Presentation and plating can draw attention to the specific ingredients in a dish, whether for aesthetic or practical reasons. For anyone considering a career as a chef, a strong grasp of plating and presentation techniques is vital for continued professional development. These skills help culinary professionals stand out as they train, stage, and begin to work in a variety of environments.
The Art Of Food Presentation Pdf Download
In the digital age, strong presentation can also make dishes more apt to be photographed and shared via social media. While there are definitely pros and cons around the prevalence of pre-meal photos shared on sites like Instagram, it can be an effective way to generate attention and sales for many restaurants.
Bright colors work well against a dark background, while more neutral or subdued colors can use a white background to create some visual excitement. Besides the colors of the foods, different techniques for adding color might include the use of sauces, spices, and garnishes like fruits or flowers.
Thinking about the ratio of food to plate is another technique that involves some artistry. Serving a smaller portion of food on a large plate for more white space, or serving dishes in miniature receptacles can be interesting ways to present food masterfully.
Beyond plates and bowls, the arrangement of foods is key. There should be a star item, one that takes top billing and is also likely the largest portion on the plate. This approach avoids visual competition and instead allows the sides to support the main dish.
How can you make sure you plate effectively and provide the best possible presentation to customers? There are many different considerations, from how to incorporate sauces and garnishes to the knife skills needed for flourishes like a vegetable rosette, and the plate you use is undeniably foundational.
I always start my plates by thinking of the lines, arcs and patterns that may work, often using my hands to draw an imaginary design on an empty plate to help me visualize it before I even start adding food.
Hello,This is a great resource! I am working on a webinar on plate presentation and would love to have the permission to use some of these images. Who would I need to contact for this permission? Thanks.
Prior to consumption, the art-inspired presentation resulted in the food being considered as more artistic, more complex, and more liked than either of the other presentations. The participants were also willing to pay more for the Kandinsky-inspired plating. Interestingly, after consumption, the results revealed higher tastiness ratings for the art-inspired presentation.
Before being placed on the plate, the vegetables and condiments were prepared in exactly the same manner for all three presentations. While the sauces were specifically laid out on the plate for the neat and art-inspired presentations, they were mixed with all the elements of the salad for the regular presentation. The plate on which the food was served consisted of a white rectangle of cardboard (dimensions of 270 180 mm).
The food consisted of a relatively complex salad with 17 distinct components made up of a total of 30 ingredients. They included three types of elements: vegetables, sauces (purees and a reduction), and condiments. The 17 components of the dish were as follows:
A between-participants experimental design was used. The experimental setting, which was the same for all participants, was designed to replicate a typical restaurant table (see Figure 2) in a dark room, isolated by means of a curtain. On the table and over a white tablecloth were placed a fork, a knife, a paper napkin and a glass of water. The only lighting in the room, a small lamp, was directed at the dish.The three conditions were randomized across the various testing times (between 10:00 and 17:00 hrs) and gender was balanced for each condition. The experiment lasted for approximately twenty minutes. Upon completing the consent form, the participants were seated at the table and told the procedure by the experimenter. The participants were also instructed that they would be presented with a plate of food, a salad, and asked to eat it. Before they could start eating, they were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the visual aspects of the salad. Moreover, the participants were informed that after completion of the first questionnaire, they would be allowed to eat as much of the salad as they liked and that after they had finished they would be given another questionnaire to complete. While the experimenter explained this procedure, the dish was plated in an adjacent room. None of the participants were aware of the existence of different visual presentations and no further information was given concerning the aims of the study or the food they were about to eat and its preparation. When the dish was ready, it was placed on the table in front of the participant as shown on Figure 1, together with the first questionnaire. The participants were left alone while eating the food and completing the questionnaires.
While similar questions were asked before and after consumption, we assumed that the preliminary judgments were based solely on the visual attributes of the food, while the latter judgments would provide information about the eating experience and the impression the food left in the mind of the participant.
Bar graphs show the mean values and the standard deviations of the ratings for each of the variables that showed a statistically significant effect of the presentation (complexity, liking, artistically arrangement, tastiness, and willingness to pay). Statistically significant differences are highlighted (*P
Eating the food led to an increase in ratings of the tastiness of the food in the case of the art-inspired dish, likely showing that the aesthetic value of this visual arrangement made the food more enjoyable to eat. The food might also have been tastier than expected; even though the different perceived tastes (in terms of the rated saltiness, sweetness, bitterness, and sourness of the food) did not differ significantly between the three conditions.
We compared an art-inspired food presentation to a condition where the same ingredients were arranged in a more regular manner, or else in a neat (and hence effortful) but non-artistic manner. Before the participants had tasted the food, the artistic plating was liked more than both the regular and neat food presentations, as well as being recognized as more artistic and complex than either of the other two presentations, even though the participants were not informed that the dish was supposed to mimic a work of art. After eating, participants rated the food presented in the art-inspired as being more flavourful.
When the participants in the present study were asked to rate the expected tastiness of the dishes before they had sampled the food, no difference was reported between the three conditions. Even if the visual properties of the art-inspired condition received higher ratings than the other two conditions, participants were not expecting it to taste better. Interestingly, after consumption, the art-inspired presentation was rated as significantly tastier (up to 18% more) than the other two, even though they were composed of the same quantity of the same ingredients (see Figure 4). A higher rating for the experienced tastinessc[39, 40] of the Kandinsky-inspired dish clearly shows that plating can have an important effect on flavour perception. This observation is consistent with previous findings [22], confirming that what we see can indeed influence what we taste. In addition to the arguments discussed in the previous sections, we would argue that such percept could be the result of more enjoyment elicited by the act of consuming an aesthetically pleasing product, whose creation requires a more skilful and effortful act. This result supports the theory that cultivating uniqueness in plating and presentation could be central to delivering pleasurable food experiences.
Different food designs could be used in future research on plating, to understand how artistry and novelty are processed and evaluated by diners, and how this can impact on the eating experience. For instance, a novel and artistic plating could be compared to a novel but non-artistic one.
Future research may, in turn, take into account the differences that arise in the perceived attributes of an art-inspired food when exactly the same dish is served in one context versus another [9, 42, 43]. One question that still needs to be addressed is whether it is possible to spot different visual patterns in the dish, and if so, which ones in particular may lead people to consider a dish as being artistic or not. It would also be interesting to test how more specific cues borrowed from the visual arts interact (here we are thinking of balance, symmetry, or colour associations). Future studies may also attempt to understand how knowing (before tasting) the story about the dish and its inspiration can impact the perception of the food. In addition, there is a need to develop objective measures of the resulting complexity of food presentations, since the various aspects of a visual arrangement can affect the resulting complexity of an image, in terms of its various components and their interaction.
The visual appeal of food has been, and will always be, an important matter to entice the appetite, ultimately enhancing the flavours of culinary creations. While chefs rely mostly on their intuition and expertise to plate their dishes [7], we suggest that studying food presentations under the lens of psychology and sensory science could give precious insights to the so far empirical, art of plating.
The way you present your food is what tempts customers to try a dish. We eat with our senses: what we see, smell, and feel. And in the age of Instagrammers and food bloggers, food plating and presentation matters more than ever. 2ff7e9595c
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