Good presentation is good marketing . Creativity and skill performed in the kitchen has to be reflected in food presentation. Color, texture, shapes and arrangements work together to say: “a lot of time and talent was spent on this and you’re really going to enjoy
it.” Good presentation can mean elaborate garnishes or a few simple flourishes. Whatever your time and talent, keep an eye on how your meals look before they
leave the kitchen. Meals must be properly presented, remembering that golden adage, “you eat with your eyes.”

Chef John Cirio, a chef who has cooked in the White House, has been a personal chef to politicians and celebrities. He is currently the chef/owner of Five Star Aire Cuisine, a company that designs and outfits corporate kitchens and caters to corporate chefs and can be reached via the web at, www.thegourmetdoctor.com. He can speak for hours about the importance of food presentation.

“Presenting food properly in the business world is a very important matter,” said Chef Cirio, “the quality and the presentation of the food sends a powerful message. If it’s done properly the food can set a positive atmosphere.” He continued, “Food is very effective in project kick-offs, meetings, motivational meetings and informal presentations, not to mention in the restaurant and hospitality setting. When I think about food presentation I think about visual appearance, aromas, color and the look of the room.”

The first step is to ensure that meals are properly prepared. Textures and colors should be correct. Strain a lumpy sauce for a velvety texture. Refresh green vegetables in ice water so their color is vibrant. Before garnishing be certain that the dishes are neat and clean. Plate rims should be cleared of any extra sauce or spice. Food should stay within the rim and not hang over. “Get it in the plate!” is a cry heard at many a banquet dish-up. You may want to make sure that there is a steady supply of soft towels for the expediter to use to wipe down plates before
they are served to the customer. For example, broccoli florets should be forest green and look slightly crisp; the hollandaise should look satiny and bright; meringue needs to be kissed with golden browns. Then make sure the food hits the plate!

There are two schools of thought about decorating the edge or rims of plates. Some see this as creativity and a way to add more flavor and color. For example, a dessert plate may be garnished with a sprinkled decoration of cocoa and powdered sugar. Or a salmon entrée may be “painted” with red and green pepper coulis applied from a squeeze bottle.

Others think this looks like “spill and splatter that I can do myself,” to quote the late chef and restaurateur Barbara Tropp in her China Moon Cookbook. The point is to take an objective look at the plates you are sending out to assess them. Are they pleasing, delightful or exciting to the eye? If yes, then continue what you’re doing. If no, then read on.

Cutting ingredients is something to consider. Remember that the meal has to look good but also has to be edible. A whole green onion may look dramatic, but how will the customer eat it? If the meal is predominately finger food, you should be okay. But if the customer is going to have stalk of onion to the side of the plate and eat around it, you may want to reconsider. Try to come up with a compromise somewhere between form and function. The same can be said for a cage of spun sugar around a scoop of sorbet. Looks great, but can the customer chisel their way through the sugar to get to the rest of the dessert?

Use shapes, such as carrot triangles or cucumber juliennes, for contrast. Think about slicing breast, rather than serving it as a whole piece. Mix up shapes on the plate. If you have two round or oval them with a different shape, such as a row of triangle-cut roasted, herbed carrots. If you don’t have the time to cut vegetables, you can purchase fresh and frozen precut vegetables. Although it may be tempting, never garnish with anything inedible. If you don’t want guests to chomp down on a whole bay leaf or a wax flower, then don’t put it on the plate. If you’re garnishing with edible flowers, make sure they are indeed edible!

Remember that garnishes need to accent and be compatible with the meal. Don’t get into the “parsley and lemon wedge” rut. Garnishes need to be thought out as enhance. Classic garnishes, a la Escoffier, had to be an ingredient contained in the dish. This created a real need for inventiveness. For example, salmon poached in a court bouillon flavored with carrots, could be classically garnished with carrot curls and celery hearts. We don’t have to be so strict nowadays, but an “echo” garnish could be chocolate curls on a chocolate cake or frilled green onions on a French onion soup en crout.

Keep garnishes appropriate to the dish. A simple dish, such as roast beef or sliced elaborate garnish, such as carved radish and tomato such as a cassoulet with duck sausage, fresh baby does better with a simple garnish, such as a few perfect carrot rounds.

Once the food is prepared and the garnishes selected, think about the actual plating. plate was treated like the face of a clock. The entrée was at 6:00, the starch at 10:00 and the vegetable at 2:00, precise, but tedious. Not a lot of flow, not a lot of excitement.

Enter chefs dedicated to excitement on the plate. Chefs like Charlie Trotter and Roy Yamaguchi began to fuse flavors in the food and color on the plate. Ingredients for harmonious presentations. All the items on the other. Chefs began to use odd numbers of ingredients for a more interesting appearance, such as one fanned strawberry or five slices of glazed zucchini.

Meat was stacked on the starch, such as chicken sate served on a bed of basmati rice or seared buffalo steak stacked on seasonal greens. Sauces were drizzled on the plate or striped across the entrée. Things got a little wild. When experimenting with new presentations, always remember to ask yourself, “how is someone going to eat this?”

Customers won’t just be seeing food. They’ll also be seeing plates and china. You have many choices of shapes, colors, patterns. You can get triangle-shaped, crescent moon-shaped, square plates. When choosing plate shapes, be sure they work. For example, a round scoop of ice cream with oval cookies looks shape brings interest to the food.

In addition to shapes, you can choose many different sized plates, from a teeny 4-inch bread plate to an oversized 14 inch dinner plate (usually used as the base or cups, soup bowls and soup plates. China should hold food comfortably, giving the appearance of an adequate serving size that is not too chintzy and not too gaudy.

Colors have to be considered for food, china and décor. You may not match the food with linen and décor, but the china and serving dishes definitely need to complement the food. Chocolate cake on a black plate looks dull, but chocolate cake on a pink plate looks vibrant. People react to all the color they see; this includes the food and the plate.

Consumer response to the colors of food and décor are different. People respond positively to food and beverages that are red, orange, yellow, green, pink, purple and gold, but like china and glasses that are white, clear, black, gold, silver or pink.

The color of walls and floors elicit yet a different response. Bright yellow walls tend to cause a feeling of fatigue. Infants cry more in bright yellow rooms and hand, pale yellow gives a sense of harmony. Red does several things at once. Red rooms can cause excitement (good), agitation (bad) and loss of a sense of time (good if the customer is in a casino, bad if the customer is in a fast food restaurant). Pale green walls can cause headaches, but people who worked in dark green rooms experience fewer headaches and had fewer aches and pains. Silver is associated with science and cold (as in unfriendly) and stark white walls or very bright lighting causes headaches over extended times.

In one classic study, poultry raised in a red environment were happier and ate less. In another study, the bulb in the refrigerator of dieters was changed to shed a blue light on all food and food was eaten from blue plates. Blues acted like a natural appetite suppressant, as there are not natural blue foods. Blue light made the food look unnatural and unappetizing. Many things to consider when you construct your menu and design your dining room.

Here are some suggestions for obtaining balance and contrast with just the right splash of color on our plates:

Textures
Food can be grainy, shiny, smooth, velvety, coarse, rough or smooth; similar textures are boring. Combine hard and soft textures, smooth and rough, etc.

Shapes
Combine foods with different shapes. Even if you offer a sampler plate of three scoops of sorbet, add different shapes with cookie “cigars,” nuts, fruit slices, etc.

Ready to Arrange
When plating up don’t leave too much space between items, but don’t overcrowd. Don’t have to have everything huddled in the center, but you don’t want to go over the rim either.

Focus
Select the point of focus. It doesn’t have to be in the center of the plate. If you have different heights, have the tallest item in the back. Don’t have the low center items surrounded by high foods (avoid the mountains and valley look).

Flow
How should the eye travel? Think about scanning a beautiful sunset. That’s how customers should look at a plate. Be sure that the items are arranged in a way that allows the eye to travel in a pleasant, appetizing manner.

Decorating plates
Here are some options for decorating rims and plates:

Herbs, nuts and spices can be finely chopped or ground. Apply a very light coating of oil to the rim and sprinkle with herbs, nuts or spices. Tip off excess before adding food.

Sauces. Use the same sauce as the sauce served on the rest of the plate. You can pool sauce underneath, used for height, such as salsa or use squirt bottles to create “painting.”

For dessert plates you can create a paper template and sprinkle with cocoa or powdered sugar.