[Anneke]

Precisely.

Hey Durango Joe, just having a little fun with you. It's directed at Emeril really, not you. Rims, we are taught, right up to an inch within the rim, should be clean and free of food or garnishes. It just makes for a timeless clean classic presentation that is always tasteful and fashionable. Like a a pictureframe with a nice mat. It's a more cohesive presentation, and no risk of fingerprints as Harpua mentioned. Lately I've had to do plating with rimmless plates. It's amazing how much I miss that 'frame of cleanliness'; it just doesn't look as good....

[KYHeirloomer]

I'm a little amused by much of this discussion.

Let's see: We used to do it that way. But that way is now out. So we vehemently attack the practice in favor of what's currently in.

Reminds me of the time Lynn Rosetta Casper spent a half hour lauding the death of novelle cuisine, and analyzing all that had been wrong with it. This from the same mouth that had spent the previous three+ years as one of it's biggest promoters.

It would be interesting to see what happens if next year colored and patterned service becomes the in thing. How many of the "pure white" proponents, I wonder, would then be telling us why polychrome is virtuous and pure white sinful?

When asked to explain the on-going popularity of her little black dress, Coco Channel responded, "Fashion changes. Taste doesn't." A message that seems to have been just as lost to the culinary world as that of high couteure.

[indianwells]

It wouldn't surprise me if you could buy plates with a "Sprinkled Parsley" pattern on the rim. That way the servers don't get their thumb on your food and you get the desired effect!
Mmmm, I think I may patent that!

[kuan]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

I'm a little amused by much of this discussion.

Let's see: We used to do it that way. But that way is now out. So we vehemently attack the practice in favor of what's currently in.

Not me. My sin is using whole herbs, which I've done, and which I still don't mind seeing as long it's very neat and the stuff on the plate is done correctly.

[durangojo]

so is tricolor pepper confetti out as well?...i love the way it looks on the plate.i tend to do very simple garnishes that compliment the food, whole basil sprigs,rosemary sprigs, parmesan curls,wasabi peas, sesame seeds,japanese rice snack, sometimes even confectionary sprinkles...also, for a caesar salad in a large pasta type bowl, i sprinkle parmeggiano all over the bowl, rim included, as i like that kind of rustic look..i like garnish, i don't chop my parsley or other herbs very fine as i like it a bit chunky and again, rustic..so, what do you use?

[kuan]

Seriously, find another way. Look in the photo gallery.

[RPMcMurphy]

a novice cook I am, however, I think my dishes look like poop when I don't do a little something for garnish.

Lot's more to learn I guess...better I get the less garnish I'll use....promise!

[Blueicus]

I personally think the charm of the whole thing is that if you give ten cooks a bunch of ingredients they'll all cook and present it differently. I find that anything can be presented beautifully if you think about how the food goes together and tighten everything up (i.e. move things close together).

If you're just making cooking for family it only needs to taste good . However, I'm curious as to what you want to make prettier; what elements of the dish do you have? A steak? sauce? Mashed? Fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and stir fried broccoli?

[Pete]

Heirloomer, I have never been a fan of garnishing the rim, even when I had to do it in the 90's, though I can accept that sometimes it works. Generally, I find it made the plates look cluttered plus there is always the mess that it can create at the table with people accidentally brushing their sleeves through it getting them messy and making the table look like a pig trough.

[KYHeirloomer]

Pete, could you expand a bit on "had to do it?"

I think you're actually proving my point; to wit, that the industry runs on what is fashionable, that those who follow the trends come up, when necessary, with all sorts of justifications for them (sort of like interior decorators in that regard), and when the fad passes those same people are quick to bad mouth the previous trend.

No need to reach back to rim-garnishing to demonstrate the truth of this. More recently: How many out there have bad-mouthed towers? And how many of you who have knocked them were busily piling food as high as they could just a year or two back?

No, I don't expect honest answers---we all have selective memory about these things. Go try and find anybody who voted for Nixon, for instance. But two facts remain: Everybody is poo-pooing towers, today. And everybody was constructing them just a short while back.

[Blueicus]

Well, if the chef tells you to sprinkle parsley all over the plate, you going to go "No, I think it looks tacky and stupid and clutters the plate"?

[KYHeirloomer]

Of course you're going to follow orders, Blueicus. But the basic question is: Why did the chef tell you to sprinkle parsley in the first place?

My contention is he did so because it was fasionable at the time. And, furthermore, as soon as it goes out of fashion he will not only stop giving that order, he will explain, at length, why sprinkling parsley looks tacky and stupid and clutters the plate.

This concept of the fashionable culinarian applies to more than just garnishes. It permeates every facet of the industry. I notice, for instance, that celeraic is suddenly "in" with gourmet chefs. Nothing wrong with that. But how come these same people weren't using it two years ago?

I know somebody who captitalizes on this concept. He grows heirlooms for the trade, and, every year, pushes an offbeat vegetable to his restaurant customers. He knows that as soon as one upscale chef in his region puts it on the menu every chef around will do the same. And he's there to supply the market.

Understand, please, that I am not putting a value judgement on either the basic concept or on that farmer's marketing strategy. I'm just observing what goes on in the industry. It's neither right nor wrong, far as I'm concerned. It just is.

[cheflayne]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

It permeates every facet of the industry

The desire to be fashionable permeates every facet of human existence.

[Risque Cakes]

would never tower my food, have never towered my food..and would laugh out loud..a very bawdy laugh I may add if I were served a tower of food with plate sprinkled with inedible stuff all over the rim.

Actually I think I would just laugh so hard that I wouldn't be able to eat the food and would be asked to leave..lol

I have been and will always be a picky eater. I am a heathen. I LIKE my rice white and my eggs fried!! and my potatos Frenched. lol

I am NOT a gourmond and would keep my ever growing bottom out of pretentious restaurants like that.

now, invite me to your home and feed me great tasting food with fresh ingredients and I'm all over that!

Not into Fashionable food, just GOOD food!

But that's just me, uneducated, poor and hungry!

[Blueicus]

I find this all somewhat silly. I agree with cheflayne, fashion and what's "in" or "out" permeates all of human existence from clothes to computers to interior decor to architecture to literature to hairstyle to food. Do you have the same hairstyle/colour as you did 10 years ago? Is your home decorated the same way as it was 10 years ago? Still wearing those 80's style shoulder pads?

There are a countless number of things human beings can eat in general and to be perfectly honest we're not going to know about all of them. Now, of course each farmer/guild/agricorp is trying to peddle their products for sale... we do that on a daily basis with the style of food we sell: Have a fancy wedding cake with rolled fondant instead of a dumpy plain fruitcake with cream cheese frosting, have this nice beef bourguignon instead of the douchey pad thai, etc. etc. On a very basic level, I believe the concept of style is tied very much to the human perception of change... the fact is things change. Give anybody posting here a bottle of real, authentic Roman garum or a drink of real Aztec chocolate and I doubt many of us will like it much on the first try. Just as we grow in and out of love and trends food is just the same.