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Article: Plating and Serving

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patrick_96581

speechless

Jonathan_Phillips_2871

You guys have changed my whole outlook on cooking and it is sooooo..... inspiring. Thank you guys, keep up the good work.

com-chefsteps

Feature request: how about a primer on Nouvelle and global-style plating? To be specific, I'm thinking about items like "sauce under protein" and "plate in odd numbers," but those are the only ones I know. Sikorski's "Cooking to the image" is the best I know, but it's so short.

ETA: including factors like "fried foods are best hot, so it's a good idea to put fried foods last and on top of other components so that 1. they stay crispy, and 2. so they have less time to cool off.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

A few tips I would add are:

Have more miz than you need. Things turn pear shaped quickly if you only have the exact number of items needed and you drop one on the floor in plating, or when a guest "samples" the item when they are "helping" you.
Have at least one extra plate for miss plating. It is quicker to replate on a clean plate.
Think about how the guest will eat. Most people will be right handed when just using one utensil, if a left handed person eats the dish will this change the taste profile or will it be harder to eat? Are the guests "American" or "European" in their fork etiquette? Will a different method impact the easy of eating or change the taste profile?
When holding parties with little to no help, use bus bins full of soapy water to place dirty plates in - it will keep the sink area clear. I place the bins in low traffic areas on the floor and speed racks (I work in private kitchens with space).
Have rubbish/trash containers. In private homes most bins are small and on pull out slides that come into traffic areas. I use a 20 gallon trash can on a dolly. It is easy to move around the kitchen and the bin goes to where the trash is, not the other way around.
Plate for speed and movement. The one sample plate you did looks perfect and only took you 30 seconds to plate - the problem is you have 10 guests to feed at once. The plate looks perfect where you have plated it, but what will it look like after the ham fisted server has picked it up, walked the 20 steps to the table and thrown it down? (sauces and towers do not always stay in the same place)
Traffic flow. Think and plan how the food and plates will move from prep, cooking, plating, to the table, and to the dish pit. Where are the choke points?
Have Plan B through Z in place (or at least have thought of something else) for when a pan catches fire and sets off the smoke alarm; sauce gets dropped on the way to plating; oven gets turned down from 400°F to 200°F when you are flashing off something (and the other way); miz gets tossed by over eager cleaner 2 minutes before you need it; fuse trips and oven, cooktop, lights, and/or outlets stop working; neighbourhood losses all power 60 minutes before service (you can cook and plate with a small flashlight in your month); all your paid help is a no show or has to leave early; and any of the other events that can happen that make holding dinner parties interesting (note all of these events, and then some, have happened to me before, and I'm sure most will happen again in the future).

robert.c.brown15

Agree Agree Agree!!! That would be awesome.

robert.c.brown15

Could you talk a bit about "Cooking to the Image"? Worth looking into for a home cook? Helpful for plating? Wousld have private messaged you but that no longer exists.

com-chefsteps

Sure, and I'll expand on my feature request while I'm doing it. I took a look at the amazon "look inside," to see if it would give you a sense of what's inside, and surprisingly, it doesn't quite.

The book's early chapters walk through the history of food presentation, beginning way back when food was presented "by the room," (e.g. ornate Russian grand ballroom feasts) and then "by the table," (e.g. French platters presented to the table, whole, before being put on plates by gueridon) before landing where we are today: presenting food "by the plate" (e.g. you and I enter a restaurant, order different dishes, and each plate is not, presentation-wise, particularly related to the other).

The bulk of the book, having settled on the current-era "plate frame," outlines four major generations of plating: classical, nouvelle, new american/fusion, and global. Best part: color photo exemplars of each style, and at least one compare-and-contrast in which a dish (beef, sauce, potatoes, green onions, mushrooms - Escoffier #2414 if you care) is plated and photographed ten different ways.

The comparative photos are fantastic: here are the four most extreme examples (of ten) to give you an idea:

1 photo is a silver platter for four people, beautiful roast in the middle surrounded by tourné potatoes alternating with pearl onions.
2 photo is a new american "stack" obviously made with a ring mold - think fancy shepard's pie - layers of ground beef alternating with mashed potatoes, with fried shoestring onions on top.
3 photo is a "deconstructed" version - a confetti of onions, dots of sauce, a couple of bites of beef and mushrooms confetti on a plate (I swear it looks nice).
4 photo is a modernist plating - a 2.5cm diameter ball that looks like a filled chocolate truffle, but is instead beef-mushroom-onion demi-glace on the inside. Thin feathers of onion emit from the ball, so the whole thing looks like a shooting star.

Same dish. Radically different plating.

In the amazon preview, you can take a look at the pages near the back, and you'll see an oval-shaped diagram of all the different ways to present carrots: brunoise? tourner? puree? shredded patty? molded into a star? glazed? battonet? dehydrated? ribbons? essential oil? foam? etc. etc.

So that's the book.

robert.c.brown15

That sounds incredible. I can't believe I haven't heard about it before. Talk about a book that can give you some ideas! Thank you so much!

Lowell_55892

Tim,

Appreciate your experiences. I, too, cater in private parties and, yes, inevitably something will happen that will make you have to think fast on your feet. Thanks for sharing and making us think through some of the things you mentioned.

Andrea_Andrea_12546

hello guys, the plates(bowls) that you use can be found in internet? some like those blacks are beautiful

thanks

A_L_Esterling_35269

ChefSteps Dinnerware

Crate and Barrel:

Wilder: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/wilder-16-piece-dinnerware-set/s317896

Celeste: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/celeste-16-piece-dinnerware-set/s345156

18th Street: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/18th-st.-16-piece-dinnerware-set/s605169

CB2:

Frank: http://www.cb2.com/frank-dinnerware/f7923

Ryne_Orechia_132169

Thanks for the info! As an upcoming chef I really appreciate these expressed ideas from people who know what they are doing. Gracias!

Andreas_Hunziker_172687

Excellent Brain Storming this the best Internet Side i have ever seen for Chefs .ChefSteps is a Must for all Chefs or People will learn to become a Chef i love you Side .Thank you for this ! Beste grüsse aus Berlin

jps1107

Once i was the bartender at a party where the owner of the condo's things were all on top of the main prep surface in the kitchen. I set down a bag of citrus and a cutting board in the last remaining square foot of space, which bumped a bottle of olive oil which pushed a pepper grinder a half inch which bumped the quart container holding all the sauce for one of the dishes, which then fell off the counter onto the floor sending romesco everywhere. I don't think that chef had extra prepared.

sasa_198958

Hello, i' m in Italy where i can buy this tipe of plate or is there some dite in web where i can buy this ceramic?

Ellen_212162

Hi there!

We get almost all of our plateware from Crate and Barrel:

Wilder: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/wilder-16-piece-dinnerware-set/s317896

Celeste: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/celeste-16-piece-dinnerware-set/s345156

18th Street: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/18th-st.-16-piece-dinnerware-set/s605169

CB2:

Frank: http://www.cb2.com/frank-dinnerware/f7923

Zach_45967

Ok this might seem far fetched, but I make plates and bowls from ceramics, and i'm wondering if there are any certain plates that look good with different foods/any plating inspirations?

Kendall_427134

Never plate on a colored plate. Always use a white dish to serve on. Ceramic square plates are always good to use but it mostly depends on what the dish you are making will be.

Kendall_427134

Please do not use a black plate, the dark color will take away from the colors of the food you have prepared

Miriam_Burchell_750682

I need to know how to get a hot meal out of the kitchen and to a crowd at just the right time.

elton_solomons_983528

hi all in Eltina and just start at a new restaurant how do I make it work for me I never run a restaurant its my first time running one plz help me

Joshua_Velez_Arce_1115673

Just read the comment. Are you having any trouble with your restaurant?

Jens_Riis_587870

It's easy to warm ceramic plates - 60 seconds in a microwave does the job nicely for a stack of 3 or 4 plates.