Anyone who's ever watched Top Chef, flipped through a food magazine, or eaten at a fancy restaurant understands the importance of plating food. First impressions are important, and the way your meal is presented can determine whether it's considered mere grub or totally gourmet. But you don't have to be a pro to create a pretty plate. Here are five simple tips to making restaurant-worthy plates at home.
- Use large plates. Crowded food looks messy, so give your dishes room to breath. Negative space on a plate looks elegant, and leaving room between each item gives the individual components more oomph.
- Opt for neutral china. White, bone, and other neutral plates will complement pretty much any color of food, while busier patterns can sometimes clash.
For a few more suggestions, read more.
- Make pretty piles. If you don't want to separate the individual components, try stacking them in a tidy tower.
- Create a clock. If you're serving a protein, starch, and veggies, arrange the three items according to the face of a clock, with starch at 10, meat around 2, and veggies below 9 and 3. Make sure one of the items acts as a focal point on the plate.
- Keep it clean. When working with wet ingredients, try to keep the plate as clear and smudge-free as possible. If you drizzle sauces, control the distribution so that it's artful, not icky.
Got your own tips for creating pretty plates? Share them in the comments below.
Anna Sui
Vila
British Knights
Sometimes, for fun, I like to do that thing where you pile the food up in a skinny little tower right in the middle of the plate and leave the rest of the plate empty except for a few drizzles of sauce. It cracks my fiance up when I do that with grilled cheese (I'll cut it into little tiny squares to achieve the tower effect).
1More often than not, I pile food into a bowl. It's not pretty, but I make up for it by making sure the food's not very nutritious either.
2As much as I appreciate plating when I know someone has put a terrific effort into it, I risk soundind like an Okie by saying that I normally don't care how the food is arranged, just as long as the food itself looks good (you CAN tell, even in the worst plating situation). It's all going in the same place anyway, right?
3I break one of those rules every time I serve something. Our plates are anything but plain.
4I totally agree about the plain plates.
I have plain, white, beautiful plates. I find plain plates are the most beautiful haha.
I find they make any meal look a billion times better:
5even burger and fries.
The white square plates/bowls always look best, especially when they're bug. It always looks expensive and modern!!
6I like to always have my food look good. My family laughs at me all the time, but I just love the visual stimulation along with the taste and smell to make my meals yummy!!!
I meant big, obviously!!! Bug? Where'd that come from!?!
7I cook at a high end restaurant. Height is one of the most important things to keep in mind when plating. Food always looks more fantastic when it has height. It's also good to use bright colourful ingredients for garnish. Grapeseed oil is perfect...it adds a splash of bright green to the plate.
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