People often say that you eat with your eyes before the food reaches your mouth. It is definitely true that food that looks pretty usually tends to seem considerably more delicious than fare that someone has sloppily thrown on a plate. At present, you might continually develop your cooking techniques, but mediocre appearances may be holding your dishes back from becoming truly exceptional. You can apply the tips for creating attractive food presentation we give here to take your food to new heights.
Play With Color and Texture
Similar to your thinking when decorating a room or putting together an outfit, you can play with color and texture in food. Give depth to your dishes by contrasting colors and textures rather than making them all blend together. If you have one grain or meat ingredient that is brown, you could place bright green, yellow, red, or orange vegetables next to it to liven things up. A drizzle of white or red sauce on top of a dish can also serve a similar role. As for texture, you pair a soft, blocky cut of fish with stringy or flaky garnishes to make the food more interesting. In a ruffled, leafy salad, hard nuts and smooth cheeses also vary the texture well.
Portion the Food Precisely
The way you cut and portion out the food on the plate has a great effect on its presentation. You should seek to bring a sense of order to the dish by being precise here. If you have meat, fruit, or vegetables in your dish, you could slice them into neat pieces to make the food more pleasing to the eye. If you have trouble doing this, make sure that you improve your knife skills so that you can achieve the meticulousness you’re after. Portioning the food also encompasses the ratio of ingredients relative to one another. For example, you might include multiple bits of tomato next to one piece of meat to balance your dish because the tomato bits are individually smaller than the meat.
Place Ingredients Gratifyingly
Chefs often follow a certain convention when positioning ingredients on a plate, which you can use as a tip for creating attractive food presentation at home. They frequently think of plates like clocks and use this to designate spots for specific types of ingredients. Proteins sit between three to nine o’clock, carbs from nine to twelve o’clock, and vegetables in the twelve to three o’clock section. This can be a useful guideline to follow to give you initial direction on placement. You could also use another approach where you combine ingredients together on every part of the plate so that each bite that you take includes them all, giving you a range of flavors effortlessly throughout the meal. Either method will make your food look good before you dig in.
