[AllanMcPherson]

Shroomgirl,

Thanks, feel free to use!

-Al

[piracer]

Although i do agree on the thing with taste and smell coming first, you do eat with your eyes first as they say, unless your blind of course.

I do however, do not appreciate restaurents that stack things up to high until you topple everything over and its just annoying and stupid.

I do remember when working partime, the chef saying, just stack it high, we want height. Hmmm i thought, what happened to tasting it and making sure it tasted right? Ahh well.

[AllanMcPherson]

Hi Piracer,

this is a little off topic but I've always wondered about "eating first with your eyes." Its true to a point but I have to think even before you've seen your food you first are eating with your imagination. Let's say that you order a dish of braised beef with mixed greens and rice. And, yes, I'm keeping it really generic here for the sake of simplicity. If you order it at a french bistro, or japanese themed place, or a mom-an-pop joint, your expecations are going to be radically differently. Same meat, same veg, same garnish. But I bet your expecations are totally different (in appearence, seasoning, and plating) in each venue.

--Al

[the_seraphim]

i suppose your right with every choice of where to put anything is aesthetics

personally i prefer meals that follow one of my old favourites...

12" round plate dipped 3" in by 1/2"
6" round toad in the hole (3 sausages in batter) to one side
handfull of cracked black pepper mashed potato on the other side
peas on the third side... (ok imagine a kind of pie, sliced 3 ways, mash peas and toad)
onion gravy over the top of all three


if everything was as simple (and as nice tasting as that) id be happy...

[Jayme]

I personally like the asthetics... a little mix of color and/or texture.... but do I want to stand there and fuss with someone's plate (or have someone fuss with mine) until the risotto coagulates??? NO WAY!! If you can set up a simple presentation to make the food attractive- go for it! But if it takes longer to assemble the food than to cook it...... you've gotten anal-retentive. (just my opinion)

[RAS1187]

I like where I work at because I am given a certain extent of creative freedom regarding plating.

We run specials daily, I can plate them however I desire. I love elegant presentations, but I am not going to lean over a plate for 5 minutes carefully stacking things.

What good is a picture perfect presentation if the food has gone cold while you were plating it?

[Blade55440]

Originally Posted by powers

There are some who make plates perfect without effort, they have a relationship with the food, and others that seem to have to work for it and it never really appears perfect.

Sadly I'm not too great at making up plate presentations off the top of my head, it's one of the skills I need to improve, but if you give me a way to set it up, I'll make it look good.

I don't have that relationship with the food yet I guess.