A belated introduction to plate design

I thought that it may be a good idea to take a minute to talk about the powers that be behind putting together a good plate. According to my FFP lecture there are five areas that you have to take into account, and I feel like these pretty much cover the bases of it myself.


First up to bat is color. This one is pretty obvious, and I would imagine would be one of the first things that someone off the street would mention if they were asked what goes into a fancified plate. Having a variety of colors on the plate does more than look good (go ahead, imagine a plate of poached fish, mashed potatoes, and cauliflower... pretty nasty, yeah?), it's a good indicator that you're getting a variety of nutrients, too. Set that albino plate next to something else, say, seared pork rib chop (with a nice pan sauce, of course) with mashed sweet potatoes and haricot verts. You've got a rather nice orange, a vibrant green, and a kind of pinky browny porkish color. Overall a nice variety.

Next up is texture. No one wants to look down and see a plate full of mush. It's boring, and in the case of "mush" particularly disturbing. Salmon tartar, creamed cauliflower, and carrot puree might offer a range of colors on a plate, but it all has the same sort of mouthfeel. It's all more or less a smooth puree. Take that same tartar and pair it with some good pommes frites (light and fluffy inside, wonderfully crispy skin) and a small bed of nice crunchy greens and you've got yourself a winner.

Shape is our next consideration. Some good meatballs beside whole roasted red potatoes and creamed pearl onions would go quite well together, I think, in terms of flavor, but you've just got one huge pile of circles. Why not stir things up a bit. All it takes is reforming the meat into another shape (ground beef is pretty easy to work with in that respect), and cutting up the potatoes pre-roast. Now you have a bit of variety on the plate.

Height is another fun thing to play with. Sure you can just throw everything onto the plate and send it out, but what's the fun in that? There are plenty of ways to give something a bit of height. Items can be stacked into one central tower, or gently laid over one another for a more supple approach, or even topped with an extra little garnish to add that extra oomph.

And speaking of garnish, we come to our final item of note. A good garnish doesn't need to be some hugely elaborate piece of whatever that takes up half of the plate. Food can look good enough on its own without adding anything else. Those clean grill marks? That bone sticking up above the rest of the plate? That is the garnish, and boy does it look good. Not that I'm going to say to never add anything. Just don't go overboard. As a rule a garnish should be edible, and furthermore something that works with the rest of the plate flavorwise (usually something already used in the dish). Of course, grill marks are also cheaper than adding another item to the plate, which is especially nice if you're serving 400 people for lunch.

It's said that people eat with their eyes first. If you really want to get down to it, I'd wager that at least sometimes it's smell that wins that race... but that's getting picky. The point is that taste actually comes fairly late to the game. The plate has to capture the attention before the fork is even in hand. If something looks bad, it's just not going to have the same effect (even if it does taste great).

Sure you may not dress up everything that you eat, but it can be fun to do it sometimes. And at least knowing more about it helps you to appreciate the time and effort that goes into designing all of those plates that you see coming out of the kitchen.

Gone but not forgotten: The missing plate

So I finally got some pictures of that third plate presentation, and it's high time I finished this little series. Just as a refresher, this was the third plate, done after the salmon filet dish. Let's get right to it then.

This time around I went with a pork tenderloin with a honey mustard jus (basically flavored drippings/thin sauce... this was essentially kicked-up chicken stock), mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini.

I had planned to use a single cut, in the neighborhood of one to one-and-a-half inches thick, but unfortunately by the time I got to the meat it had all been sliced. Thankfully even my limited time in the business has taught me to be quick with a plan B. So I took two of the smaller cuts and layered them on top, as shown.

There are a few things that I like about this dish, and a few that I'd like to change if done again. I like the general look of the plate, and would want to keep the same basic design going. I'd probably go for a thicker sauce next time around (even just a little bit of reduction would be nice), and the plate cries out for more color. Maybe instead of the zucchini, which get a bit squashed between the potatoes and pork, a layer of dark greens, or even red cabbage. Something to really stand out and add some of that proverbial eye candy. I wasn't fully satisfied with the height on this one, but I didn't want to use the same fried shallots that I had the day before (I think it'd do the job and taste good along with everything else, but I didn't want to fall into a rut). I think that, if said greens (or reds, depending on how you look at it) formed a layer about a half inch thick, that it would be good. Barring that, something on top would be nice. I'd rather start with the upgraded veg and see where that takes me, though. Granted, the more I look at it the more I want to put something on top. To me it just begs to be finished. Again, those shallots would look great, I just don't want to become a broken record.

Something to think about, though. I'll let you know if I come up with any good toppers.

Once more, with feeling: the final round

Today we had our last go at designing plates. Tomorrow marks the end of class, the end of the term, and the start of a much needed vacation.

This one, while maintaining the same basic principle, was not at all what I had planned out. As such, there are a number of changes that I would make. We'll start with a reference point.

So what was running around in my head in the first place? Well, I had intended to use three lamb chops, arranged around a central mound of the rice. Between these three chops were supposed to be fanned-out snap peas (or green beans, or whatever was green, long-ish, and in the refrigerator at the time). Sadly calling dibs on the three pieces early in the day wasn't enough, and most was taken so that people could practice for the final. Blast you education system.

So what would I change? Like I said, the idea is there. I like the bone-up presentation, and the sauce under the mini-steak (although it could be a bit cleaner). I'd swap out the green beans for haricot vert in a heartbeat (aka, baby green beans). They're more uniform, skinnier, and overall just a tad fancier. The rice bores me. It was supposed to be surrounded by beautifully seared lamb, but the way it turned out it's a bit of an eyesore. If I were to keep it, maybe some tomato concasse on top would be nice, or really about anything to give some color. Switching the rice out for a quenelle of mashed potatoes (garlic chive... mmm...) would provide a more stable platform for the lamb, offers its own garnish, and all sorts of good times.

Lastly the plate itself. Since the original concept was circular, a round plate would have been great. For this I'd much rather have a longer, rectangular plate, and stretch the whole thing out in a straight line. I don't much care for the angle on this, and it's an awkward balance trying to get the lamb in the center without pushing everything else out of sync.

I just want to say that I love bones. They look awesome. And not just that, but they add amazing flavor, especially if you take the time to roast whatever it is that you're working with.

A fun class overall (granted I say this before the written final and practical take place). I definitely like having the chance to practice playing with my food. I'm not going to say that this sort of work is something that I'll be doing every day for myself, but it can be fun to mess around a bit here and there to get a few "ooh's" and "aah's" from the crowd.

Plate three the second

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday in class. It's very hard to take pictures when you forget to bring your camera with you.

I will hopefully be getting some copies in the near future, but to ease your voracious appetites I'll show you my plate from today. I took a step back from the entree work and decided to go with a small appetizer plate. This worked out fairly well considering we moved to sauteing today (way more fun than "baking") so we were crunched for time.

It's really simple, and it could be some tasty stuff if done right (remember that bit about how they don't actually have to taste good, or even be edible? I may have taken a shortcut or two with this dish). Enough talk, time for those photos.

I give you stuffed roasted mushroom caps on a bed of dressed spinach leaves.

The chef made a note that it'd be nice to have maybe a sauce (balsamic reduction?) along with this, and that could be nice. I'd originally planned for a bit of parmesan cheese over the top, and a nice bit of fresh chive to garnish... but even things that were on the requisition list were already used up. Lovely.

One thing to perhaps try would be to pipe in the filling. I wanted to try more of a freeform thing, just to see how it would look. I don't hate it, but I'd like to compare it to the piped version at least. A star-tip may be a bit froo-froo for what I'm going for, but a nice round tip just to keep it clean might work.

Maybe some different greens, too. I don't want to turn it into a salad, but maybe some frisee or even just a spring mix to add a little fluff and variation might not be a bad idea.

A bit of a work in progress, but a decent start.

Presentation Extravaganza: Round 2

Back again with the second of my plates for FFP. This time around I went with a more standard dinner service entree. This one turned out a bit differently than I had originally intended, so I'll just start with some pictures.

So what are we looking at exactly? A pan seared filet of salmon with mashed potatoes and grilled zucchini, served with a lemon beurre blanc. The niblets on top are a bit of fried shallot, added at the end because I wanted a bit more height.

Now, how did this change from the original idea? Originally I had been wanting to go for a skin-on filet, but there were some technical difficulties (read: sticking), so I scrapped that idea, removed the (remaining) skin, and went for a fresh sear on the filet. Turned out alright, although there's a speck or two of black on there.

I also had originally planned on a triangular stack of zucchini strips (and higher), but this way is a lot more... let's say realistic. For one, it takes a lot less product, and two in a restaurant setting you don't want someone to take five minutes to build a log cabin of vegetable. Four strips makes a nice base, lifts it off the sauce, and gives a decent serving. I was trying to decide where to put the potatoes... either in the middle of said stack or around the outside. Changing the stack to something more manageable allowed for the potatoes to just go on top and act as a further socle (fancy-speak for "food that lifts other food higher").

Now I'm not about to say it's perfect, but I'm pretty pleased with it, and the chef was too. The sauce is a bit heavy (granted this is after a good 2 hours of seeping over the plate), the grill marks on the zucchini are a little weak (if I were to do it again I'd just go for a single set of lines and make sure they're solid), and again the sear on the fish didn't happen as planned. It did, however, take second place (did I mention that they get judged at the end of class? Usually by a group vote, but Friday we were short on time and the chef picked the ones he liked best out).

Back to the drawing board for me, though... with Monday comes plate #3.

Time for a little arts and crafts

I have spent the past 5 days in Fundamentals of Food Service Production (aka FFP). First off let me say that I am way too used to having three-day weekends, especially when I'm looking at a career path that features 70-80 hour weeks as a relative norm. Bad habit or no (but it definitely is, trust me) getting up at 6:00 on a Friday is not what I consider a good start.

Be that as it may, the class is pretty nice. The general idea is to focus on good techniques and basic knife skills and the like. It's very "cooking 101", but even if you've had more experience it's good to get the practice. And speaking of practice, one of the things that we do (on a now daily basis, as of yesterday) is to practice plate presentations. The rules are simple:

1) You don't tell anyone about Fight Club.

Wait, wrong set of rules. Good movie, though.

1) It's all about the looks. It need not be edible, fully cooked, or much of anything other than pretty. Case in point, using a scoop of shortening in place of ice cream.

2) You have 30 minutes out of the day to prepare your plate.

3) You can bring things from home (the selection is a tad lacking in this room), pre-cooked if you so choose.

That's really about it. It can be breakfast, lunch, dessert, appetizer, or anything else. Saute, fried, seared, take your pick.

I figured that I'd do a bit of a series on my plate designs. Give you a chance to get a feel for the ideas bouncing around in my head, and give me a good reason to not slack off... I mean, of course I'd never give anything less than 110% for a class... never...

On to day one.

I thought that I'd start simple, especially given the choice of ingredients to work with. Such was born a delightful bowl of tomato cream soup. And just for the record, no, these aren't exactly magazing-quality pictures... but I don't exactly have a food stylist on staff and a thousand dollar camera to work with.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Well, with what I had to work with, that is. I'd prefer to have more than four roma tomatoes to use (I'd like a bit more tomato and a little less "cream"). I had to bulk out with chicken stock, which did taste great (oh yeah, this one was completely edible and delicious, if I may say so myself), but I'd prefer to use veggy broth just to keep it animal-friendly. Maybe a chiffonade on the parsley instead of a mince.

In case you're curious (which you should be about all things cheese related), those are gruyere shavings floating on top (a bit melted at this point... pictures happen about 2 hours after the fact). It's a very parmesan-esque cheese, with a bit of swiss influence when it comes to flavor. Still very much a hard cheese, and I'd love to have a nice fresh bit on top here, but that's what happens when food sits untouched for hours.

Also, were there a scrap of bread in that room other than Texas Toast, you can bet about anything you like that there'd be some crouton action, or maybe a piece of bruschetta floating on top.

So there you go, dish number one from my mind to your table.