There’s nothing random about the presentation of a plate of food at a restaurant, especially at a finer dining establishment.
The arrangement of ingredients, the color scheme, textures, layers and height, even techniques used to compile a plate of food are all deliberate choices by the chef.
A medallion of filet mignon garnished with a fresh salad of micro-herbs, cushioned on a pillow of creamy potato puree with crispy tuiles of blanched greens is by design.
The brush stroke of ruby red raspberry sauce streaking across a stark white plate beside a French silk brownie, or edible flowers carefully plucked with tweezers from a container to form a delicate bouquet atop creme brulee have a purpose.
Color choice, the interplay of light and dark, creating depth and height, the total composition of a plate served to you at a restaurant is meant to capture your attention. After all, wasn’t it the 1st century Roman epicure Apicius who said, “We eat first with our eyes?” Now that includes the cameras on our phones.
Plating for the senses
Chefs have always played up the sensual nature of food through plating, creating edible masterpieces on fragile canvases of bone china, weathered wood, artisan ceramic, simple stoneware, or pastel-hued Depression-era glass.
In fact, the techniques for styling and plating food are part of the curriculum at culinary school. For budding chefs, acing food presentation is just as important as mastering menu planning, learning to make the five mother sauces, and honing your knife skills. The visual appeal of food sets expectations. Lose a diner at first sight, and you’ll likely lose them before first bite.
Demetrius Brown, chef and co-owner of Bread & Butterfly in Inman Park, and upcoming restaurant Heritage in Summerhill, believes social media has only upped the ante for chefs when it comes to food presentation.
A stunning photo taken of a colorful salad filled with the bounty of the season can become a calling card for a restaurant online.
“In the day and age we live in now, social media is everybody’s best friend. The more people taking pictures of your food, and the more visually striking it is, hopefully, the more attention they’ll bring to your restaurant,” Brown said.
Plating principles
Building a simple plate of food is based on the rule of three. It’s the same principle used by artists and architects meant to create balance and symmetry and not overwhelm the eye.
Classic plating is neat and tidy, with a protein, vegetable, and starch usually arranged in a clockwise fashion. Chefs often use this basic plating principle as a starting point for styling, which can range from adding swooshes, splatters, and dots of sauce and purees for visual interest, to forming geometric shapes out of vegetables to create structure.
When it comes to plating, Chef Karl Gorline, the owner of Avize on the west side of Atlanta, takes a slightly unique approach to the rule of three.
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“I have this kind of quirky obsession with having a unique piece of China for all the dishes so they have their own space. Plates are all ingredient-driven, with the inspiration being seasonality,” said Gorline. “We work in sets of threes – three elements and then three iterations of each one of those elements. There’s also a little superstition. We work in odd numbers only.”
As a young chef, Gorline worked at a restaurant in Jackson, MS, owned by Dan Blumenthal. Gorline recalled one night neatly arranging six asparagus on a plate. Blumenthal quickly told Gorline that he only plates in odd numbers because even numbers are bad luck. Whether Blumenthal was ribbing Gorline or not didn’t matter. His mentor’s word was enough. Blumenthal’s plating methodology stuck, becoming part of Gorline’s process.
Even after two decades in restaurants, Gorline said his plating style is still a work in progress, constantly evolving as he learns and grows as a chef. Sometimes his approach leans organic and minimalist, showcasing ingredients as naturally as possible. Other times, Gorline plates in full-on maximalist mode to create awe-inspiring moments that prompt his guests to ask questions.
The latter approach to styling a plate allows Gorline and his staff to talk about the farmers they regularly source from, as well as specific ingredients, like the lamb saddles he just received from a farm in upstate Pennsylvania.
For Gorline, plating inspiration can come from just about anything, including mundane objects like a paver stone. He once based the design for a radish tartlet on a lightning bolt he photographed from the front steps of his house. While shaving radishes the next day, he was inspired by striations in the flesh of the root vegetable.
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Brown, who describes his plating style as “eclectic,” leans toward lots of negative space on the plate. But despite not wanting to overcrowd plates with ingredients, he tends to load up on fresh ingredients like herbs.
“We did a Haitian tasso dish for Heritage Supper Club that eventually made it onto the menu at Bread & Butterfly. It was kind of a play on a three-compartment plate, reminiscent of getting food in a styrofoam container when you go to a Haitian restaurant,” Brown said.
Brown skewered the tasso into uniform squares and brushed the meat with Haitian seasoning called epis. Fresh plantains accompanied the tasso, along with pikliz (brightly colored, spicy cabbage slaw).
A batch of broken plates inspired the plating for the bonbon dessert at Bread & Butterfly. He remembers sitting on the kitchen floor trying to piece plates back together.
“It was very reminiscent of me trying to piece together the traditions, the recipes, and the people of the African diaspora through my food,” said Brown. “I decided to file down all the sharp edges as a reminder that no matter how many pieces we find, there’ll always be a shard of that plate that’s missing, just like there’ll always be a piece of the story [of the African diaspora] that I’m trying to tell that’s missing.”
Plating tools
Creating visual appeal on a plate requires the right tools. A chef might create shape and structure on a plate with molds or stacking rings to draw the diner’s eye and zero in on various components of a dish.
Swooshing, dotting, and brushing sauces or purees across the plate creates visual interest, while also controlling how much of an ingredient a chef uses.
Hard, soft, smooth, and crunchy ingredients, like tuile, a jumble of fresh greens, slivers of fruit, a sprinkle of seeds, and drizzles of cream provide layers of texture visually and via mouthfeel.
Brown uses plating tools like tweezers or chopsticks for handling delicate ingredients such herbs, flowers, and greens. A spoon with a bowl that comes to a sharp point offers precision pours and is always on hand in Brown’s kitchen for plating creams and sauces.
You’ll find Gorline putting the final touches on a plate with his coveted Japanese knife or a mandolin. Molds and molding rings, along with squirt bottles and piping bags are in heavy rotation for plating dishes at Avize.
The process
Once Brown chooses the main components of a dish, he immediately begins thinking about how he’ll present those ingredients.
“When I first think of a dish, I think about how it’s going to look, from the colors, to the spacing of the ingredients, to the textures,” Brown explained of his plating process. “I approach plating from an artistic mindset. As you eat the food, you get different experiences, multiple moments that come down to the plating.”
For Gorline, it’s important for him to be inspired by ingredients. Letting ingredients direct the vision for the final product informs how he plates each dish at Avize. Some plates come heavily garnished, while others give ingredients room to speak.
“We like preserving the integrity [of certain ingredients, like romanesco] because it’s already perfect. You know, that Fibonacci-looking vegetable,” said Gorline. “It’s so incredible. To keep that in its purest form on the plate leans into that new Nordic minimalist idea [that ingredients] have their space on the plate.”
