About this app
A Basic Guide to Food Presentation
If you own a food service business, you know that food plating and presentation are central to keeping guests happy as they experience your restaurant. However, plating is often overlooked by chefs who are either too busy or more concerned with the taste of their dishes. People eat with their eyes, and creative and thoughtful plating enhances both the look and taste of your food. Focusing on presentation also allows chefs to showcase their creations and demonstrate to guests that they're getting their money's worth. While there aren't any hard and fast rules when it comes to "correct" plating, there are several important concepts to keep in mind as you prepare and present your restaurant's delicious culinary creations.
Things to Remember Before You Begin Plating Food
Before you begin preparing your dish, you should consider the kind of cuisine you're serving. Are you making a hearty steak dinner, or are you preparing a delicate side dish or appetizer? You can't start building your plate until all of your flavors are finalized, so it's wise to have your ingredients prepared before you begin the actual plating process.
Additionally, you'll want to consider portion sizes before you begin plating. To do so, focus on balancing your protein, carbohydrate, and vegetable to create a nutritionally balanced meal. Ultimately, carefully placed ingredients create art, but presentation should never overshadow taste.
Guidelines for Plating Food
For tips and tricks on how to create a beautiful plate, consider the steps below:
1. Choose the Perfect Plate
Selecting the right plate for your meal is key to attractive food presentation. Here are some things to keep in mind:
how to choose a plate for food presentation
Choose the right plate. One way to conceptualize plating is to think of yourself as an artist, the plate as your canvas, and the food as your medium.
Choose the right size plate. Choose your plate wisely by making sure it's big enough to allow your food to stand out, but small enough that your portions don't look too small.
Choose a complementary plate color. The color of your plate is also significant. White plates are popular because they create high contrast and provide a neutral background for your colorful creations. Utilize white space by thinking of the rim as your frame, and consider using the rule of thirds to highlight your plate's focal point(s). When applied to cooking, the rule of thirds prescribes placing the focal point of your dish to either the left or right side of the plate, rather than the center.
2. Placing Your Ingredients
Here are a few of the most important aspects to consider as you build your dish:
Plate with a clock in mind. As you begin plating 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 or carbohydrate from 9 and 12, and your vegetable from 12 and 3.
3. Pay Attention to the Details
As you plate your dish, you'll also want to pay attention to the details:
Think about color and contrast. One of the best-kept secrets to beautiful plating is paying close attention to the details. While your focus will obviously be on the protein, considering how the other elements of the plate create color and contrast is also very important.
4. Design and Create with Sauces
Once you've plated your main ingredients, you're ready to top your dish with delicious sauces. Don't just pour the sauce carelessly all over the plate, though. Instead, think of your squeeze bottle or spoon as a paintbrush, and your sauce as a medium. Then, use them to enhance your plate.
One way to do this is to create accent dots on one side of your plate (while considering the rule of thirds) or by lightly drizzling sauce over the main ingredients so guests get a little bit of sauce in every bite.
