28.1 Principles of presentation

There are no fixed laws for "correct" plating, but there are ideas that experienced chefs keep in mind. Good plating can make food taste better as well as look better, and it shows guests they are getting value for their money.

Four things to balance

Look at a plate the way an artist looks at a picture. Check four things.

• Balance: foods that taste good side by side, but that still bring variety and contrast.
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• Color: two or three colors hold the eye better than one. A plate of a single color is called monochromatic.
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• Shape: your knife work can give each part of the plate a different shape. see chapter 4: Knife work
• Texture: put something chewy beside something crisp and something smooth or creamy. Different feelings in the mouth keep the diner interested.
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Choosing the plate

Think of the plate as a canvas and the food as your paint. Pick a plate big enough that the food stands out, but not so big that the portion looks small.

White plates are a common choice. White contrasts strongly with food and gives a colorful dish a plain background. Treat the rim as a picture frame and leave it clear.

Placing the food

• Use a clock. Imagine a clock face as the diner sees the plate. The protein goes between 3 and 9, the starch between 9 and 12, and the vegetable between 12 and 3.
• Put wet food down first. Purees and other runny foods slide as a plate is carried. Plate them first and hold them in place by setting other food on them, or by leaning sliced meat or vegetables against them.
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• Serve odd numbers. With small items such as shrimp, scallops or bite-sized appetizers, give an odd count. Seven Brussels sprouts look better than six, and the guest feels there is more food.
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• Build flavor bites. Arrange the parts so one forkful can pick up every element of the dish at once. That pleases the eye and the palate together.
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• Do not crowd the plate. Keep it simple and let one item, usually the protein, be the focal point. Everything else then plays a supporting part.
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Color, height and texture

The protein gets most of the attention, but the small details around it make the plate. Green vegetables or bright fruit can act as points of color, and colors that complement each other look better together.

Height catches the eye. Tall, tightly stacked food is less in fashion than it was five to ten years before, but a plate with some height still looks better than a flat one. Balance a tall item by leaning long, flat food against it. For example, set a steak on polenta and lean spears of asparagus against it at about 45 degrees.

Texture contrast is a classic of fine dining: a smooth vegetable puree with crisp fried onion straws, or a steak topped with crumbled blue cheese.

Sauce

Sauce goes on after the main items are in place. Never just pour it over everything. Use a squeeze bottle or a spoon the way a painter uses a brush.

Two simple ways to use it: put dots of sauce on one side of the plate as accents, keeping the rule of thirds in mind; or drizzle a little over the main items so every bite carries some sauce.

Garnish

For years kitchens put a leaf of kale and a slice of orange on every plate. These added nothing, and few guests ate them. A good garnish follows three rules.

• It must be edible, and it must belong to the dish. It supports the main flavors instead of pulling attention away from them.
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• Spread it with thought to add color or texture; never pile it in one corner. Avoid garnishes that put people off, such as raw herbs, big pieces of citrus, or anything with a strong smell.
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• It must be fast to put on, so the plate still leaves the kitchen very hot.

The small tools for this work are described with the rest of the kitchen's equipment. see chapter 3: Plating tools

Reading a plate from left to right

People in the western world read from left to right, and they tend to scan a new picture the same way. That habit gives a short checklist: the plate should flow from left to right, with a splash of color on the left and height on the right. Color on the left, such as a sauce or fresh fruit, draws the eye first; something tall on the right, such as a garnish or a ramekin, pulls it across the plate.

The eye should move. A curved tuile or chocolate piece, a caramel stick linking two parts, or a line of coulis can lead the eye and create a focal point.

The main item does not have to sit in the exact center; slightly off center works. Sauce, any frozen part such as ice cream or sorbet, and the chief garnishes should fan out from the main item, close to it. This keeps a balance of empty plate (white space) and food, so the plate does not look busy. Keep food away from the outer edge as well.

Three common mistakes show what goes wrong.

• Parts pushed apart. When the main parts sit at the edges, the eye goes to the empty middle, the negative space. Bringing them together so they touch makes the plate look whole.
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• Half the plate unused. A plate can follow the left-to-right rule and still fail if the cake sits at the back edge and all the sauce is crowded on the left. Running the sauce across the whole plate and moving the cake nearer the center balances it.
• Too much, in the wrong place. Lots of sauce in repeated shapes, with the tallest item in the bottom left corner, confuses the eye. A simpler plate, with movement leading to the tallest part, works better.
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