Plating (Probably spelled wrong)

Adillo303

Adillo303

*****
I can prepare a meal that people like and do not often have leftovers, unless I plan to have them and cook a lot. I am amazed at the ability of some of our members to plate the meal and make it look great.

What things do you use. Sometimes, I see colored liquid in a design on the plate. Green, Yellow, red, etc. Sometimes some parsley, etc. I am alos interested in what gives you the idea to do what you do.

Anyone want to share some ideas and maybe some pix. I truely believe that we eat with our eyes first and want to work on this skill.

Thank You

Andy
 
Besides color and garnishes, lighting is very important also. I make my meals at night and I hate to use a flash to take pictures of food. My food pics always come out chitty and unappetizing. It's best when taken under natural diffused daylight or under controlled lighting conditions.
 
To be honest I've never really thought much about platting a dish though I've done some. I really prefer a plat of food too look like food, not stacked up looking like a sculpture made of food. Garnish and simply arrangements as long as they are all eatable then it is good for me.
 
I am with Joe on this one. I just put food in a plate in a way thats easy to eat. For instance, I like to serve chili over rice sometimes so I just lay out a thin bed of rice and ladel the chilli over it. I will sometimes try and make it look good but it has to be inviting. I dont like scultures either, they dont look inviting to eat, it feel like you are going to ruin something when it looks like a sculpture.
 
I am with both of you for everyday meals. I like to make the meal special when I have company. I have no family close by and I work a lot of hours, company is rare at the house. I like to make it special for them. It is at that time that I would like to have the skill to make dinner attractive for them.
 
There's a couple dishes on here very recently, I can't remember whose, but they placed a nice green lettuce leaf underneath the food. That really set it off I thought. Much moreso than simply putting the food on the plate, like I do ;^)
 
I agree with you, Andy - we eat first with our eyes, so yummy-looking food can get my mouth watering :smile:

When I'm plating food, I put the different items next to each other, rather than separated by a lot of empty space. When I'm garnishing, I try to use either an ingredient I've used in the dish (thinly sliced peppers, or a certain herb - doesn't have to be parsley), or something that is a contrasting color. For example, a while back, I made Peruvian potatoes with a creamy cheese sauce; I sprinkled freshly ground pepper on it, then chives cut into about 1/2-inch pieces.

When I have a sauce with meat, I want some of the caramelization showing (the yummy browned parts), so I don't cover it completely with sauce. Sometimes I put the sauce under the meat or fish, so I can see both.

Here are some examples: My NCT photo album

HTH.
 
Now that is great plating in my opinion GG. Here are 4 of mine:

The top one is crab cakes on yellow rice with steamed broccoli/collie flower/carrots and fried onion petals.

Second from the top is Lobster, sautéed mushrooms, baked sweet potato, broccoli and drawn butter garlic sauce.

Third is 4 to a lb jumbo shrimp with panko/coconut breading and my own dipping sauce.

Last is Short rib with an Orzo casserole with chive flowers for garnish.
 

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I have limited photographic talent and never considered appearance before I started blogging. I know next to nothing about aperture, shutter speed or even how to change setting son my camera. I've learned a few things:


  • Take tons of pics.Even if you're not good, you will get lucky.
  • Use diferent angles and distances. I will put my plate on a circular table and wander around it snapping pics. Again, quantity can lead to quality.
  • Natural light is best by far. I take my food outside. During the winter, I find one decent place and usually touch up the color with a photo editor.
  • Thrift stores are a great place to get unique or interesting plates, bowls, etc. at a cheap price, I even have some dollar store plates that I use.
  • Sometimes it just don't work. No matter what I do (remember, limited talent here) I can't get to food or lighting to cooperate. Then I just have to settle for a sub-par pic or I plan on making the food another night and trying again.

Also, here is a great article on food photography: Food Photography for Bloggers
 
If it's just the two of us, I do try to make the food look appetizing. I use a lot of chopped parsley and chopped green onion, especially if it is already in the dish and because I've usually got it on hand. If we are having company, I try a little harder :biggrin:.

My thoughts:

Here's an example of what NOT to do. If you don't know what you're doing, don't try to get too fancy. Lol--This looks like someone had a shaky hand and just dripped the sauce on the way to the top of the egg. It would have looked a lot better with just a little puddle of sauce dripping down over the side of the poached egg with a little fruit garnish on the plate. I love fruit garnish and always have a side of fruit to go along with eggs benedict for Father's Day.

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And some To Do's:

Chilled seafood usually looks good sitting on top of leaf lettuce, and lemon wedges (lol, don't look for them, they're not there) are a great garnish for just about any kind of seafood.

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If you are serving any kind of spreadable cheese, you can use a melon baller to make a pretty little ball. Works with butter too.

Think outside the box for serving dishes too. I love these little things. I've used them for scallop appetizers and sauce.

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Great thread! :clap:
 
joec said:
Now that is great plating in my opinion GG. Here are 4 of mine:

The top one is crab cakes on yellow rice with steamed broccoli/collie flower/carrots and fried onion petals.

Second from the top is Lobster, sautéed mushrooms, baked sweet potato, broccoli and drawn butter garlic sauce.

Third is 4 to a lb jumbo shrimp with panko/coconut breading and my own dipping sauce.

Last is Short rib with an Orzo casserole with chive flowers for garnish.
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Yellow rice always pops and just looks beautiful on a plate. :thumb:
 
I wasn't really talking about photographing food. As I think of it though, it is a part of it. If not for photography, how can we see others ideas and learn. Yes it is a tool to learn the skill.

Take a recipe. Look at the redipe, just the recipe. You can read the ingredients and say, I would like to make that. I often do. Open a thread and have a pic pop up and your mind starts instantly tasting it.

One of the things I like here is that we have a great mix of really good cooks. We also have professionals and really good Ammeters. Then we have people like me that want to learn.

I am not meaning to say that Ithink every thread should have pics. Some of us just do not take pics. The food is still good.

Thank you all SO FAR please keep the discussion going.
 
Here is the best way to plate fried chicken wings if you are interested. :yum:

All joking aside get the taste right and simply think about what you want it to look like. Now with that keep in mind what you feel is appetizing and go with it.
 

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I like to make my dishes look good. They always say: You eat with your eyes first. I don't go out of my way to make sauces or smears just for looks, they have to be a part of the dish. Having my own garden I like to use other parts of the plants as garnigh. Like cradling something with a corn leaf or using a zucchini and chive blossoms. Some simple techniques like pooling a sauce or pre slicing certain foods can make a great presentation. Most of the time I have a vision of what I want the plate to look like even before I go shopping. I try not to crowd the plate, try to get height from the food, use the rule of 3's if possible or just odd numbers in general. I only use white plates. Plats whith designs on them take away from the presentation and can sometimes turn a great tasting dish into "eh". I don't know why, but it happens.

For the pictures I use the macro or "close-up" setting with no flash. I take maybe 8-12 pictures of one dish. Sometimes it may look good on the cameras LCD but you find it's out of focus on your PC.

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Hi
Just some coments about decorating a plate with garnish.
1. Everything should be eadible
2. Herbs should be fresh and not dried
3. The garnish should be relevant and related to the main constituants
4. Most importantly KEEP IT SIMPLE let the main ingredients do the talking. It is often the case that less is more
 
Plating does make a difference to me. I'd sooner try a recipe if it is looking good in the pic. Joec, those shrimp look soooooooooooooooo delicious even though I am not sure if I would like the coconut mixed with the panko. You happen to have that recipe and wouldn't mind sending to me? I thought all of your pics were recipes trying where if I saw the same recipe with the food just thrown on the plate, I'd prob wouldn't be interested. It's just something about me with pics and recipes. Very nice.
 
Meme4251 said:
Plating does make a difference to me. I'd sooner try a recipe if it is looking good in the pic. Joec, those shrimp look soooooooooooooooo delicious even though I am not sure if I would like the coconut mixed with the panko. You happen to have that recipe and wouldn't mind sending to me? I thought all of your pics were recipes trying where if I saw the same recipe with the food just thrown on the plate, I'd prob wouldn't be interested. It's just something about me with pics and recipes. Very nice.
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Sure I posted it here some time ago. http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700
I used a honey panko on these but regular works fine too. The reason I like panko is they way it fries to a real crisp finish that works well with coconut. The crab cakes are also posted under the seafood topic as well though not as long as this one was.
 
My experience is that you need a variety of plates !
Some foods look good on one color and not on another........I choose a couple of colors and designs, then decide which i will plate to............ of course, you have to think ahead on this'n, and keep an eye out at garage sales and flea markets for interesting singles !
 
In my case I have a very small kitchen with very limited storage space so I have basically one set of dishes but do have 2 or 3 odd plates that I might use to take a picture with.
 
ah, plating.... To plate or not to plate...

when I set food to a plate, I think of it as a canvas...I'm trying to convey an image that wants the person seeing it to feel something. Sounds heavy when we're only talking about food...but it's art as well as nutrition.

I don't like perfect symetry. I like the plate too appear to be in motion, if possible. I like to build up ...who didn't like knocking over a pile of building blocks when they were a kid??

Use colour, use texture, use shapes but keep in mind that it has to work with the food, with the components.
 
I've worked in many restaurants, and I can understand the importance of plating your food and presenting it like a cross between a meal & art...but at home I just want it to look like what it is (a delicious meal, made with love). I try different food layouts when I photograph my meals, but that is usually only the one plate (which I give to DH to enjoy)...my plate, that I end up eating from, is no where near as "staged" as the one I photograph. I guess I think of my cooking/photographing as a kind of art form. :chef:
 
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