Top Tips for Improving Your Plate Presentation

The presentation of your plate is the first impression your customer receives and a great presentation can set the whole meal off right. Let’s face it, presentation is just as important as how the food tastes when working in a restaurant environment, but how can you improve it?

Colours

Your choice of colours is so important to the look of your dish, if everything is one colour or dull, boring colours, it is not as visually pleasing or interesting.

Use bright and contrasting colours on your plate, or alternatively use one vibrant colour as the focal point and use more muted colours around. Play with the contrasts and the combinations to create a really amazing dish.

Positioning

Where you position your food is the main part of a good presentation, think carefully about this before plating up. Think of your plate like a clock face and every aspect of the dish needs to be placed at the correct time on the face, maybe your potatoes at 4 o’clock compared to your vegetables at 1 o’clock.

Don’t overload one side of the plate, think about the symmetry or the purposeful lack of symmetry that your food is creating.

Choose your tools

The tools you use can change the way your plate looks and allow you to be more precise with your presentation. Using a brush or pipette means that you can create smooth, precise lines, dots or shapes on your plate. The choice is yours when you have the freedom of these tools.

Portion Sizes

Large portions do not look great when you are trying to improve presentation, smaller portions give you more freedom with your presentation and overall do look more pleasing. Opt for smaller portions and try not to fill the plate with food.

Choosing the right plates is equally important because smaller plates means a lot less food and potentially a few hungry guests. Use larger plates so there is more room to present your food.

On Trend

Why not try an ‘on trend’ presentation tip of 2018? Using flowers in your presentation. Brighten up your plates with fresh, edible flowers and add a delicate flavour to your dish. Here are some flowers that you should consider using:

  • Tuberous Begonias: The stems, petals and leaves are all edible.
  • Cornflower: This blue bloom can be used as a natural food dye, and the blossoms have a spicy flavour.
  • Honeysuckle: As the name implies, these blooms have a sweet flavour similar to honey -Honeysuckle berries are dangerous and should not be incorporated in any dish!

 

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