Earlier this week, we talked about plating and presentation, and whether these are important to us as home cooks. Most of you responded with an emphatic "Yes!" and pointed out that making the effort to arrange food before serving doesn't have to be hard or time-consuming. Here are some of our tips for easy plating - and a few we picked up from you!
Easy Entertaining: Five Simple Tips for Plating Food
We'll start off by saying that we are by no means plating geniuses. But remembering just a few basic principles can make the difference between an everyday meal to a memorable one.
1. Use nice plates. When we finally were able to pony up for a set of basic white dinner plates, we couldn't believe what a difference it made over the chipped hand-me-down plates we'd been using for years. Whether you're shopping at Williams Sonoma or the local thrift store, be wary of colors and designs that look cool on their own but might clash when covered with food. If you're indecisive, plain white shows off food very well and is always a good choice.
2. Plan the presentation ahead. Whether you're plating food on individual plates or serving it family-style on platters, it's good to have a picture in mind before you start. This saves you time, and in our personal experience, looks a lot better than something we make up as we go along!
3. Don't fuss with the food once it's on the plate. Even if it's not quite what you imagined, messing with it only makes it look worse. Trust us on this one!
4. Wipe up drips and spills. This is one of those small details that can make a big difference in how food is perceived and enjoyed.
5. Don't underestimate the power of garnish. If you have everything plated and it's just not looking...good...to you, try adding a sprinkle of chopped parsley or a few shaves of parmesan cheese. It might not make a big difference in taste, but it definitely perks up the visual appeal!
For inspiration on how the food is actually arranged on the plate, we turn to our stack of food magazines. The parmesan cracker molded into the shape of a tulip might be a little beyond us, but we can pick up some basic ideas about how the individual components can be placed next to (or on top of) each other.
What other plating or presentation tips do you have?
Related: Tips: How to Arrange a Buffet Table
(Image: Flickr member jspatchwork licensed under Creative Commons)
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You don't even have to pony up that much for nice looking white plates. You can get 6 place-settings of plain white dishes from Ikea for about $30. I adore mine.
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
strongly agree with the white plates. I'm always so tempted to buy pretty, colorful, patterened plate I come across, but then I think about how food will look on them and resist the urge.
also keep proportions in mind. choose an appropriately sized plate for the amount of food. cramming too much food on a small plate will cause visual mush while using an overly large plate can make a normal portion look disappointingly small.
view foodefafa's profile
For the most part, I generally agree with the white plates. However, for some Italian dishes, I prefer more rustic looking plates, and for Asian dishes, I prefer black square or other lacquered dinnerware.
view justveggingout's profile
Make sure you have a variety of colors on the plate. Japanese cuisine -- which I think has the most beautiful plating/food presentation in the world -- follows the principle of go-shiki, or five colors. Basically, every meal should include foods that are red, white, green, black and yellow. I don't follow this to the letter, but it has helped me notice that even a small pop of color from a garnish or relish makes for a more visually pleasing plate.
view Anjali's profile
I love how food looks on white plates. You can actually focus on the food. I absolutely love the color brown but would never buy brown plates... Food would look horrible on it.
view heather lauren's profile