Enjoying food is a synthesis of all five senses. A delicious dish is not only attractive in taste but also beautiful in appearance. Therefore, the art of food presentation has become an important skill for professional chefs. That is the exploration, learning more knowledge and efforts to practice the skills of food decoration to bring satisfaction to diners. In the article below, let’s All Menus discover how to present dishes for restaurants.
>>> The Art of Food Presentation – The pinnacle of Contemporary Cuisine
What is the art of food presentation?
The art of food presentation or food decoration is understood as the arrangement of ingredients that have been processed according to the chef’s unique ideas, in order to create a connection and convey the message of the dish to diners. . When decorating dishes, the chefs will divide the ingredients and ingredients and arrange the main and minor elements so that they are harmonious and balanced to help the dish most eye-catching.
No one knows exactly when the art of food decoration began to appear. According to some sources, this subject originated in Japan and Greece, then gradually became popular and developed according to the trend of French culture. In United States, the art of food presentation has become one of the potential professions attracting many young people to pursue.
For professional chefs, the art of food presentation becomes an important skill in the food preparation process. In high-end restaurants and hotels, food presentation is extremely focused. A dish is never brought to the table until it is presented beautifully.
The importance of the art of food presentation
So what is the meaning of food decoration? Previously, we only encountered the art of presenting attractive dishes at restaurants serving European dishes. Food decoration is now applied in almost all cuisines in different locations. Especially in the restaurant business, this activity plays an extremely important role, specifically as follows.
Increase the value of the food
The decoration and presentation in a skillful and meticulous way helps to bring life to the dishes from monotonous and boring to lively and eye-catching, contributing to increasing the value of the dish. Diners will be attracted at first sight and increase their interest in discovering dishes.
Delivering an impressive culinary experience to customers
This is the meaning of food decoration that chefs always aim for. The art of food presentation will fascinate diners from the first sight. Not only enjoying food with hearing and taste, diners also experience with both sight and emotion.
On the other hand, the decoration that turns a simple dish into a lively and delicate work of art is also a special mark of the chef as well as the restaurant. A dish that is presented vividly and attractively will bring customers a great experience when enjoying the food. Since then, the chef has shaped the style and increased brand recognition for the restaurant.
Help promote the restaurant and retain diners
The beautiful presentation of dishes also creates an impression and creates a unique style, contributing to marking in the minds of customers about an impressive culinary place. Customers will return to your restaurant in the next time, even recommending acquaintances to enjoy. This is also an important factor to help the restaurant increase its competitiveness, contribute to communication and promote the brand widely.
Principles of food presentation
Right purpose
This is one of the most important food decoration principles that you must not forget. Depending on the purpose, meaning of the dish or the target customers of the restaurant , the chef will have his own art of presenting dishes accordingly. For example, if it is a children’s birthday party, the chef can use bright colors and interesting shapes. In the case of shaping for advertising, the dish must ensure the best possible attractiveness.
Guaranteed ingredients
Clean, fresh, delicious is one of the leading principles in the art of food presentation. Because besides aesthetics, food safety and hygiene is the most important factor that directly affects human health.
Vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, scallions, etc. are often used to decorate dishes or serve with main dishes, both aesthetic and convenient. Therefore, these materials must be clean and safe, fresh colors, not stamped, wilted. In addition, you should also present in a clear, neat layout so that the dish looks as clean and delicious as possible.
Harmonious coordination between textures and materials
In the art of dish decoration, you need to ensure that the textures on the plate have a certain harmony, the main dish must be the most prominent. In addition, ingredients also play a very important role when decorating dishes. To optimize this role, you need to pay attention to a few points:
- Edible materials should be used: Materials that are only decorative, inedible can create discomfort and inconvenience for customers. If you use non-edible ingredients, you need to ensure that they are easily identifiable to avoid misunderstandings.
- Light/dark: Light dishes often use herbal ingredients for decoration, or spicy spices for flavor. On the contrary, if the dish already has a lot of flavor, it is not advisable to use decorative ingredients that are too strong, overpowering the main dish.
- Color harmony: You should choose color ingredients that contrast the dish, creating an attractiveness. For example, garnish a tuna salad with red tomatoes,…
- Temperature harmony: This is the principle of decorating dishes that you should follow. For example, frozen dishes will melt and lose their original shape if placed next to hot dishes. Therefore, you need to ensure temperature harmony when arranging ingredients.
Techniques to present beautiful dishes
The art of presenting food requires meticulousness from the smallest things. A professional chef can turn a monotonous dish into a lively work of art, stimulating the palates of diners. A few principles of beautiful food presentation art you can refer to and apply to your restaurant are as follows:
Use the right dishes
In the art of decorating beautiful dishes, it is not recommended to use dishes with many large patterns or motifs, because they can obscure the color and attention of the dish. Instead, you can use plain dishes that are white, cream, light gray or light blue. In addition, fancy-shaped wooden cutting boards are also a good choice to increase the attractiveness of the dish.
You can also prepare a uniform set of dishes in a variety of colors and varieties such as round plates, oval plates, square plates, rectangular plates, leaf plates, etc. Note that chipped dishes should not be used. or cracked, both unsafe and unsightly.
You can refer to some tips for using the appropriate plate in the art of dish presentation as follows:
- Round disc: Round disc can decorate a corner, or around the plate. If you use garnishes around it, you can make the main dish stand out. In addition, the circular decoration around the plate also creates a deeper impression for the viewer.
- Oval plate: This type of plate is suitable for presenting fish dishes, usually placed along the body of the plate. The outer rim of the fish plate often has a gap, so the chefs will focus on decorating there.
- Square/rectangular plate: The trick to decorating this plate is not to use vegetables arranged in an arc or circle, creating the impression that the dish is not full. Instead, you should decorate along the plate or along the border.
- Leaf plate: Leaf plate is popular with fried foods, usually decorated in the corner of the plate, concentrated on the stem.
Use simple decorating techniques
Some decorative techniques that are quite popular, used by many people but still highly effective are:
- Use vegetables: The most commonly used vegetable ingredients are those with mild flavors such as cucumbers, white radishes, tomatoes, etc. Vegetables can be used to decorate with many dishes, from salads, mixed vegetables, to meat, mixed noodles, and rice.
- Use fruits: Sweet fruits are often used to decorate desserts, or salads and salads. Fruits with sour taste, eye-catching colors are often used to decorate fish dishes, or other desserts. You can also cut fruit into thin slices, sticks or balls for decoration.
- Use sauces: Sweet sugar sauces are often covered with fruits, adding flavor and creating an attractive feeling. In addition, you can also use melted chocolate, chocolate syrup or other sauces to drizzle on plates or dishes.
Harmonize colors, textures, sizes
Color, texture, size are very important factors in the art of food presentation. A plate of mixed foods looks very messy, messy. In addition to the color of the main ingredients, you should use more light, cool colors that are easy to decorate and respect the main food such as cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, etc.
Decorative motifs must be harmoniously coordinated in color and form with the dish. The level of decoration of a beautiful dish should be moderate or dotted, not greedy.
In addition, if you want to make a strong visual impression on customers and create attraction, you can choose contrasting colors between the background and the color of the dish. Some mutual color groups are often applied such as: orange – blue, yellow – purple, green – red, etc.
Besides, you can also stack food to create more space for decoration in the plate. For example, placing 3 types of food in the order of rice, meat, vegetables, etc. Covering is called a layering technique for food.
Create the highlight of the dish
Do not try to show off all the ingredients of the dish, because that will make your dish messy and less aesthetically pleasing. The art of food presentation requires the chef to know how to create accents, by determining what is the main ingredient, which is the secondary and which is the highlight ingredient. Then, present the main component with the most number in the center position.
Next put the extra ingredients around and the last step is to decorate to create accents. In addition, when decorating dishes, try to present them in a simple, subtle way, focusing on the ingredients you want to highlight. This requires meticulousness, sophistication and creativity of the chef.
Above are basic food presentation techniques you can refer to and easily apply to your restaurant. It can be seen that the art of presenting food is not only creating sympathy for the people who enjoy it, but also the efforts and efforts from the smallest details of people who love and are passionate about food. For the culinary business, this is a way to make an impression, help retain customers as well as promote the restaurant brand.
FAQ
Why should food be presented beautifully?
At present, when the society is developing more and more, the food needs of people are increasing, the food not only has an attractive taste but also needs to be beautiful in appearance. It doesn’t have to be fancy, dishes should be presented vividly and delicately, guaranteed to fascinate anyone to enjoy.
On the other hand, the art of food presentation not only shows the attractiveness of the food, but also helps the chef to show his professional level. When doing business in the food and beverage industry, beautiful decoration is one of the important factors to help impress diners, retain customers and promote the brand.
What tools do you need to decorate beautiful dishes?
Some basic decorative tools needed in the art of food presentation include large spoon, polishing knife, sauce spray bottle, round mold, food tongs, napkins, etc.
