Plating Tips and Techniques

Plating Tips and Techniques

By Francis Albert Pineda

If the old adage "you eat with your eyes" is true, then the manner in which we present food is of paramount importance. There are many factors and techniques to consider in food plating that affect the overall customer experience. Using any one of them alone can enhance your food. But using them all can set you apart from your competition.


When plating food attractively, it's important to remember the actual plate is critical to the final presentation. Choose your plates carefully, and remember, the plate is the frame of the presentation. Today, there are many sizes, shapes, colors and patterns available. If the plate is too gaudy, it will take away from the food. Choosing the correct size of plate is also important. While food should not be crowded onto the plate, it should convey that the portion is adequate and not stingy. Most chefs now use solid white plates to better showcase the food. Some texture may be embossed on the plate to add visual interest. Also, specialty plates may be used for very specific dishes.


Always consider color as an important part of plate presentation. For example, white fish with a cream sauce served with boiled potato and steamed cauliflower may have a very good flavor. However,
When presented on a white plate, it will seem very monotonous and plain. And that will translate into how the customer perceives the food. Always try to have a variety of colors on the plate. People respond to certain colors more favorably than others.

Green is fresh and cool, and can be soothing.
Red is passion and excitement
Black is sophisticated and elegant
Blue is a natural appetite suppressant, since it can make food look unappetizing.

Color is especially important when dealing with vegetables. Here are some tips to keep in mind when plating vegetables:

Blanching and refreshing green vegetables ensures they are fresh and vibrant when served.
Always complement green vegetables with other colored vegetables such as carrots, sweet peppers and beets.
Avoid clustering vegetables and arrange them more naturally around the plate to increase the contrast in color
Use different cuts and shapes of vegetables to add visual interest,




Before you start
Look for fruits and vegetables that are evenly shaped, blemish-free and at the right stage of ripeness. In general, the firmer the fruit or vegetable, the easier it is to work with and the longer the finished garnished will stay fresh and attractive.
Be sure the knives you use are sharp. A sharp knife allows you to make precise cuts because it doesn’t need to be pushed or forced. Sharpen your knives yourself with sharpening steel or have a cutlery store sharpen them for you.

Selecting the right Garnish
Be sure to consider the size of the garnish as well. Team a large garnish with a tray or large platter of food. If the food contains a mixture of ingredients, keep the garnish simple.
Remember, garnish should enhance, not overshadow or hide the food’s beauty and flavor.

Make Garnishes Ahead
When you’re giving a party, you won’t have much time for creating garnishes at the last minute. (Be sure to store the finished garnish properly and add it to the food just before serving.)

Most vegetable garnishes may be made ahead, then. Place in airtight container or wrapped in clear plastic wrap and refrigerated until the next day.
To keep fruit garnishes fresh, wrap them in clear plastic wrap and store them in the refrigerator. When working with apples or other fruits that darken when cut, generously brush the cut surfaces of the fruit with lemon juice before wrapping and refrigerating.
Place garnishes that need to dry or firm up in a cool, dry place for several hours of overnight.
For extra crispiness, let chilled garnishes stay in the ice water an extra hour or two. Or, thoroughly drain the garnishes, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Playing with Texture

Texture is critical to food presentation, as well as enjoyment. Contrasting hard and soft, smooth and coarse, adds visual interest to your food, and it will enhance your customers’ enjoyment of the food. Texture can be achieved by choosing foods with differing characteristics, or it can be done with different cooking methods.

For example, a crisp fried accompaniment to a smooth main will add substantially to the overall dish.

Choosing the Focal Point
When plating a dish, you should decide on a focal point. This does not necessarily have to be the center of the plate. Focus can be achieved by varying the heights of the food. Just remember to have the highest food at the back, and don't have the lowest point at the center. The main item in the dish – usually the protein – should have prominence in the presentation. Don’t plate food in such a way that the customer has to de-construct the food before eating it. Food should be presented in a natural and appealing manner.

Keep Things Tidy

Remember that neatness counts. Even the tastiest food served sloppily will not be well received by your customer. Food should be contained within the rim of the plate, yet it should not be crowded in the center. Take a hard look at the plate and ask yourself if it is pleasing to the eye. Some chefs use the "spill and splatter" technique to decorate plates. This can be effective, yet it must be done with restraint and an eye to the overall presentation. It should not look sloppy and dirty.




Garnish to Impress

Garnishes and decorations can enhance your plate presentation. Choose garnishes that are appropriate to the dish and that echo some of the ingredients. For example, using a rosemary sprig on a dish that does not contain rosemary is inappropriate.

Here are some other techniques to keep in mind when garnishing:
Never decorate a plate with something inedible.
Always make sure the garnish is in keeping with the food and its preparation – for example, a lemon garnish with a broiled or fried fish is appropriate, but it does not belong on a fish in a cream sauce.
Ensure the garnish complements and enhances the dish without being overpowering.
Choose garnishes that are the correct size; they should be easy to eat without having to be moved to the side of the plate.

When choosing your garnishes, remember that they're purpose is
v To add flavor,
v Texture and
v Color to each dish.
v And, above all, remember that the garnish should not be an afterthought.
Don’t get stuck in the rut of using a sprig of parsley and a lemon wedge.

Fruit Curving

Tips on selecting fruits and vegetables for carving
Each kind of fruit and vegetable has its own unique characteristics, so keep these pointers in mind when choosing fruits and vegetables to carve.

Onions and shallots should be fresh and without wrinkles. Choose either mediumsized or small bulbs that are all of uniform size.

Carrots should be straight and of medium or large-size.

Radishes should be fresh, firm, and round. Use medium-sized radishes, all of uniform size.

Chinese radishes should be straight and of medium-size with clear bright skins. The flesh of large Chinese radishes tends to be mealy.

Cucumbers should be green, straight, and of medium-size. The type called for in this book is the larger type (Tang Ran). If the smaller type (Tang Kwa) is used, those with green skins have firmer flesh and are better for carving than those with greenish white skins.

Tomatoes should be of uniform size. Plum tomatoes, with elongated fruits, are firmer than round varieties. Choose fresh ones with no wrinkles.

Pumpkins should have thick, firm flesh.Such pumpkins have a rough exterior.

Spur chillies should be fresh and have firm skins. Generally small ones are used, because if large ones were cut and spread out to make a blossom, they would cover the entire plate. However, large spur chilies are used for making anthurium flowers.

Spring shallots and leek should be fresh and green with no yellowing on the leaves. Select thick, medium-sized plants.

Cabbage and Chinese cabbage should be fresh with firm, heavy heads. Use medium sized heads.

Lemons should be very fresh.

Taro should be of medium-size. The fragrant taro (Pheuak Hawm) has fine-textured flesh.

Cantaloupes should be those that are not yet fully ripe. The skin should be pale yellow without wrinkles or scratches.

Yam bean tubers used for carving should not be too large. Large, mature tubers have a lot of fibers. These become frayed in carving, detracting from the appearance of the finished work.

Papayas should be straight, thick-fleshed and without any bruises. They should not yet be fully ripe so that the flesh is firm and does not bruise easily. The Khaek Dam variety is recommended be cause of thebeautifully colored flesh.

Green mangoes should be fully mature and of a variety whose flesh is not too crisp. The skin should be green and un-wrinkled and the stem should look fresh.

Watermelon should have red flesh and green rinds with no bruises or wrinkles.

Pineapple should have large eyes. The leaves should be fresh and green and there should be no shrivelling of the skin or stem.

Guavas should be those that are just becoming ripe. The skin should be a fresh light green skins and there should be no bruises or scratches.

Apples should be fresh with glossy, brightly colored skins and no bruises.

Jujubes should have straight fruits with green skins and no bruises.

Sapodillas must be firm, so avoid fully ripe fruits. The skins should be even and clear. Avoid sapodillas that have been dyed for the market. Their skins have a dusty appearance.
<>lime juice and water to prevent browning.
2. Shallots and onions should be soaked in water before being peeled and carved to reduce irritation of the eyes.3. Taro should be washed thoroughly before being peeled. If washed after peeling, a slime is released which causes itching.4. Carrots should not be soaked in water before carving as this will make the flesh tougher and more difficult to carve.5. Beets should be washed in water to which a little salt has been added. This will reduce loss of color. Also, if left standing, beets will blacken, so they should be kept moist by spraying them with water regularly.6. Potatoes should be washed with water after peeling to remove the sap and then washed again after carving. This will help prevent browning.7. Apples should be soaked in mixture of lime juice and water before being peeled to prevent browning.8. Cantaloupes should be washed before carving. While carving, avoid letting water come into contact with the fruit because it will lose its taste and spoil more quickly.9. Yam bean tubers should be soaked too long after carving, will yellow.
Storing carved fruits and vegetables
1. After carving, fruits and vegetables should be placed in ice cold water so the petals of flower designs are firm and spread beautifully.
2. Carved fruits and vegetables should not be left in water as this will cause petals to become discolored and to spoil.3. Each type of carved fruit should be kept separately. This will prevent loss of all your work in the event that one type spoils.4. Store carved fruits and vegetables by putting them in containers and placing in a refrigerator, or if no refrigerator is available, by covering them with a damp piece of thin white cloth and putting them in a place protected from drafts so they do not dry and wilt.5. After carving, pumpkin should be dipped in water and removed right away. If left in water, flower petal designs will become bruised.

Shroud of turin @ Mall of Asia

the ever controversial shroud of tourin is finally here in Manila! it is the first time in asia, the shroud can be seen @ the SM Mall of Asia until December 9 ,2007

Where Are the Images?
List of Shroud of TurinFacts and Fiction
Some of the cellulose fibers that when twisted together make up the threads of the Shroud's cloth are coated with a thin carbohydrate layer of starch fractions and various sugars. This chemical layer, which is about as thick as the transparent scratch-resistant coatings used for eye glasses, is essentially colorless and is found only on the outermost fibers near the surface. In some places, the layer has undergone a chemical change that appears straw-yellow. This chemical change is similar to the change that takes place when sugar is heated to make caramel or when proteins react with sugar giving beer its color. And it is the straw-yellow, selectively present in some parts of the carbohydrate layer, that makes up the image we see on the Shroud. When scientists speak of image fibers they are referring to the coating on lengths of fiber that have undergone this chemical change.
Ray Rogers (see curriculum vitae summary below) responds to the question: "How do you know that the flax fibers were not involved in image formation?"
Prof. Alan Adler of Western Connecticut University found that the image color could be reduced with a diimide reagent, leaving colorless, undamaged linen fibers behind. This confirmed spectral data that indicated that the image color was a result of complex conjugated double bonds; however, it proved that image color was found only on the outer surfaces of colored image fibers. Until this time, we had assumed that the image color was a result of chemical changes in the cellulose of the linen. The most likely change would involve the dehydration of the cellulose to produce conjugated-double-bond systems Adler's observations proved that the cellulose was not involved in image formation. This is an extremely important observation.
This fact was confirmed by the observation that the image color on some fibers had been stripped off of their surfaces by the adhesive of the sampling tapes. The photomicrograph shows the places where two fibers were pulled out of the adhesive leaving their colored coating behind. The coating is too thin to measure accurately with a standard microscope; however, it appears to be 200-600 nanometers thick (in the range of a wavelength of visible light).
The bands of color and the fact that all of the image color appears only on the outer surfaces of the fibers, suggested that image formation involved a thin layer of impurities. Because the cellulose was not colored, the impurities had to be significantly less stable than cellulose.
This also suggested that the impurities were the result of cloth-production methods, and they should appear on all parts of the cloth. A search for carbohydrate impurities on the Shroud confirmed McCrone's detection of some starch fractions. Starch and low-molecular-weight carbohydrates from crude starch would color much more easily than would cellulose as a result of either thermal dehydration or chemical reactions.
Any image-formation mechanism that would result in color formation inside the linen fibers must be rejected. Some "theories" that have been mentioned that would cause coloration inside fibers are penetrating radiation, high temperature scorching (hot statue, painting with a torch, etc.), and catalyzed dehydration of the cellulose. Image fibers are colored only on their surfaces.

UE Sweet Sweep

Im not a Basketball fan but for the UE Basketball man teams Kudos! for a great play for this season!

GOODLUCK sa Finals!

More than the usual Tables

Table setting
Table setting refers to the way to set a table with tableware—such as eating utensils and dishware—for serving and eating. The arrangement for a single diner is called a place setting. Informal settings generally have fewer utensils and dishes but use a stereotyped layout based on more formal settings.
The arrangement varies across various cultures.
Table setting
The table usually has a centerpiece that performs a solely decorative function. If a formal dinner is being served that will fill the available places at the table, care should be taken to not make the centerpiece too large so that there will be sufficient room to place serving dishes, if the dinner is served family style, that is, that serving dishes are passed from diner to diner. In some cases it may be desirable for the host to move from place to place and serve, especially if children (who might have difficulty handling heavy or hot servings) are present.
Place setting
Utensils are arranged in the order and the way a person will use them. Usually in Western culture, that means that the forks, bread plate, spreader, and napkin are to the left, while knives, spoons, drinkware, cups, and saucers are to the right.
Utensils on the outermost position are used first (for example, a salad fork and a soup spoon, then dinner fork and dinner knife). The blade of the knife must face toward the plate.
The glass is positioned about an inch from the fork. Cup and saucer are placed on the right side of the spoon about four inches from the edge of the table.
Dessert fork and spoon can be set above the plate, fork pointing right, to match the other forks, spoon pointing left.
Handy mnemonics and rhymes provide methods for remembering a simple placesetting:
"Fork, Moon, Knife, Spoon" (where "moon" is the dinner plate) specifies the left-to-right order.
Hold your hands in front of you and make a circle with your thumb and forefinger of each hand, extending the rest of the fingers straight out. On your left you've made a lower case "b": That's the breadplate. On your right you've made a lowercase "d": That is the drink.

-Flower Arrangement-

Floristry or flower arranging is the art of creating bouquets and compositions from flowers, foliages, herbs, ornamental grasses and other botanical materials into floral designs; often the terms "floral design" and "floristry" are considered synonymous. A person who designs flower arrangements is known as a florist.
A notable example is ikebana. The latter term actually became an informal synonym for this type of art, nevertheless many nations have their own distinctive traditions of flower arrangement. Ikebana represents the Oriental style of floral design, which features simplicity and purity of lines and colors. In contrast, European style features mass and color richness and variety.
Floristry is most often understood as referring to the cultivation of flowers as well as their arrangement, rather than to the business of selling them. However, the floral industry is the basic drive behind floristry. Florists are people who work with flowers, generally at the retail level. Florist shops, along with telephone sales and online stores, are the main flower-only outlets, but supermarkets and garden supply stores have gotten into the business, selling flowers as one of their large range of products.
The World Wide Web has had a significant impact on traditional florists within the North American market; experiencing a more than 20% decline in traditional independently owned flower shops since 1998. Brick and mortar retail arrangement purchases for gift giving are slowly being overtaken by online flower delivery ordering and floral wire services.
Generally, a florist shop will contain a large array of flowers, often spilling out into the street, or will have a large plate glass window to display the flowers. To keep them fresh, the flowers will likely be kept in water, generally in plastic bulbs, sleeves, or other containers.
The craft of floristry involves various skills. These include selecting flowers that will look good together (based on principles of design or general instinct), knowing how to cut, treat, and arrange flowers and other stock plants so they will remain fresh as long as possible, and (as explained above) selling them, which involves knowledge of customer requirements and expectations. Knowing how to form wreaths, bouquets, and other more complicated arrangements is also important. The flowers sold in florist shops typically represent the varieties abundantly available in the season but also include blossoms flown in from around the world. Basic varieties include roses, tulips, irises, and lilies.
Fashion plays a very major role in floristry; what is considered the flower that everyone needs to have today can change very quickly.
The floral market is seasonal and is heavily influenced by the following holidays and events: Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day, weddings and funerals. [1] These occasions make up the largest part of the business, with the sale of house plants and home decor being a much smaller, but more constant, part. Flowers for personal enjoyment as well as those selected to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, thank-you's and to send get well wishes are also a significant portion of a florist's business.
Another basic requirement of florist shops is the purchasing of flowers to replenish their stock. The flower market, like other agriculture markets, is subject to many fluctuations due to natural factors, supply and demand, and fashion. Learning how to buy in such a way as to continue to make a profit is not a simple skill.
Wreaths can be made out of many different types of flowers and plants. Typically, a florist will organize flowers by season and holiday. Most shops branch out into gift baskets, fruit, and chocolates as well as flowers and wreaths.

A name tribute ("MUM") at a funeral in England
Flowers have various different meanings in different cultures. The holidays and events for which flowers are used vary. Poppies are used to remember fallen soldiers only in England and the Commonwealth countries. The cultural meaning of colors also strongly affects the choice and use of flowers. People often prefer flowers that are associated with their ethnic group or country, and various colors may have special meanings of luck or death or love or other basic human traits. A flower such as a red rose might to some mean love, but to others it might be considered indecent or simply puzzling. The vastly divergent views on the color white can lead to major flower issues. White is viewed as standing for death in many Asian cultures but is considered a symbol of purity and innocence in many European and American cultures. Such differences can lead to difficult issues when a bouquet of white lilies, for example, is delivered.
The term is not to be confused with floristics.

Pie to Define

PIEis a baked dish, with a baked shell usually made of pastry that covers or completely contains a filling of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, cheeses, creams, chocolate, custards, nuts, or other sweet or savoury ingredient. Pies can be either "one-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Some pies have only a bottom crust, generally if they have a sweet filling that does not require cooking. These bottom-crust-only pies may be known as tarts or tartlets. One example of a savoury bottom-crust-only pie is a quiche. Tarte Tatin is a one-crust fruit pie that is served upside-down, with the crust underneath.
Blind-baking is used to develop a crust's crispiness, and keep it from becoming soggy under the burden of a very liquid filling. If the crust of the pie requires much more cooking than the chosen filling, it may also be blind-baked before the filling is added and then only briefly cooked or refrigerated.
Pie fillings range in size from tiny bite-size party pies or small tartlets, to single-serve pies (e.g. cornish pasty) and larger pies baked in a dish and eaten by the slice. The type of pastry used depends on the filling. It may be either a butter-rich flaky or puff pastry, a sturdy shortcrust pastry, or, in the case of savoury pies, a hot water crust pastry. Some pies of British origin, such as shepherd's pie, have a shell or covering constructed of mashed potato.
Occasionally the term pie is used to refer to otherwise unrelated confections containing a sweet or savoury filling, such as Eskimo pie or moon pie.
Sweet pies are often served with a scoop of ice cream, in a style known as à la mode. This was popularized by Jordan Jackson.
The Australian meat pie has an iconic cultural status. Many different types of small commercially-produced pies are a popular form of takeaway food in Australia and New Zealand, with the most widespread brand in Australia being Four'N'Twenty. Many bakeries and specialty stores sell gourmet pies for the most discriminating customer. A peculiarity of Adelaide cuisine is the Pie floater. In New Zealand, the pie is a common part of a workday lunch.
Pies with fillings such as pork, steak and kidney, minced beef and onion, or chicken and mushroom are popular in the UK as take-away snacks. They are also served with chips as an alternative to fish and chips at British chip shops. The residents of Wigan are so renowned for their preference for this food-stuff that they are often referred to as "Pie Eaters" (though the historical reasons for this title are disputed).
As with dumplings, many cultures have independently discovered pies as a useful and delicious way to utilize otherwise useless ingredients left over in the household.