance of playing with contrasting colors. She avoids artificial colors and uses matcha, powdered sugar, or natural colors to catch the eye instead.
“The way you present your food is hyper-important” she adds. “The more time you spend on how you present each dish, the more visual interest you can stimulate in folks.”
Tanner Agar, owner and chief experience officer at Rye Restaurant in McKinney, Texas, echos that sentiment.
Agar recommends using bold colors to create appealing visuals. “The easiest way to add color is to start working with more colorful ingredients. Items like carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, lettuces, beans, and more come in a variety of gorgeous colors,” he says. “The difference a purple cauliflower puree makes on a plate is striking.”
5. Match food presentation to your restaurant theme
Jim Solomon, chef and former owner of The Fireplace in Brookline, Massachusetts, says that the style of plating should match the restaurant’s atmosphere.
“Small ethnic restaurants, where it appears grandma is cooking in the kitchen, can’t serve plates that try to emphasize vertical, architectural compositions,” he says.
“Your guests expect a simple, welcoming presentation that stresses straightforward flavor cooked with heart and served with an unfussy, rustic quality. At relatively pricey, hip and high-end restaurants, guests want to see a degree of artistry and care taken in constructing the dishes.”
The way you plate your food should directly reflect your restaurant type.
Solomon adds that “food should have an element of height or visual texture, the balance of color and thoughtful garnishes—both carefully placed and intentional in flavor and texture.”
6. Choose the right plates
Michael Welch, the executive chef at Backyard Kitchen & Tap in Pacific Beach, California, preaches using the right plate size, color, and style. The color of plate matters as the plate serves as the canvas for your food.
“Typically, chefs will stay away from blue plates as there isn’t any naturally blue food and it is thought to be an unappetizing color,” he says. “If you have something with a lot of vibrant color, it might stand out better on a white plate.”
Jim Solomon echos the importance of choosing the right vessel to present your dish. “Choose a dish vessel that makes it easy for your guest to eat. This is also an opportunity for your chefs to show their personality in the dishes they create.”
7. Serve smaller portion sizes
Smaller portion sizes were named by the National Restaurant Association as one of the top five hottest restaurant concepts for 2019.
Of course, you still want to serve enough food to satisfy your guests and portion sizes can vary depending on the type of establishment you’re operating, but smaller portions are typically easier to style.
Stick to no more than six elements on each dish to prevent them from looking overcrowded.
Related read: 8 Benefits to Serving Smaller Portion Sizes
8. Use edible garnishes and decorations
Garnishes and decorations are a great way of styling your dish, but there are some guidelines you should follow when using them.
Whatever you use—whether it’s a herb, spice, or a flower—it needs to be edible. Everything on your plate should be placed with the intention of elevating the dishes taste first, and the way it looks second.
9. When in doubt, keep it simple
Michael Welch also emphasizes the value of simplicity.
“Overcrowding the plate with unnecessary oils or spices or microgreens just takes away from the food you worked so hard to make,” he explains. “Subtraction is your best ingredient.”
Rather than piling on a zillion garnishes or swirls of sauce, let the quality of the cooking speak for itself.
“A properly seared steak with some fresh watercress and perfectly roasted baby potatoes will look better than the fanciest of plates with subpar cookery,” Welch says. “Proper cooking will give you a lot of contrast within your ingredients with both texture and color.”
10. Express yourself
There’s an art in plating food; it’s where chefs can allow themselves to be creative and have a high impact on how guests perceive the dishes they’re eating.
Chef Brian Poe of Bukowski Tavern in Cambridge, and Parish Café and Tip Tap Room in Boston, believes that chefs should approach food plating and presentation just as an artist would approach their next piece.
“Presentation should be approached just like art, cooking, and music,” says Poe. “Take a moment to relax and look at what the others are doing, learn a bit of the technique and then find your own voice and style.”
One of Poe’s favorite approaches is to go “Jackson Pollock,” holding out the plate like a canvas and splattering it with sauce. “Other times we might look toward a more linear approach with could either be Picasso or street graffiti style,” he adds. “Other times the negative space technique might work.”
Time-saving tools to help your food preparation
Beautifully plating food takes time. While you want it to look great, you need to plate your food fast as possible—especially if it’s a hot dish that you don’t want to go cold before it reaches your guests.
Now, you can’t help how long it takes to properly cook and prepare a meal, but you can give your chefs more time to prepare dishes by streamlining your ordering process.
Lightspeed point of sale enables service staff to quickly take a guest’s order and send it to the appropriate kitchen workstation in seconds.
Kitchen staff see orders in real-time on their kitchen display system and can notify servers as soon as the dish is ready to be run to guests. Over the course of a service, those saved seconds compound and enable kitchen staff to spend time getting food plating and presentation just right.
The right restaurant technology can streamline your ordering and food preparation, which gives your cooks more time to create dishes with strong visual appeal.
Related read: Restaurateurs Share Their Tips for Success
Food plating and presentation matters
When consumers dine out, they expect their food to taste great and be visually appealing. That, along with your restaurant’s interior design , are all instrumental to the quality of their dining experience.
When plating your dishes, each element matters equally: color, arrangement, balance, texture, and how easy it is for guests to eat. If you hit each of these out of the park, you’re setting yourself up to get rave reviews and user-generated content that you can share on your Facebook and Instagram for some extra publicity.
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Austin, Texas-based freelancer Susan Johnston Taylor has written about food, retail, and business for publications including The Boston Globe, Civil Eats, Entrepreneur, Fast Company , Fresh Cup, and Pizza Today. She can't resist a veggie breakfast taco.
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Vegetable Cookery
As consumers demand healthier menu options, professional kitchens today are incorporating more vegetables into their menus. The popularity of locally grown and organic foods, along with the rise of vegetarian and Mediterranean diets, has made vegetables very much in demand. Because vegetables are delicate in nature and deteriorate quite rapidly, they must be handled with extra care to maintain their integrity.
Vegetables are cooked to develop color, texture, and flavor. Because of the vast varieties, cooking methods vary depending on the desired end result. In professional foodservice production vegetables are often blanched or par cooked in boiling salted water as a mise en place step, and finished by other cooking methods such as sautéing, frying, or roasting.
Equally important in this process is the added step of shocking the vegetables in an ice water bath, which brightens and sets the color making them more visually appealing. Some vegetables like roots or dried legumes need prolonged cooking to tenderize and make them digestible, while others like tender leafy greens, may only need a few seconds to help set their color. Deep-frying, grilling, braising, and roasting develop distinct textures, colors and flavors through carmelization or the addition of flavorful liquids.
Cooking Vegetables
- Cooking activates flavor molecules and provides important textural changes to vegetables
- Use optimal cooking methods and techniques to preserve color, flavor, texture and nutrients
- Overcooking can create bitter or unpleasant flavors to develop in vegetables from the cabbage family; avoid overcooking
- Vegetables in the onion family mellow and sweeten when cooked
Terminology
Common culinary terms used in cooking vegetables, including boiling, deep-frying, roasting, or grilling. Here are a few that are often used in vegetable preparation.
Blanch – To briefly cook for from 30 seconds up to two minutes. This method is used for tomato concassé or stone fruits like peaches to loosen the skin for peeling. It is also used for tender leafy greens and herbs (spinach or basil.)
Par Boil/Par Cook – Partially cooking for a longer time than the blanching process. This may mean cooking the ingredient half-way or more for finishing on the service line. This method is also applied to vegetables, pasta, rice and other grains.
A l Dente – An Italian term meaning “to the tooth”, used to describe pasta that is tender but still firm to the bite. This term is used to describe the correct degree of doneness for vegetables, grains and other foods.
Moist Heat Cooking Methods
Boil/a l’anglaise.
The French term “a l’anglaise” refers to cooking foods in water or other liquids. Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se restaurants calls this “Big Pot Blanching”. It is a mise en place method commonly used in professional kitchens when prepping quantities of vegetables for service.
Most any vegetable can be blanched, par-cooked, or fully cooked in this fashion.The vegetables are submerged in a large quantity of rapidly boiling water that is highly salted and then cooked for a proscribed amount of time.They are then drained and plunged into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.
The blanching and shocking method brightens and sets the color of the vegetables, especially green varieties. Additionally, blanching acts as a preservative because the process deactivates enzymes that turn plants soft, brown, or otherwise unsavory.
Some vegetables require a gentler moist heat cooking process. Potatoes, when cooked by moist heat methods, should be simmered and not boiled, because boiling will break down and disintegrate the potatoes leaving some of it behind in the cooking liquids. Potatoes are one of the exceptions to the moist heat cooking process because they are started in cold water and slowly brought to a simmer. This cooks the potato more evenly and reduces the risk of overcooking.
Poach Poaching is a low-heat cooking method, from 180-190˚F/82-88˚C, in aromatic liquids including court bouillon, stock, broth, coconut milk, juice, butter or oil. This method is used for hearty root vegetables with stable pigment colors including carrots, parsnips, rutabagas and turnips. Other vegetables including fennel, onions, artichokes and leeks also can be cooked in this style. The butter or oil poaching method is similar to a confit cooking method. It requires more cooking time, from 10 minutes up to an hour, depending on the type of vegetable and its size.
Cooking by the sous vide method is done in a vacuum package with an immersion circulator or hot water bath at190 °F / 88 °C. The vegetables are trimmed, lightly seasoned, oiled and sealed. The cooking temperature and method are similar to poaching. The advantage of vacuum packaging is that it locks in all the flavors of the vegetables. The process can be used for any type of vegetables.
Tips for Sous Vide Vegetable Cooking
Click Here for More Sous Vide Cooking Info
- Clean and prep vegetables into uniform shapes.
- Place vegetables in a vacuum pouch; add seasoning and oil or butter.
- Vacuum seal the pouch.
- Set thermal circulator or hot water bath to a temperature of 190 °F / 88 °C.
- Immerse the vegetables in the thermal circulator for the desired amount of time.
- Remove and serve immediately or shock in an ice bath to hold for later service. Reheat in a thermal circulator to the desired temperature.
- Although the sous vide method means cooking “under pressure” with vacuum sealed bags, this method can be modified if a vacuum packaging machine is not available.
- A hot water bath closely monitore with a thermometer can be improvised for a thermal circulator.
Tips for Steaming Vegetables
- Clean and cut vegetables into uniform shapes.
- Prepare a steamer set up in a pot with water and a perforated pan.
- Bring the water to a boil.
- Add the vegetable and cover with a lid.
- Cook the vegetables to the desired degree of doneness.
- Season and serve immediately or shock in an ice water bath for later use.
Sometimes called pan-steaming, the method of glazing is used for a wide variety of vegetables. Glazing is done in a shallow pan with a small amount of water, along with butter, sugar and salt. Add other herbs and spices as desired. Various liquids including wine, stock, or juice can be incorporated. Substitute olive oil or other infused oils for butter, and other sweeteners including honey and maple syrup for sugar. Start the vegetables from a raw state or par-cook and finished to order with a prepared glaze.
Braise/Stew
Combination cooking methods, braising and stewing, begin by searing or sweating the ingredients in fats and then adding liquids. Braises are simple preparations of leeks or celery, heartier items of braised cabbage or sauerkraut, or complex ones including ratatouille and Moroccan vegetable tagine. Aromatics including onions or shallots, and garlic are layered with bacon, ham, or salt pork. Peppers add a spicy heat. Wine or citrus juices brighten up the preparation. Herbs and spices add depth and finish.
Tips for Braising and Stewing Vegetables
- Clean and prep all ingredients needed for the braise or stew.
- Begin by sweating aromatics including onions, shallots or garlic in a braising pan.
- Add other ingredients from least tender to most tender as the vegetables are cooking.
- Season with salt, pepper and spices.
- Add liquids including stock, wine, juice, coconut milk, or tomato sauce.
- Cover and stew or braise either on the stovetop or in an oven. Finish the braise or stew by reducing or thickening the liquid if needed.
- Remember that vegetables are relatively tender and will cook quickly so monitor closely to avoid overcooking.
Dry Heat Cooking Methods
Sautéing vegetables are done from either a raw or a par cooked state. If the vegetables are naturally tender like spinach, they can be quickly sautéed with a little shallot and garlic in olive oil or butter and finished with seasoning. Green beans, carrots and other vegetables are usually par-cooked a l’anglaise and finished a la minute, in the same manner as tender raw vegetables. Remember to have the pan hot.
Avoid overloading the pan because it causes the temperature to drop and creates a steaming effect instead of sautéing. Stir-Frying is a sautéing process achieved in a wok. The technique is similar to sautéing and can be done in a sauté pan if a wok is not available.
Tips for Sautéing
- Blanch or par cook vegetables as needed.
- Heat a sauté pan to a medium high temperature.
- Add the oil or fat to the pan.
- Add aromatics including shallots and garlic if desired.
- Add the vegetables to the pan.
- Avoid overloading the pan which drops the temperature and creates a steamed effect.
- Cook the vegetables tossing occasionally to heat and cook evenly.
- Season with salt, pepper, herbs and/or spices.
- Serve immediately
Frying vegetables produces a crisp texture with a caramelized taste. It uses more fats or oils in the cooking process than sautéing and is divided into two categories; Pan-Fried and Deep-Fried . Vegetables cooked using these methods are often coated with breading or are batter dipped to create fritters, tempura. The product may be pre-cooked or par-cooked before being finished by frying. Proper oil temperature is important to evenly cook the product, and provide a crisp texture and a golden color. Too much heat will overcook the coating while leaving the vegetables cold or raw. Too little heat and the product will be soggy and oily. For most frying methods, a temperature of 325-350˚F/160-180˚C is ideal.
Tips for Pan-Frying Vegetables
- Prep ingredients and if desired bread the items with a three stage breading process of flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs.
- Heat a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet
- Add oil to a depth of ⅛-¼”/3-6mm. Heat to approximately 325-350˚F/160-180˚C
- Add the items and cook to a golden brown.
- Avoid crowding the pan as this will slow the cooking process, lower the cooking temperature and produce a soggy product from the increased moisture in the pan.
- Turn the items as needed to evenly cook the product on all sides.
- Drain on paper towels and season with salt and pepper.
- Serve immediately or hold hot to maintain texture.
Tempura Shrimp
Deep frying is submerging food in hot oil at a temperature between 325-375˚F/160-190°C. When food is surrounded by hot fat, the surface quickly seals preventing moisture from seeping out of the product. Successful deep frying produces a crisp texture and a moist cooked filling on the inside.
As with pan frying, the foods are often breaded with a three stage process. Vegetables can be sliced or julienne before breading to produce onion rings or eggplant fries. Croquettes can be prepared with cooked and diced vegetables and other ingredients bound with a sauce which are then shaped and breaded. Or in the case of potatoes and other root vegetables, they can be blanched and fried in various shapes or sliced and fried crisp to create chips.
Batters prepared with buttermilk, beer or other liquid can also be used for deep frying. Japanese tempura uses a light batter to coat the foods before frying giving the finished product a very pale color yet light and crisp texture. Vegetables and other ingredients can also be combined with the batter and dropped from a scoop to produce fritters.
Deep-frying involves two methods for cooking items depending on whether they are breaded or batter fried. Breaded products usually use the basket method and batter frying uses the swimming method to avoid the problem of the batter sticking to the basket. Batter-fried items are dipped with a tongs and added to the fryer. A tongs, spider, or skimmer is used to turn and lift the product from the fryer once finished cooking.
Grill/Broil
Grilling and broiling vegetables provides a rustic compliment to menus. A variety of vegetables do well on the grill, but some stand outs include asparagus, corn, eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, along with summer and winter squash varieties. With extra care, cabbage and other leaf vegetables like radicchio, endive, or romaine can also be grilled.
Grilling and broiling of vegetables is typically done at a lower temperature than meats, from approximately 375-450 °F/190-230˚C.
The vegetables are often sliced, seasoned, and tossed or brushed with oil before grilling. Marinades or vinaigrettes can also be incorporated either before or after cooking. Radicchio and other leafy vegetables can be cut into wedges with the core intact to hold them together. They can also be cut into various shapes and skewered to make kabobs as vegetarian options or combined with meats, poultry or seafood.
Broiling of vegetables is performed similar to grilling. Prepping is the same but the vegetables are placed on a broiler pan and set under the heat element. As with grilling, the vegetables should be turned so they brown and cook uniformly. Broiling is often done to char peppers and tomatoes for use in sauces and salsa.
Tips for Grilling and Broiling Vegetables
- Prep-heat the grill or broiler between 375-450 °F/190-230˚C
- Clean and cut vegetables into uniform shapes
- Season with salt and pepper, brush or toss with oil or marinade
- Place on grill and begin cooking
- Turn vegetables to brown and score and brush with additional marinade or oil to prevent drying
- Remove vegetables when the skin begins to blister and the middle becomes soft.
- Remove when done and serve
- Different vegetables will take different amounts of time to cook. Plan on grilling for 5 to 20 minutes
- Place small vegetables on skewers or use a grilling basket
Roasting brings out the natural sweetness in vegetables by concentrating the flavors and caramelizing the natural sugars in them. Almost any vegetable, including artichokes, beans, cauliflower, and winter squash are good candidates for roasting.
Heat and surface area are important in roasting because the smaller the vegetables are cut the higher the oven temperature needs to be. Halved winter squashes should be cooked at 350˚F/175˚C degrees while smaller cut vegetables including asparagus, beans, or zucchini will need a hotter oven, about 425˚F/220˚C. The vegetables are tossed with salt, pepper and oil. Additional spices can be added as desired. Fresh herbs are usually added at the end of the roasting process. Spread the vegetables out in a single layer to facilitate browning.
Tips for Roasting and Baking Vegetables
- Preheat oven between 350-425˚F/175-220˚C
- Cut vegetables in uniform shapes
- Toss the vegetables with salt, pepper, spices, and oil
- Spread the vegetables out in a single layer on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper
- Place in oven and check after 10-12 minutes
- Turn the vegetables so they brown evenly
- Continue to cook until the desired degree of doneness is reached
- Check the doneness by tasting a piece for its texture
- If the vegetables are browned but not tender add a few drops of water to stop the browning process and continue to cook in the oven
Gratin/en Casserole
A baked gratin combines vegetables with sauces or other ingredients that are layered in a casserole, and topped with bread crumbs or cheese. Winter squash, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower are all types of vegetables that work well in a gratin.
Blanch the vegetables prior to combining with a sauce, heavy cream, or stock. Sautéed aromatic vegetables including onions, garlic, or leeks add a nice compliment as do additional herbs and spices. Place in a buttered casserole and top with bread crumbs and/or hard grating cheese (Gruyere, Parmesan, and/or Romano). Bake in an oven and finish by browning under a broiler or salamander. Finish with vinegar, toasted nuts, dried fruits (currants, cranberries, raisins), or Parmesan cheese.
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Food presentation is the art of modifying, processing, arranging, or decorating food to enhance its aesthetic appeal. The visual display of food matters a lot to many chefs and food consumers, too. It is not only about decorating the food, but also making it taste more delicious psychologically for the customers. Customers love it when the food is arranged and served correctly. It also showcases the standard and level of the restaurant. Customers in India especially judge the hygiene standards , quality, and taste of a dish without actually tasting it based solely on the way food is presented to them. Thus, food presentation is as essential to a dish as its taste and flavor.
With social media becoming an indispensable part of all our lives, even the banalest events are captured and uploaded on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. With the coming of food bloggers , the way food is plated and served has gained new importance, and it has become necessary to know some food presentation tricks to leave a lasting impression. With the number of Food Bloggers increasing, you never know how many people end up viewing the palatable images of your food! Hence you must consider every image captured and uploaded by your guests as your restaurant’s evangelist and should ensure that each one of your dishes is served in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
Food Presentation Techniques That You Should Implement In Your Kitchen
Although it may seem trivial, plating and temptingly presenting food is an art and requires care and an eye for detail. Following are some food presentation tips to be kept in mind while plating dishes.
1. Proportioning
Proportioning your food is crucial if you want to plate right. It is the first food presentation tip in the book. Correct proportioning of a dish is essential not only to its attractiveness but also plays an integral role in controlling the costs. The portion of each ingredient should be pre-decided and maintained while plating. You can read about how portion control can reduce food costs and improve your restaurant business here .
Choose the right plate size. The plate or bowl size should match the portion/quantity of food served. It looks unprofessional if the plate is too small for the portion of food served. It can make the dish look messy and overcrowded. On the other hand, small portions served on large plates seem scanty. You can leave a half-inch of space between the food and the edge of the plate.
The next food presentation technique is related to the way you put a dish together or style a meal. The most important rule of this food presentation technique is balancing contrast and variety. Decorating the dish more than it is required, too, can end up ruining it or making it hideous.
Position the main ingredient as the center of attention and make the other elements complement it, rather than hide it. Also, pay attention to colors. Herbs and vegetables bring color and flavor to the dish. Play with colors and textures of the plates by adding different sauces. As per customer psychology , serving odd quantities of food items like shrimps and mushrooms adds to the visual appeal.
However, don’t go overboard with the styling. It is better to keep it simple than to create a dish that is just as difficult to eat. Remember when it comes to the audience, not only in India but everywhere, less is always more!
3. Choosing the Right Tableware
A larger plate will give you more space to work with your creativity and the dish. But keep in mind that you do not need to fill your plate so full that there’s no room left and it starts looking overcrowded.
It doesn’t matter how delicious the food is; no one would be tempted to eat it if it is served on an unattractive plate. It can make or break a restaurant. Present your plates according to the occasion. Also, cracked or broken crockery can be a real turn-off for customers.
Conduct regular checks to replace any broken chinaware. Once you understand the intricacies of choosing tableware, you can experiment with different plate shapes, sizes, and colors. Many food presentation techniques include the use of plates of different shapes and colors. Modern style plating or contemporary plating is one of them.
Food plating is all about timing. Make sure you don’t take too much time to decorate, modify, or plate a dish that it turns cold when it was supposed to be served hot or vice versa. Remember to include the plating time in the preparation of the dish, and also inform your guests of the time it would take to serve it.
When you are in a bind, you can always follow the traditional clock pattern plating technique:- dividing the plate as zones of a clock from the customer’s point of view and then presenting the starch between 9 o clock to 12 o clock, vegetables between 12’o clock to 3 o clock and protein between 9’o clock to 3’o clock .
5. Garnishing
The Garnishing process improves the texture and flavor of a dish. Though it sounds simple, this food presentation technique also requires care and precision . The taste and feel of the garnish will add to the texture of the dish; hence you must choose your garnish carefully and make sure you do not overdo it.
It can be as simple as a colorful ingredient, which, if paired, creates a more alluring dish to combinations of different fruits, sauces, and seeds, which will add to the flavor, acidity, and texture of the dish. Also, try to use easily identifiable organic garnishes whenever possible to avoid the hassles of removing it before serving it to customers.
Essential tools for stunning food presentation includes Squeeze Bottles, Shavers, Platings & Precision Tongs, Molds & Rings, Spoons, Plating Wedges, and garnishing kits. You can read more about the proper food plating and presentation tools here. In today’s world, diners enjoy their meals as much with their eyes as they do with their tongues. And more importantly, these same diners judge the restaurant by the pictures they present on their social media platforms.
With this article, we hope we were able to provide you with some helpful food presentation techniques. Do let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below 🙂
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These food presentation techniques are great! Restaurant owners rarely pay attention to this aspect they are more determined in making the food taste the best. Great work!
The way food is presented affects a person’s perception of how it will taste. People instinctively reject bruised apples and browned bananas, and recognize well-marbled beef and perfectly ripe produce. Prepared dishes work in the same manner. The perfect dish includes food that tastes as good as it looks. Good Read.
With everyone posting a picture on Instagram before they start eating, aesthetic food presentation is important! Food is more about looking good rather than tasting good these days!
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8 Basic Cooking Techniques Every Beginner Should Know
Being comfortable in the kitchen is less about the recipes you use and more about the techniques you master. Brush up on these eight basic cooking techniques and you'll be able to get dinner on the table no matter what you have in your fridge.
Essential Equipment
Keep these tools on hand to help you turn up the heat.
1. A collapsible stainless-steel or silicone steamer basket, for steaming vegetables. You can also use a pot with a steamer-basket insert.
2. A large, heavy, oven-safe pot with two handles and a tight-fitting lid, sometimes called a Dutch oven, for braising.
3. A cast-iron skillet, which conducts heat exceptionally well, for searing and skillet roasting.
4. An instant-read thermometer, for checking doneness of meat and poultry.
5. A large rimmed baking sheet, for roasting.
Sautéing
This method cooks food quickly in a small amount of fat in a skillet over relatively high heat while stirring or tossing constantly. The term sauté comes from the French verb sauter, which means "to jump." This technique is best for tender, small pieces of food, such as sliced chicken breast, sliced steak, shrimp, and mushrooms
Sauté mushrooms: Heat 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Once a drop of water sizzles when it hits the oil, add 1 lb. halved or quartered cremini mushrooms. (Do not crowd the pan or the mushrooms will stew, rather than sauté.) Cook, tossing or stirring the mushrooms, until they are beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Add 1 minced garlic clove and cook, tossing or stirring, until the mushrooms are tender and browned, 1 to 2 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped fresh parsley.
Roasting cooks foods by surrounding them with hot, dry air. This is done in an uncovered pan in the oven. Vegetables fare well by this method because roasting brings out their natural sugars and produces crisp edges. Sheet-pan dinners, which roast a protein alongside vegetables on a baking sheet, use roasting to make convenient, healthy meals on a single pan. Best for: Nearly anything! Meat, chicken, fish, and vegetables, or a combination
Roast root vegetables : Preheat oven to 425°F. Toss diced (3/4-inch) root vegetables, such as carrots and parsnips, with a bit of olive oil until lightly coated, then spread in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. (Do not crowd the pan or the vegetables will steam instead of roasting.) Roast, stirring several times, until the vegetables are lightly browned and tender when pierced with a knife, 30 to 40 minutes.
Boiling & Blanching
Both of these methods cook food submerged in liquid that is bubbling vigorously (at sea level, water boils at 212°F). Blanching involves dipping food briefly into boiling water, then cooling it quickly in ice water. Blanching is often used to prepare food for canning or freezing. With no added fat, boiled foods may be bland, but you can season them with olive oil and lemon juice or vinegar after cooking. A rule of thumb is to add green vegetables to rapidly boiling water, but start starchy vegetables like potatoes in cold water and then bring the water to a boil. Best for: Blanching is great for loosening peach, tomato, and almond skins, and for cooking vegetables like green beans that will be reheated later, used in salads, or frozen. Boiling is best for vegetables (like green beans, broccoli, and potatoes) and pasta.
Blanch green beans: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath: fill a large bowl with ice cubes and water and set it near the stove. Add trimmed green beans to the boiling water. Boil the beans until tender-crisp, 3 to 4 minutes; transfer to the ice bath, using tongs or a slotted spoon. Reheat the beans by sautéing them in a little olive oil.
Steaming cooks foods by surrounding them with vapor. It is a go-to method for cooking vegetables because it preserves water-soluble nutrients better than boiling. Best for: Quick-cooking vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower; small cuts of fish
Steam broccoli or cauliflower: Set a steamer basket over about 1 inch of water in a large saucepan (the water should not be touching the basket). Bring to a boil. Add broccoli or cauliflower florets to the basket. Cover and steam until the vegetables are tender-crisp, 4 to 6 minutes. Using a glove or oven mitt, carefully lift out the steamer basket and transfer the vegetables to a serving bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, if desired.
Simmering & Poaching
Poaching and simmering are related techniques that submerge foods in liquid at a lower temperature than boiling. While simmering, the liquid bubbles very gently and maintains a temperature of 185-200°F. During poaching, the liquid may shimmer, but not actually bubble and the temperature should not exceed 185°F. One benefit of poaching is that the liquid becomes a flavorful broth that can be turned into a soup or sauce. Best for: Tenderizing tough cuts of meats; cooking delicate foods like chicken, eggs, and fish; coaxing flavor out of soups, stews, and sauces
Poach boneless, skinless chicken breasts: Place chicken in a deep-sided skillet or soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Skim any froth. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Turn the chicken over and cover the pan. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 165°F, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid with tongs.
This method browns food quickly over high heat in a skillet, on a grill, or under the broiler. The goal is to get the surface well browned, which creates additional flavors. This is due to the Maillard reaction, a complex chemical reaction that takes place during browning and results in hundreds of different flavor compounds. Best for: Steaks that may be eaten medium-rare; thin cuts of meat and poultry, scallops, larger cuts of meat prior to braising
Sear scallops: Pat 1 lb. "dry" sea scallops thoroughly dry (excess moisture will prevent them from browning) and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil in a heavy skillet, such as cast-iron (do not use nonstick) over medium-high heat until a drop of water sizzles when dripped. Add the scallops and cook, undisturbed, until browned on the underside, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook, undisturbed, until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes more. Do not crowd the pan, as that can cause the food to steam rather than sear.
Skillet Roasting
Skillet roasting is a combination of searing and roasting; after searing food in a skillet, you transfer the skillet to the oven to finish the cooking. You get the best of both worlds: searing improves browning and enhances flavors, while the uniform heat of the oven cooks the food through and ensures a tender result. If you don't have an ovenproof skillet, you can brown the food in a skillet and then transfer it to a baking sheet to finish cooking in the oven. Best for: Chicken breasts, thick fish steaks, and pork tenderloin
Try It: Skillet-Roasted Chicken & Broccoli with Mustard-Rosemary Pan Sauce
Active: 25 min. Total: 40 min.
Equipment: 10-inch ovenproof skillet
The one-two punch of searing and roasting results in perfectly browned, moist, and tender chicken.
2 ½ cups broccoli florets (1¼-inch pieces) and sliced peeled stem (1 large head)
1 small red onion, diced (1 cup)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
¼ tsp. ground pepper, divided
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. whole-grain mustard
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary or thyme, or ½ tsp. dried
1 tsp. maple syrup or honey (optional)
8 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 tsp. canola oil
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. unsalted butter
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine broccoli, onion, olive oil, 1/8 tsp. pepper, and salt in a medium bowl; toss to coat. Mix together whole-grain mustard, Dijon mustard, rosemary (or thyme), and maple syrup (or honey), if using, in a small bowl.
2. Pat chicken dry and season with the remaining 1/8 tsp. pepper. Heat canola oil in a 10-inch cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until the underside is nicely browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Turn the chicken over and brush the mustard mixture over the top. Scatter the broccoli mixture around the chicken. Transfer the pan to the oven (see Tip).
3. Roast the chicken and vegetables, stirring the vegetables once, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken registers 165°F and the broccoli is tender and browned in spots, about 15 minutes. If either the chicken or vegetables are done before the other, remove them. Transfer the chicken to a clean cutting board and let rest for a few minutes. Transfer the broccoli mixture to a small bowl; keep warm.
4. Meanwhile, place the skillet over medium-high heat and add vinegar and water. Bring to a simmer, stirring and scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat. Add butter and whisk until melted.
5. To serve: Slice the chicken ½ inch thick and divide between 2 plates, along with the vegetables. Drizzle the pan sauce over the chicken and vegetables.
Serves 2: 3 oz. chicken + ¾ cup vegetables + 1 Tbsp. pan sauce each
CAL 338, CARB 16g (fiber 4g, sugars 8g), FAT 17g (sat. fat 3g), PROTEIN 28g, CHOL 88mg, SODIUM 370mg, POTASSIUM 726mg.
Tip: If you don't have an ovenproof skillet, transfer the chicken and vegetables to a rimmed baking sheet before roasting.
See the recipe for Skillet-Roasted Chicken & Broccoli with Mustard-Rosemary Pan Sauce (coming soon).
This starts by searing the main ingredient, followed by sweating aromatic ingredients and finally simmering everything together in liquid-—think dishes like stew and pot roast. Braising tenderizes tougher (aka budget-friendly) cuts of meat, and the cooking liquid becomes a flavorful sauce. Most braises require a long cooking time. Best for: Stew beef, pork shoulder, lamb, chicken thighs.
Try It: Braised Chicken Thighs with Fennel, Orange & Olives
Active: 25 min. Total: 1 hr. 5 min.
To make ahead: Refrigerate for up to 2 days. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave.
This technique sears chicken thighs before braising. Serve this vibrant chicken dish with rice or cauliflower rice.
4 tsp. fennel seeds
4 large bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (1¾-2 lbs. total), trimmed
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground pepper
1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. orange zest
½ cup orange juice
1 15-oz. can no-salt-added diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped pitted Kalamata olives
1. Place fennel seeds on a cutting board and crush with the bottom of a small saucepan. Set aside.
2. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-
high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning as needed, until browned all over, 5 to 7 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.
3. Add onion to the pan and cook, stirring often, until softened and starting to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, crushed red pepper, and the crushed fennel seeds; cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Add orange juice and bring to a simmer. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and bay leaf; return to a simmer. Cook for 1 minute, mashing the tomatoes with a potato masher.
4. Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan. Adjust heat to maintain a simmer. Partially cover the pan; cook until the chicken is tender and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh without touching bone registers at least 175°F, 40 to 45 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Stir in olives and orange zest.
Serves 4: 1 chicken thigh + about 1/3 cup sauce each
CAL 311, CARB 14g (fiber 3g, sugars 7g), FAT 15g (sat. fat 3g), PROTEIN 30g, CHOL 151mg, SODIUM 425mg, POTASSIUM 710mg.
See the recipe for Braised Chicken Thighs with Fennel, Orange & Olives (coming soon).
When is it done?
Whether you are following a recipe or cooking free-style, it's always important to check that foods are properly cooked.
An instant-read thermometer is the most reliable way to tell if meat and poultry are done. Stick the probe into the thickest part of the meat, without touching any bones. Pull meat off the heat when it reaches its safe minimum temperature (below). Allow beef and pork to rest for at least 3 minutes before serving; the temperature will continue to rise. (Note that braised dishes often involve cooking tough cuts of meat well beyond these temperatures, to ensure tenderness.)
- Beef, pork, and lamb steaks and roasts: 145°F
- Ground beef and pork: 160°F
- Poultry: 165°F
- Fish and shellfish: 145°F
For vegetables, grains, and legumes, the best indicator of doneness is tenderness. Taste several grains or legumes to make sure they are tender throughout. Check vegetables by piercing with the tip of a paring knife or fork. Starchy vegetables like potatoes and winter squash should be completely tender, but not mushy. You may prefer vegetables like broccoli and green beans cooked just until tender-crisp.
These tips and tools will help you step up your cooking game. Mastering these techniques will make your vegetables delicious and will allow you to make a meal from whatever you have on hand. For more beginner cooking tips, check out our Healthy Cooking How-To's .
This story originally appeared in Diabetic Living Spring 2020.
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How to Plate Food: Top 10 Artistic Food Presentation Ideas
What tempts a customer to try a dish? The answer is “how amazingly you present the dish.” Maybe you got your answer but you have to gather more knowledge about food presentation ideas or food presentation techniques. Let’s explore how to plate food in a creative way.
You can find a lot of creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery. But it’s critical to consider which region you are serving the food in. Suppose you are serving the food service in the Asian region or USA.
- What is Food Plating?
Food plating is a food presentation idea or food presentation technique that creates an aesthetic appeal to the diners. In this case, the visual presentation is inevitable including decorating, arranging, and presenting the food.
Do you know that the taste of the food increases 29% if you serve the food in an artistic way?
Yes, it’s proven. While conducting the research, a group of people is served with the same food that is prepared with the same ingredients.
Once they tasted the food from the well-decorated plate, and another time with the same food normally.
The most interesting part of the test is the result. Can you realize what the result will be?
Although all foods are made with the same ingredients, the people found the decorated food tastier than the normally served item.
The report published that the well-decorated food is 3 times tastier to the served people. Plating food techniques are significant to know as a chef. So go through the article and know How do you present a dish to make it more appealing.
- Creative Presentation Techniques for Vegetable Cookery
Do you know the Philippines is one of the Asian countries in which food draws inspiration from several influences? Filipino foods have striking similarities with international cuisine. Filipino dishes reflect the Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Western, and Pacific Islander flavors.
It’s true that we eat with our senses. Yes, what we eat we can see, smell and feel that. A study revealed that the dishes’ presentation makes the food items taste better. So why not? You should know plating techniques and here you’ll get the tips for food presentation.
- What are the Components of a Creative Food Presentation?
It’s essential to know the components of creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery.
What are the elements of good food presentation? In this part of the article, you can acquire sufficient knowledge of plating food techniques. Know how to plate food perfectly.
The components of food presentation include-
Present the Culinary Preparation
The plate structures and the colors are important to reveal your culinary preparation. In this case, the size of the plate and food volume greatly depends.
Center of Attention
The food plate you serve your customers should be well organized and the focal point of the food plate should be considered.
Suppose, you highlight the highest point of the decorated plate most attractively. But you should consider the placement of the focal point. It’s critical to place the lower items on the food plate so as not to hide the lower items.
Color Psychology
The colors of a dish make something different to the appeal of the customers. Choose color wisely and every food item has its own color. You have to make a color and contrast balance on a dish.
Typically, the Green color represents coolness whereas Red stands for excitement. Besides, Blue is not an appropriate color for the food as it suppresses the appetizing.
On the other hand, Black is a sign of elegance. Although the vegetables are colorful and you have to understand their contrasts of colors and shapes.
Flavor of the Food
The food flavors are the most important component. The flavors complement each other and they are close. You have to consider the desired flavor that makes a sense of the smell of the diner.
Visual Interest with Texture
The texture is the most important component of a food presentation. The texture of your food items on the plate gives pleasure to eating.
The textures grow the visual interest and the combination of the textures of a food plate can be soft, smooth, and rigid.
Textures can be different because of the preparation method. Suppose a crunchy texture builds happily on a creamy and smooth cushion.
The decoration of a food plate is significant. You may serve different items of food. In this case, you should consider the fruit platter presentation ideas, Sandwich platter presentation ideas, Fine dining plating ideas, Seafood plating ideas, Steak plating techniques, Meat plating ideas, Salad plating presentation, etc.
The food presentation techniques must have two distinctive factors. One is edibility and another one is flavor. The decorating components can be herbs, spices, or ingredients.
In this case, you have to plate food like a chef.
- One thing remember that your plate is your canvas
- Grab the attention with visual stimulants
- Use Rule of Third to arrange the food on the plate
- Paint your food plate with sauce
- Enhance both appearance and flavor with garnish
Garnish the Food Plate
Well, before tasting the food, the garnishing impacts the level of taste and the effectiveness of the food presentation.
It enhances the flavor and texture of a dish. Garnishing should follow two culinary art rules. The food plate ought to present an outstanding way that considers the food’s appearance and the balanced dish.
The garnish of a food plate helps to shut the mouth of your customers while serving them on the table. Because their eyes will be caught on your decorated plate. It’s like the eyes eat the plate.
How to plate food in a creative way? The above components are required in plating food techniques. Besides, the food plate presentation ideas help the chefs to understand the standard level of food plating.
However, these are the basic elements of plating and principles of food presentation techniques. Those dish presentation techniques help to create a framework, balance your dish, keep the food plate smile, highlight the key ingredients and get the right portion of ingredients.
- What are the Food Plating Techniques?
The food plating techniques are highly required for the foodservice business. Especially for the restaurants that provide a setting space to take food for the customers.
In the Philippines, restaurants always focus on modern plating techniques. The food presentation ideas help the restaurateurs to think once again about how to present food on a plate.
The food plating techniques master you to make your plate a perfect and presentable dish to your customers. It’s like an art where the food plate is your canvas and the food is your medium.
What are the essential factors of food presentation? Let’s see the important factors that you must consider in plating food techniques. Fruit platter presentation ideas are also important to know. The food platter is also popular worldwide.
You have to be an artist while designing your food plate. Let’s explore the best food plating techniques in the below section.
Plating Techniques
The plating techniques suggest you shape your plate perfectly. Likewise, you have to choose a paper to art on it. You should consider some factors while choosing the right plate for serving food.
Size of the Plate
The plate size is a considerable matter because it brings the ingredients you want to serve to your customers. In this case, the plate size should be big enough to represent it in a balanced way.
Choose the Plate Color
The color of your plate is also important. You can choose the light color or dark color plate. Most of the restaurants use white color plates. Because it gives you a neutral background for brightly colored foods.
On the other hand, you can choose the dark color plate if your food items are light in color. Besides, you can use the color of your dish matching with the interior design of your restaurants like table, chair, and couch colors.
Moreover, the color of your plates can vary from item to item. Suppose, you are offering an appetizer, in this case, you should choose red color plates and the blue plate expresses the royalty.
Style of the Restaurant
The classical style plates always suit fine dining restaurants. In this case, china dinnerware is appropriate for the traditional plating styles.
Besides the plating style should be up to date in time which allows you to create maximum plating creativity.
Food Plating Design Techniques
The appropriate food plating design or arrangement of the food plate helps to determine the structural integrity, aesthetic tone of the meal, and flavor dispersion. Perfect dish presentation highly depends on the food plating techniques you follow.
Just take a look at the most popular and effective food arrangement techniques.
Rule of Thirds
Food presentation is creativity. You have to explore your ideas to make the food plate more unique and captivated.
The rule of thirds should be followed to place the food on the food plate. In this case, the focal point must be maintained. Which food items are appropriate on the right side and which are suitable for the left side rather than the center.
Clock Style Food Plating
The food plate presentation can be unique if you just focus on some unique styles. In this case, the clock style is popular and worthy.
The food plate should carry the ingredients in a systematic way and the alignment of the food items is important.
Think of your plate as a clock and place the protein item between 3 and 9, the starch or carbohydrate item between 9 to 12, and vegetable items from 12 to 3.
Keep Your Plate Simple and Clean
Simple food plating is obvious and it attracts customers. You have to keep your plate simple and the focal point of your food plate should be expressed.
Never make your food plate overcrowded with different items. It negatively affects the impression of the customers.
Focus on Textures
The texture of the food creates an aesthetic value of the food plate. An appealing texture combination is essential. You can also follow some classic styles of food dishes.
For instance, a smooth vegetable puree with crunchy onion straws creates a marvelous food dish. Besides, topping a steak with crumbled blue cheese makes a classic cuisine.
Placement of Moist Ingredients
The moist food ingredients can run any portion of the plate. In this case, you have to prevent running by placing other food ingredients on the top of the plate.
So place the moist food ingredients first. Then locate other food items on top.
Food Visibility Plating Techniques
Visibility of your food plate is the first and foremost part of food plating. Do you know the customers always focus on the beauty of the dishes?
The food presentation techniques make your dish more colorful and appealing. In this case, you have to maintain a visual balance while preparing the dishes.
Consider the Quantity
Well, you must provide the quantity of the items by following a classic style. It creates a balance of the dish. Then the most important thing to consider is serving the food with odd numbers.
Yes, the odd number makes a positive sense to the service users’ minds. For instance, if you serve five Brussels sprouts to your customers instead of six, the customers feel you serve them more.
Color and Flavor Diversity
You have to design your food plate including different colors. The perfect color combination makes the customers more interested in taking the food.
In this case, when you serve the dish, you may add several types of ingredients that are different in color. For example, vegetables, meats, and other food items are distinctive colors.
On the other hand, the flavor of your prepared dish greatly depends because the customers eat with satisfaction when it smells better.
So it is necessary not to present the food plate with only one single flavor. You have to add different flavors that suit the food more perfectly.
Create Layer of Food Ingredients
The food layer creates art on your dish. If you see the traditional plating system in a restaurant, the plates just contain a lot of food items randomly.
But the modern plating techniques make the dish more presentable. Because nowadays the foodservice owners try to present the food in an interesting way.
In this case, creating a food layer on your plate is highly recommended. It is true that the multiple layers of food arrangement on a food plate stimulate the level of curiosity.
Sauce Plating Presentation Techniques
How to decorate food dishes? The answer to the question includes more considerable points. But the most important thing is to plate the sauce in an amazing way.
In this case, the sauce plating techniques are essential to know. Suppose, you place sauce on the plate but it doesn’t create any additional beauty of the dish.
So what can you do? You should follow the below points.
You can think of your squeeze bottle as a paintbrush. And art your food plate with it.
Smeared Sauce
First, choose the desired color sauce and fill the squeeze bottle with it. Create a circle on the food plate with a thick layer of sauce.
Then with a spoon or other tool, dip it in the center of the sauce where it is thickest. Now pull the sauce quickly across the food plate.
Accent Dots
It is a more interesting one. If you use multiple sauces to create a color contrast, accent dots are the most suitable ones.
First, take a squeeze bottle and fill it up with the colored sauce. In this case, you should use the rule of thirds to decorate the sauce based on your plate.
Smeared Accent Dots
Sauce plating is creative. You can merge two styles and get a combined design. In this case, you can make a curved line along the side of the food plate.
Well, firstly take a small plating edge and locate it at the middle of the first accent dot. Now drag the edge across the accent dots and create a single or multi-color edge.
Swirled Sauce
Fill a squeeze bottle with the desired sauce. Now squeeze your bottle and spin the stand where the plate is placed. It makes a design on the food ingredients and the multicolor sauce makes it more artistic.
However, it’s not about the design of the food plate with sauce, it’s more than that. So wipe the edge of the food plate with a towel or a clean piece of cloth after doing the sauce plating techniques.
Garnishing Techniques
The food presentation techniques are not new. But the traditional food plating ideas are not worthy in this modern era.
Modern food plating techniques are focusing on garnishing. Although the traditional garnishing system was basic, at that time, a piece of kale or an orange slice was thrown by chefs on the plate.
In this era, restaurant owners think differently. The creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery are essential to do something unique.
Now the garnishing is related to its flavor. To create a flavor bite, follow the garnishing techniques below.
One thing you must know, which garnishes should be avoided.
Don’t use unappetizing garnishes including
- Large chunks of citrus
- Ingredients with a strong odor
- Garnishes that take more time to implement etc.
Use Edible Garnishes
It’s crucial to use edible garnishes with the dish. The garnishes should be placed perfectly in the right position.
Placement of the Garnishes
Based on the type of your dish, you should place the garnishes. In this case, the color contrast of the food is related. Moreover, always try to place the garnishes on top of the dishes rather than at the corner of the plate.
Never Do it Crowded
The garnishes enhance the beauty of the food plate by stimulating flavor. But you should remember that you have to make your dish a presentable and balanced dish. So if the food items of your dish are already too much, you should consider adding garnishing ingredients to it.
The food plate presentation techniques are different in different countries. Philippines, India, Thailand, etc. countries are popular for food in Asia.
Besides, the USA and different European countries are also presenting the food with great care. But the fact is that the food items and the dish presentation are different.
Filipino foods are popular because they serve almost all types of food. Moreover, the Philippines serve different countries’ people.
Here are the best food plating techniques on how to plate food. If you follow those dish presentation ideas, you can create
If you follow the above-mentioned food plating techniques or dish presentation ideas, you can serve your customers perfectly from any corner of the world.
Plate presentation ideas will be fruitful when you follow a systematic and creative way while serving the dishes to the customers.
- What are the Professional Plating Tools?
It’s a common question. You may also get an idea of the plating tools from Google search. But you should have professional plating tools if you are doing your restaurant business for commercial purposes.
In this section, the professional plating tools are mentioned which are essential for creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery.
When you are thinking about how to plate a dish or dish presentation ideas, you should have the plating tools. The plating tools ease the way to design your food more effectively.
Before knowing how to plate food, let’s know which tools are essential for plating. You can get these tools easily from the desired shop of your locality.
Decorating Brushes
Mostly used in sauce plating techniques. In addition to this, to create a coulis or puree base for vegetables or meats, decorating brushes are useful.
It helps to cut the vegetables or other food items to a particular shape. Besides, the ring molds help to structure the height of the food while stacking.
Garnishing Kits
To garnish the food plate, you’ll need some tools like a squeeze bottle, plating wedges, brushes, and tongs.
Plating Wedges
It is used to create sauce design and comes with flat, round, or pointed edges.
The precision tongs help to place the garnishes or delicate items on the food plate.
Squeeze Bottles
To apply the sauce to the prepared food dishes, squeeze bottles are required.
Shaver’s
Helps to cut slices of grated chocolate, hard cheese, and soft vegetables.
The plating spoons are essential while creating a design on the food plate. You can collect slotted spoons which help to separate the solid items from the liquid.
Besides, the saucier spoons are useful in dragging the sauce across the plate.
However, these plating tools are crucial to making a perfect dish. Creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery will be effective when you have these professional plating tools.
- What are the Popular Food Plating Styles?
To know how to plate food you have to understand the food plating styles that exist. Food plating styles will help you to get an overview of plate presentation ideas.
What are the popular food plating styles? The popular food plating styles include
- Classic plating
- Freeform and
- Landscape plating style.
If you have a clear understanding of all types of food plating styles, you can design your food plate amazingly and worthy.
Using some food ingredients those plating styles are demonstrated including potato puree, a demi-glace, carrots, filet mignon, pea blend, a pea puree, a lima bean, fried leeks, and thyme.
Classic Plating Style
The classic plating style is given below step by step.
- Use a pastry bag to pipe the potato puree onto the food plate
- Now place carrot slices next to the potato puree with precision tongs.
- Then, use thyme to garnish the carrots using tongs.
- Place the steak with precision tongs.
- Garnish the steak with fried leeks using precision tongs.
- Use a spouted saucier to drizzle the demi-glace around the food plate.
- Wipe the plate edges clearly with a clean towel.
- Serve the prepared classic plate.
Free Form Plating Style
Let’s see the free-form plating style.
- Take a food plate and pipe dots potato puree onto it using pastry bags
- Use a chef’s knife to slice the steak
- Place the sliced steaks with precision tongs on the food plate
- Using a spoon plate the lima bean and pea blend around the food plate.
- Plate the carrots slices with precision tongs.
- By a large squeeze bottle, place the dots of pea puree around the food plate.
- Now plate the dots of demi-glace on the plate with a small squeeze bottle.
- It’s time to garnish the plate with fried leeks.
- Rub the edges of the plate with a clean towel.
- Finally, you’ll get a free-form-style food plate.
Landscape Plating Style
The landscape plating style is one of the mo0st popular plating styles. Follow the step-by-step process to prepare a landscape food plate.
- Firstly, take a large squeeze bottle and place dots of pea puree on the food plate.
- Use a brush and paint the pea puree.
- Pipe the potato puree onto the plate with a pastry bag.
- Use precision tongs and place the carrot slices.
- Against the puree and the carrots, lean the steaks
- Take a spoon and plate the lima bean and pea blend around the plate.
- Use spouted saucier to drizzle the demi-glace around the food plate.
- Use a clean towel to wipe the plate edges.
- Now you are done and your food plate is ready to serve.
If you consider creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery, those three popular plating styles are crucial. Filipino foods are most suitable with these food plating styles.
- Tips for Food Presentation Ideas
How to plate food? The food plate presentation ideas help the chefs to create the most wanted dishes. Whatever food you serve and wherever you are serving, the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery are fruitful.
Here are the tips for food presentation ideas and creative presentation techniques for food design ideas.
1. Think the Food Plate is Your Canvas
It’s a common question how to decorate food dishes. The most vital part of creating a perfect food plate is your idea and your imagination.
It’s like paint. You will get a plate and just place the food items with a possible layer where you think it suits you best.
2. Focus on Textures of the Food Plate
Is the texture of the food plate important? Yes, you have to play with the textures of the food plate while arranging the ingredients on the plate.
The sauces, foams, and textures of your food plate create a more aesthetic feeling in the customers’ minds. Foam is the best one that can help you to design your food plate in an interesting way.
3. Keep it Simple and Clean
Sometimes the chefs think more items will add more value to the customers. But it’s totally wrong.
If you overcrowd the food plate with some unnecessary ingredients excluding the desired food item, it is better to remove those ingredients for sure. And make the food plate clean and simple.
It is to be remembered that simple plating ideas are the most wanted and demanded food plating techniques.
You should focus on the main food item that you are going to serve the customer. Make the food amazing itself rather than focusing on other additional ingredients like zillion garnishes or swirls of sauce, unnecessary oils or spices or microgreens, etc.
4. Create a Natural Color Contrast
Well, it is said that the more colorful your food plate is, your customer will be more interested in it. Okay, but it isn’t 100% true.
The experienced and expert chefs share their ideas and thoughts in this regard. They said, if you add more colorful ingredients, it depends on the type of ingredients you are going to add.
For example, one chef adds carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, lettuces, beans, etc. which are colorful vegetables that belong to their own natural or organic color. In this case, those ingredients make an aesthetic value of the dish.
On the other hand, if any chef uses color ingredients but that is not natural. Yes, it attracts the customers but they will not be willing to choose that over the natural one.
So color contrast is essential but you should try to make it natural. It is far better and fruitful to make your food plate more appealing and acceptable.
5 . Shape the Food Height on the Plate
It is unnecessary to fill up the food plate with the food ingredients. But it is essential to create a height on the plate.
It indicates the focus point of your food plate. You have to create a food plate attractive to your customers. So highlighting the focal point of your food is more important than overcrowding the plate with food randomly.
The ring mold helps to fix the perfect height of the food plate. So you can use this plating tool for sure.
6. Serve Less in Quantity but Make it Quality
Usually, the customers feel satisfied when they get more food, don’t they?
But if you want to design the food plate in a creative way, you have to add a small portion of food to your food plate. In this regard, the highly recommended part is you should never choose more than six elements otherwise, your design won’t be the expected one and it will certainly be overcrowded.
7. Present Food with Matching your Restaurant Theme
You may have a color theme for your restaurant. The food plate and other serving tools should be matched with the theme of your restaurant.
The customers always enjoy something expected rather than unexpected.
Suppose, the customers enjoy your interior design and the ambiance of your restaurant. Although it’s not unexpected that you are going to serve them with a plate that matches your restaurant theme.
But when the customers see that you are presenting the food in such a way, they will feel more excited. So always try to understand your customers’ unwanted expectations.
8. Cut Meat Uniquely
It is highly recommended that you cut the meat horizontally that you are going to serve to your customers. Besides, slice the meat on a 45-degree bias. It helps to visualize the tenderness of the meat more prominently.
9. Decorate with Edible Garnishes
The garnishes are an inevitable part of the food plate design. If you want to know the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery, garnishing is a crucial step you must have knowledge.
You can use the herb, spice, or a flower but it must be edible and fresh. The garnishes not only add visual satisfaction to the food plate but also add an expected flavor to the customers.
10. Express Your Creativity
Whatever you want to do, you can try it. The customers can choose the best creativity that you will show on the food plate.
The chefs always think which food plate design can be the best and they look online for getting the food plating techniques.
Yes, it is needed but you should create your plate more unique and worthy to the customers.
11. Select Attractive Plates for Food Presentation
The size of the plate and the design of the plate both are considerable things. You should choose the right plate for your restaurant.
Besides, the attractive food plates grab the attention of the customers. Moreover, the design of the food plate greatly relies on the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery.
12. Consider Flavor of the Dish
The flavor of the dish stimulates the appetite of the customers. Food lovers always try to judge the food quality with its smell.
The food which releases a better smell creates more aesthetic acceptance to the customers.
This is how to plate food in a unique way. The dish presentation should be well enough to deliver an expected dish to your customers. Best food plating techniques will show you the proper guidelines to continue your foodservice business.
However, the tips of food plate presentation techniques are universal. And if you are serving Filipino or Indian foods or any western food, you should follow the above-mentioned techniques to create a more interesting food plate.
- A Classical & Effective Food Placement and Dish Presentation
The food plating design can vary from region to region. But the most common and classical food placement and dish presentation is the clock-style food plate technique. A question can arise in your mind what is the best food plating technique?
Your food plate is like the face of a clock. And considering it, you can place the food. Generally, three types of basic food items are presentable to the customers including starch, vegetables, and main food items.
Let’s see how to plate food in a classical way. It is a more popular style all over the world. Especially the food lovers always look for something new but trendy.
You should design your food plate based on the clock analogy that is given below.
Main food item : From 3 to 9 O’clock
Starch : Between 9 and 11 O’clock
Vegetables : From 11 to 3 O’clock
- How to Plate Asian Dishes Uniquely?
Asian dishes are popular and unique all over the world. The dishes of Asian dishes always attract people's eyes. Because it is different to look at, and the way of eating or cooking.
Food plating styles are different in different regions. The chefs should know about the food culture of different regions. In this case, they can apply how to plate food exactly.
Let’s see how to plate dishes in Asian culture.
Asian people love to share their food as it’s an Asian culture. Some food items are not presentable in a way that the western food plate can be plated.
In this case, Asian food plates can be designed with aesthetically pleasing garnishes and unique containers including dim sum baskets, steamboats, banana leaves, etc.
Specific Dishes
The dishes of Asian food sometimes follow the western plating styles. The fusion dishes are served in this way. Modern food presentation techniques are also applied in different types of food.
One Dish Meal
Typically the one-dish meal is presented to place the rice at the center of the food plate. Then the other food items including vegetables, protein, or starch are placed around the plate. Here, the color contrast should be maintained based on the natural color of the food items.
However, Asian food plates are more interesting. The chefs of the Philippines create more realistic and appealing food plate designs.
Wait, Are You Concerned about Food Preparation Time? Let’s Minimize Your Time & Costs?
The restaurant owners face a common problem which is how to manage the time and costs. Yes, it’s very crucial because without managing your resources, you can’t make a good return at the end of the day.
With knowing about how to plate food, you must have a knowledge of how to manage your restaurant. Besides, food waste management is essential. If you can minimize the food preparation time with a digital system, then why not?
Modern restaurant management software helps chefs to reduce the communication gap with customers. The modern software helps to build a network among the customers, chefs, restaurant owners, and waiters.
The modern restaurant management system saves both time and costs. Besides, you can manage all essential operations of your restaurant perfectly.
Besides, the kitchen display system of restaurant software helps the chefs to process the order and provide real-time notification of the cooking status.
Then what are you waiting for? Adopt an advanced online ordering system to make your foodservice more convenient.
Mobile-friendly restaurant management is high in demand at present. So you can manage your restaurant through mobile and it provides you mobile app integration system for both Android and iOS.
So Make your plate more interesting with the best food plate techniques and digitize your restaurant with the latest technology.
Bhojon - Restaurant Management System
- Final Words
Now you got your answer on how to plate food or how to plate a dish in the desired way.
The restaurant business owners always focus on the customers and the chefs of the foodservice industry focus on the food plate.
In this regard, the creative presentation techniques for vegetable cookery can be the best solution for chefs or food makers.
On the other hand, the right choice at the right time will be the ultimate solution for restaurant owners. When the chefs prepare the food by adopting creative food presentation techniques, the restaurant owners can increase the sales as well as return.
- How Much Do Restaurant Owners Make?
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- Choose the Cheapest Food Delivery App for Your Restaurant to Ensure ROI
- A Details View of Restaurant Billing Software
- Wait, Are You Concerned about Food Preparation Time? Let’s Minimize Your Time & Costs?
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Get thousands of vegan, allergy-friendly recipes in the palm of your hands today, get your favorite articles delivered right to your inbox, support onegreenplanet, try these 10 methods for cooking flavorful vegetables, by rhea parsons.
Are you getting bored with your vegetable dishes? If you are, maybe it’s because you are cooking the same vegetables the same way every time. We all know that we need to eat our vegetables because they are good for us, and our bodies need all those vitamins and minerals to be healthy. Besides our bodies, our minds, taste buds, and appetites need to be nourished as well. Cooking vegetable dishes should be exciting, appetizing, and delicious!
Also, don’t forget to download the Food Monster App on iTunes — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest meatless, vegan and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help you get healthy!
Now, Let’s go over the different methods of cooking vegetables and pick up some recipe ideas along the way.
1. Raw Veggies
Sometimes the best way to enjoy vegetables is to not cook them at all. Even when I am prepping veggies for cooking, I always munch on a few pieces raw. That’s the way you really taste the vegetable in its natural state and keep all those nutrients. Of course, not cooking veggies doesn’t mean you have to just eat them plain like a rabbit. Enjoy all sorts of greens and other vegetables in refreshing salads tossed in amazing dressings. Make soups in the blender or noodles out of squash. There are plenty of ways to prepare raw vegetables with marinades, sauces, herbs, and spices and turn them into a beautifully composed dish.
Try this Zucchini Pasta with Pumpkin Seeds and Garlic , Raw Lasagna with Cilantro Pesto, Sundried Tomatoes and Marinated Veggies , Avocado Kale Chili Salad , and this Creamy and Raw Butternut Squash Soup with Marinated Mushrooms .
2. Boiling Veggies
Boiling is an easy and fast way to get crisp, bright veggies, though you need to do it right or they could end up gray and mushy with no nutrients left inside them. The key is to make sure the vegetables spend the minimum amount of time necessary in the boiling water. Hearty vegetables like broccoli, green beans and cauliflower are good choices for boiling. To boil vegetables, simply bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt, and add your veggies.
Cook them for only a few minutes until they are bright in color and as tender as you like them. That is called blanching. Remember that the veggies will continue to cook a bit after you take them out of the water so either remove them a minute or two early or run them under cold water to stop the cooking process. Use this method to make a Snap Pea Salad with Almonds in an Herbed Vinaigrette .
Simmering is similar, except you add the veggies before the water boils and let them cook at a lower temperature for a longer time. This method works well with veggies that need longer to cook like potatoes, beets, turnips, and yams. Use this method to simmer the vegetables in this Eggplant, Onion and Tomato Stew .
3. Steaming Veggies
If you don’t want to submerge your veggies in water or cook them in oil, steaming might be the choice for you. Steaming cooks vegetables, making them tender, bright, flavorful, and retains many of their nutrients. Steaming is a good method for delicate vegetables such as asparagus or greens, or those that need to get softened before sautéing like Brussels sprouts or carrots.
To steam vegetables, bring some water in a pot to a rapid simmer or easy boil, add a steamer basket or colander on top and place the veggies in the basket. You can add aromatics like garlic or ginger to the water to add flavor to the vegetables. Let the veggies steam until they are bright in color and as tender as you want them. After steaming, sprinkle your veggies with salt, fresh lemon, herbs or dip them in a savory sauce. Indulge in Chinese food without all the oil with my Steamed Vegetables in Garlic Sauce .
4. Sautéing Veggies
Sautéing is one of my favorite ways to cook vegetables, mainly because it’s quick, easy and the veggies get a ton of flavor. They also keep a lot of their nutrients since it is such a fast method of cooking. Sautéing involves cooking veggies over high heat in a pan with a bit of oil and aromatics. This method works for almost any vegetable including greens, asparagus, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, onions and green beans. Cut your veggies into equally sized pieces for even cooking.
Heat your pan over medium-high heat, add oil and let the oil heat up until it starts to shimmer. Add any aromatics such as onion, garlic, ginger, or chile pepper, and saute them until they are softened. Add the veggies, being careful not to crowd the pan. Season the veggies with your favorite herbs and spices. Stir the veggies often in the pan and cook until they are crisp-tender.
Practice sautéing by making this Early Light Summer Veggie Saute , Sauteed Broccoli Rabe with Red Chile Flakes and Sauteed Spinach in Tomato Fennel Sauce . Also check out 10 Creative Ways to Saute Spinach for even more ideas.
5. Stir-Frying Veggies
Some people use the terms “saute” and “stir-fry” interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Stir-frying happens at a much higher heat than sautéing does and at a much faster speed. The food also has to be constantly stirred and tossed so it doesn’t burn. Stir-frying is seen in Asian cuisine, and it is a fast way to make dinner for the whole family. With stir-frying, it is important to prep all your ingredients before you start cooking. Since the food cooks so fast, there is no time to chop veggies during the process. While stir-frying is usually done in a wok, a saute pan works just as well as long as there is lots of surface area for the food.
To stir-fry, have all your veggies and aromatics ready as well as any sauce you are adding to the dish. Heat the pan on high heat and then add oil that can stand up to the high cooking temperature such as vegetable or peanut oil. Add the vegetables to the pan in order of longest to shortest cooking times. Stir the veggies constantly until they are crisp-tender and bright. Add any stir-fry sauce at the end and toss the veggies to coat them.
Try these Stir- Fried Brussels Sprouts with Ginger and Curry Leaves , Indian Asparagus and Carrot Stir-Fry and this Spicy Mushroom Stir-Fry with Garlic, Black Pepper and Chives . For more stir-fry tips, read How to Make Delicious Stir-Fry Vegetables in 7 Easy Steps and Secrets to Sautéing and Stir-Frying Chinese Style .
6. Braising and Stewing Veggies
Braising and stewing involve cooking ingredients slowly in a flavorful liquid. It is done over low heat and may take up to several hours. Vegetables that are cooked in these methods become soft, tender, and full of flavor. These are also methods that allow you to walk away from the stove and do something else while the food cooks. Since the food cooks in liquid for a long time, braising and stewing are best done with heartier veggies like root vegetables, potatoes, beans, squash, and celery. You can braise veggies in water, broth, wine or any flavorful liquid. For the most flavor, saute the ingredients in oil with aromatics until they are browned and then add the liquids for them to cook in. -->
For braising, try this Braised Red Cabbage with Apples and Beer , White Wine and Miso Braised Baby Bok Choy , and Braised Seitan Short Ribs in Spicy Chile Sauce . For stewing, indulge in this South Indian Lentil Stew and this African Groundnut Stew .
7. Roasting and Baking Veggies
Roasting veggies is probably the easiest way to cook them. It’s also the way I suggest preparing a vegetable if you are worried you won’t like it. Roasting vegetables involves caramelizing them in a hot oven. The natural sugars of the veggies come out leading to a sweet, savory intense flavor that is like no other. Roasting is also a great method because you don’t need to be there for cooking. Simply preheat the oven to 400 degrees or so, line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and chop your veggies into whatever shape you want.
Toss them in a bit of oil and season them with your favorite herbs and spices. Let them roast until they are tender on the inside with a crisp crust. You can roast any vegetable including onions, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes, and squash. For detailed cooking times and temperatures, check out The Ultimate Guide to Roasting Vegetables .
Savor the taste of roasted vegetables by making Roasted Vegetables in a Lemon-Cannellini Sauce , Green Tea Soba Noodles with Roasted Vegetables and Herbs , and Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with Braised Garlicky Kale .
Baking veggies is similar to roasting, except the food doesn’t get caramelized so you don’t need to use lots of oil. Try Oven Baked Green Tomatoes and Baked to Perfection Fingerling Potatoes . Also check out “ How to Make the Perfect Baked Potato .”
8. Frying Veggies
Fried food may not be the healthiest way to eat, but when you’re eating fried vegetables, it becomes a balance of nutritious and indulgent. If you really want to get someone who is resistant to eat vegetables, frying may be a good way to introduce them to it. That’s how I got my husband to taste Brussels sprouts. Frying doesn’t have to mean deep-frying in quarts of oil. Pan-frying will give you delicious, crispy coated veggies with not a lot of oil. To fry veggies so they are golden brown, make sure the oil is around 375 degrees. Any higher and the food will burn rather than become golden. Any lower and you will get greasy, soggy veggies. Check out Learn How to Fry Food the Right Way for more detailed instructions.
Indulge in crispy Eggplant Fries , Zucchini Fritters with Lemon Basil Cashew Cream , Fried Green Tomatoes with Red Pepper Aioli and Greek Spinach, Potato and Vegan Feta Latkes with Tzatziki Sauce .
9. Grilling Veggies
Grilling veggies is easy and you get food with a rich, deep, smoky flavor . The veggies caramelize so they get sweet and crisp. You can grill indoors or out and almost every vegetable can be cooked this way. To grill veggies, let them sit in a tasty marinade for at least 30 minutes or toss them in oil and seasonings and grill them according to the time necessary for that particular vegetable. When grill marks form, flip the veggies to cook on the other side until they are tender. Get specific grilling times and other grilling instructions in my article, How to Grill Tasty Veggies Indoors and Out .
Exercise your grilling muscles by making Grilled Artichoke and Quinoa Lettuce Wraps , Grilled Avocados and Roasted Tomatoes , and Grilled Beet Salad with Almonds and Dried Cranberries .
10. Pickling Veggies
If you hear the word “pickle” and only think about … well, pickles, I’m happy to tell you that there are more vegetables to enjoy this way besides cucumbers. Veggies can be vacuum-sealed in canning jars and stored for up to a year or they can be quickly pickled without the canning jars and stored in the fridge for up to two months. Pretty much any vegetable can be pickled but crisp ones that won’t break down in the brine are the best choice. These might include radishes, mushrooms, tomatoes and peppers. Quick pickling involves immersing veggies in brine made with vinegar, water, herbs, and spices. Boil the pickling liquid for five minutes and then pour the hot brine over the vegetables. Let them cool before refrigerating them.
Try making Indian Radish Pickles , Homemade Kimchi or learn how to make your own Raw Sauerkraut . Read How to Add More Pickled Foods to Your Diet for more ideas.
When you start using all the different methods of cooking vegetables, you will learn which ways you like certain vegetables best and you will discover new favorite dishes. With all the possible combinations of veggies and cooking methods, there is no possible way anyone will ever have to convince you to eat your vegetables.
Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home!
Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation , heart health , mental wellbeing , fitness goals , nutritional needs , allergies , gut health and more ! Dairy consumption also has been linked many health problems, including acne , hormonal imbalance , cancer , prostate cancer and has many side effects .
For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest meatless, plant-based, vegan and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet .
Here are some great resources to get you started:
- Weekly Vegan Meal Plans
- Plant-Based Health Resources
- Plant-Based Food & Recipes
- Plant-Based Nutrition Resources
- The Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition
- Budget-Friendly Plant-Based Recipes
- High Protein Plant-Based Recipes
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5 best food presentation techniques.
These days, diners not only enjoy food with their tongues but with their eyes. This is why the knowledge of proper food presentation techniques is necessary.
Throughout the years, having a great meal is not only defined by eating something tasty but also in how great it looks. These days, visual presentation techniques in making food look more delicious psychologically matters to chefs, home cooks and consumers alike. In order to process, arrange, decorate with the intention of increasing the aesthetic appeal of the food, the knowledge of proper food presentation is needed.
Food presentation does not only make the food aesthetically pleasing but also shows the standard and level that the cook or restaurant deem important. The way food is presented to consumers will be how they judge the hygiene standards, taste and quality of the dish.
For restaurant owners, it is important to note the increasing impact of social media in all aspects of life and business, even the smallest events are captured and uploaded on variety of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and etc. Food bloggers now utilise these platforms to voice out their opinions that is why it is important to make sure that you are making a good impression with the food you are serving.
Read More: Three Reasons Why Tableware Is Important To The Dining Experience
Food Presentation Techniques That Can Make Your Food Look Scrumptious
It requires care and an eye for detail to present food in an appealing and appetising manner. Following are some food presentation tips to be kept in mind while plating and decorating your dishes.
1. Choosing the Right Tableware
Choosing the proper and right tableware to use is crucial as it can make or break a restaurant. No matter how delicious the food is, people eating will still find the food unappetising if it is served on a unattractive plate. You should present your plates according to the occasion and its theme. Use high quality, durable, and stylish tablewares such as the collection you can see in Kopin Tableware that offers tablewares in different sizes, shapes, colours and themes.
2. Proportioning
The first food presentation tip in the book is the proper and correct proportioning your food. Properly proportioning your food not only makes it look attractive but also plays an important part in controlling the costs. It is crucial to pre-decide the portions of each ingredient and maintain that portions while plating.
You should choose the right plate size that matches the portion/quantity of food served. Your dish may look unprofessional, scanty, messy or overcrowded if the plate is too small or too big for the portion of food served. As guideline, you can leave a half-inch of space between the food and the edge of the plate for the best looking plate.
It is important to present your food by styling it in a balanced level of contrast and variety. Over decorating your dish can end up making it look over the top and hideous.
Highlight the main ingredient of your food and make other elements complement it, rather than overshadowing or hiding it. Play with colours and textures of the dishes by adding different flavours and colours such as herbs, vegetables and different sauces. Serving odd quantities of food items like scallop and shrimps may add to the visual appeal. Do take note that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Don’t take too much time to decorate or plate a dish as it can make the food turn cold when its supposed to be served hot and vice versa. Plating time in the preparation of the dish is crucial as it does not matte how good the food tastes or how good it looks if it is cold or soggy.
5. Garnishing
Garnishing a plate requires care and precision as it is intended to improve the texture and flavour of a dish. Choose your garnish carefully as it adds to the taste, texture and feel of the dish. Experiment with complimenting combinations of different sauces, fruits, nuts, seeds and herbs which will add to the flavour, acidity and texture of the dish.
Read More: How To Set Yourself And Your Table For The Perfect Dinner
Diners these days not only enjoy the food with their tongues but also with their eyes. If you have collected the best ingredients, now it is time to find the perfect tableware to complement it. For modern look, you can always go with Kopin Tableware’s Green Leaf 20-Piece Place Set . Click here to see other Kopin Tableware collections!
10 Different Types of Vegetable Cuts – Every Professional Chef Should Know
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Numerous types of cutting vegetables are used for different recipes all around the world. A good cook, though, needs to be good at almost everything, but it’s a universal fact that no one can be good at everything. Knowing as much as you can is the standard.
1. Brunoise Dice
2. julienne, 3. fine julienne, 5. batonnet, 6. small dice, 7. medium dice, 8. large dice, 9. chiffonade, 10. paysanne, essential tools for cuts, 1. cutting board.
An important thing to keep in mind is that while buying a plastic cutting board, make sure that it is made of BPA free material.
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3. mandoline.
In whatever field you are, practice is the key factor that helps you master that particular skill. If you are aware of different types of vegetable cuts, your serving will be exceptionally incredible. And if you are an expert with all these cutting techniques, your preparation time will reduce to lesser. So keep practicing and present well.
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Mix Textures - Contrasting a smooth vegetable puree with crunchy onion straws or topping a steak with crumbled blue cheese yields appealing texture combinations that are classic in high-end cuisine. 3. Visual Plating Techniques Maximizing the visual elements of your meal is a key plating technique.
Nearly any root vegetable can be boiled, then run through a food processer to make mash. Cauliflower is another popular choice; merely steam the florets, then run them through the food processor before adding herbs, spices, cheese, meat, or any other additions to make it your own. Sweet vs. Savory
Vegetables and fruits often constitute the supporting elements of a dish. Whereas proteins tend to be various shades of brown, beige, and white, fruits and vegetables add color and provide a high visual impact. Precise cuts help to create an elegant presentation. Carefully controlled cooking techniques will yield vibrant colors and accents.
With some vinegar, sugar, and spices, you can pickle just about any kind of vegetable. How to do it: Slice or dice your desired veggies into small pieces and add them to a glass jar with approximately a cup of vinegar, a tablespoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. Seal the jar, put it in the fridge, and you'll have pickled veggies in no time!
present vegetable dishes jessa barrion 35.8k views • 11 slides Cookery 10 vegetables cristinagroup4 30.1k views • 43 slides Cookery 9 SANDWICH cristinagroup4 162.6k views • 92 slides Mise' en place in vegerable cookery Lynette Alcaide 8.5k views • 12 slides Preparing appetizers NoelmaCabajar1 35.1k views • 49 slides Preparing Vegetable Dishes
Food Presentation: The decoration The decoration must be edible and remember the flavors contained in the preparation. It can be herbs, spices or ingredients used in another form. The usual sprig of parsley, leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes or lemon slice should not be exclusive in decoration! Food Presentation: The garnish
Recommended Present Vegetable Dishes Lance Carl Manuel 15.6k views • 14 slides Desserts and It's Classifications Oharra Tee 58.7k views • 46 slides Cookery 9 SANDWICH cristinagroup4 161.9k views • 92 slides Preparing appetizers NoelmaCabajar1 35k views • 49 slides Cookery 10 vegetables cristinagroup4 30.1k views • 43 slides
Organizing Tips from The Kitchn. Christine Gallary. Oct 2, 2020. 3 Ways to Bake a Potato: In the Oven (With Foil), in the Microwave, and in the Slow Cooker Recipes. Emma Christensen.
Food presentation depends on the way how the meat, fruits and vegetables are cut, sliced or chopped and also the decoration of the plate or the decoration of the food itself. You can make your food looks in visual delight as the proper food presentation could help in your digestion.
26 Vegetable Presentations ideas | creative food, food, veggie tray Vegetable Presentations 26 Pins 3y B Collection by Beck White Similar ideas popular now Snacks Fruit Platter Food And Drink Wedding Appetizers Fruit Appetizers Wedding Snacks Wedding Catering Brunch Wedding Bbq Desserts Summer Wedding Food Diy Wedding Food Summer Bbq Party E
1. Landscape Technique Taking inspiration from landscape gardens, this linear arrangement of food is usually kept low and long. 3. Food on organic materials Technique Using organic materials such as wood, slate and stone as a plating device lends a more rustic and back-to-nature feel to dishes. 5. The Nordic Look Technique
Culinary Terms: A-D A. A la carte (adj.) - separately priced items from a menu, not as part of a set meal.Al dente (adj.) - cooked so it's still tough when bitten, often referring to pastaA la grecque (adj.) - served in the Greek style of cooking, with olive oil, lemon juice, and several seasonings, often referring to vegetablesA point (adj.) - cooking until the ideal degree of doneness, often ...
The top food presentation and plating techniques Create height on the plate Cut meat horizontally Play with textures Use contrasting colors Match presentation to the restaurant theme Choose the right plates Serve smaller portion sizes Use edible garnishes and decorations When in doubt, keep it simple Express yourself 1. Create height on the plate
This method is used for hearty root vegetables with stable pigment colors including carrots, parsnips, rutabagas and turnips. Other vegetables including fennel, onions, artichokes and leeks also can be cooked in this style. The butter or oil poaching method is similar to a confit cooking method.
Essential tools for stunning food presentation includes Squeeze Bottles, Shavers, Platings & Precision Tongs, Molds & Rings, Spoons, Plating Wedges, and garnishing kits. You can read more about the proper food plating and presentation tools here. In today's world, diners enjoy their meals as much with their eyes as they do with their tongues.
Blanch green beans: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath: fill a large bowl with ice cubes and water and set it near the stove. Add trimmed green beans to the boiling water. Boil the beans until tender-crisp, 3 to 4 minutes; transfer to the ice bath, using tongs or a slotted spoon.
Aug 24, 2022 - Explore Donna Turner's board "Cooking: Presentation Ideas", followed by 121 people on Pinterest. See more ideas about food, yummy food, cooking.
Yes, you have to play with the textures of the food plate while arranging the ingredients on the plate. The sauces, foams, and textures of your food plate create a more aesthetic feeling in the customers' minds. Foam is the best one that can help you to design your food plate in an interesting way. 3.
Put them in a bowl with chopped parsley, some minced orange zest, a few chopped dried apricots, and some leftover wild rice. Squeeze a couple of clementines or the juice of an orange over...
Cut your veggies into equally sized pieces for even cooking. Heat your pan over medium-high heat, add oil and let the oil heat up until it starts to shimmer. Add any aromatics such as onion ...
It is important to present your food by styling it in a balanced level of contrast and variety. Over decorating your dish can end up making it look over the top and hideous. Highlight the main ingredient of your food and make other elements complement it, rather than overshadowing or hiding it.
101 Food Plating - Vegetable Plate Presentation #5 - Picture IdeasWe have close to a 1000 pictures of beautiful recipe plating ideas. All of those recipes h...
Ideal Size: 1/16×1/16×2 inches. Usage: Garnish. Fine julienne is almost the same cutting style with a different size. It incorporates a cut smaller to half than julienne. The height is also as smaller as the julienne cut. 4. Baton. Ideal Size : 1/2×1/2×2-1/2 inches. Usage: Dressing / Salad.