Food presentation is a unique art that helps create a visual appeal to your customers. How you present your food enhances the overall look of the meal and psychologically makes it more delicious.
It also shows the standards of the restaurant when they care to take the extra mile to make their dishes more visually appealing to their customers. So, as you can see, your food presentation techniques are essential when running a restaurant.
This is why we created this blog post, to help out aspiring chefs. Here you’ll find five food presentation techniques to make your dishes fabulous.
1. Make Use of Garnishes
Garnishing a dish is the most simple step of food presentation. However, you must remember that it requires great care and precision. This is because the garnishes you use will affect your dish’s overall taste and feel.
So, be careful not to overdo it with the garnishes, as it will change the taste of your food. Instead, you can use simple ingredients for garnishes, such as seeds, fruits, and sauces. Also, you can use different tools to help bring color to your dishes. For example, fancy toothpicks will add style and color to any dish you make.
2. Porportation Your Food Correctly
If you have been in chef school for a while, you’ll know the amount of food you add to the plate will affect everything. The right proportion of food you add to the plate will play into not only its attractiveness of it but also the total amount of the dish.
Before creating the meal, decide on the portion of each ingredient and maintain it throughout the dish. Doing so will help reduce food waste and ensure you correctly price your food items.
3. Balance Contrast and Variety
How you style your meal will require a balance between contrast and variety. This is one of the most important rules for you to remember regarding food presentation. You can easily destroy a whole dish by not following this simple rule.
Start by adding the main ingredient to the center of the plate. Then you’ll add the other elements of the dish around the main ingredient to help complement it.
The trick is to pay attention to how different herbs and vegetables add flavor and color to a dish. However, keep in mind that less is more! Adding too many elements can create an imbalance in the dish.
4. Time Cooking Correctly
A common mistake aspiring chefs need to correct is correctly calculating each ingredient’s cooking time. It can easily ruin a dish when one ingredient is warm and the other is cold as ice.
Consider using the clock plating technique to help you ensure you plate everything on the dish on time. This is where you pretend the plate is a clock and divide it into different zones. For example, starch ingredients should be presented between 9 o clock and 12 o clock, vegetables presented at 12 o clock and 3 o clock, and protein presented at 3 o clock and 3 o clock.
5. Use the Right Tableware
Yes, the type of tableware you use for your dish matters. This is because it adds an appealing view to the overall meal. It may seem picky, but no one wants to eat off a plate that looks unclean and unattractive, no matter how delicious the food is.
Also, remember that you can go along with the larger tableware. It may give you more room to add ingredients, but more is needed to make the dish look appealing.
You should regularly check your tableware for cracks and stains to ensure they’re in good shape. Lastly, take the time to experiment with different plate sizes, colors, and shapes.
6. Test Different Plating Techniques
Proper food presentation makes trying out the new plating techniques that are trending. Of course, you can stick with the old clock method, but if you plan on presenting your dishes on social media, it may be a good idea to try what’s trending.
One modern plating technique you can try is the landscaping method. This method lays the elements across the plate while leaning on one another. Then you’ll add dots of a sauce and garnishes across the dish.
Another modern technique you can try is free-form plating. It’s a popular technique, and many famous chefs enjoy using it. With this technique, you look at the plate as a blank canvas.
Then you add splashes, dots, and swirls of your sauce throughout the plate. Free-form plating is looking at your dish as abstract art by starting with the sauce and then carefully placing other elements across the plate in an artistic manner.
Follow These Food Presentation Techniques for a Fabulous Dish
Always remember that how you present your food will make a big difference in whether or not your customers enjoy your dish. A beautifully plated dish will help you stand out more as an aspiring chef. So, if you need help making your dish fabulous, follow these six food presentation techniques.