Elegance at Home: Simple Ways to Give Dinner a Restaurant Look
Jan 19 '01
The Bottom Line Fancy presentation is simple. It just requires application of a few simple principles of color and arrangement.
Remember the first time you want to a fancy restaurant? Not only did the food taste good, but it also looked good. I used to think that making dinner look artful was impossible. I have since leaned otherwise. Presentation is much easier than people actually think: following some simple principles can easily turn food into art.
Before you even try cooking, get a good knife. You'll be much happier. Right now, I'm torn between Wustof and Global with a weak leaning toward Global. Also, I will assume that the reader has some basic cooking skills. If you don't know how to boil water, all is not lost. Spending a few minutes watching the How-to videos on foodtv.com is really all you need to do.
There are two simple ways to make things look better: color and shape. Don't worry. It's all easy. If you start to worry, pour yourself some of the cooking wine...I won't tell (by the way, cooking wine tastes awful!).
Color
Long ago and far away, someone told me that all Italian dishes were supposed to contain the colors of the Italian flag. Is it true? I have no idea. It does give a good starting point for discussing color.
The Italian flag is red, green, and white. If you look at a color wheel, you'll notice that green and red are contrasting colors. What does that mean? Contrasting colors play off each other. When they are next to each other, they mutually make the other appear more vivid. That is the name of the game when choosing colors in foods: contrast. Make colors stand out by placing opposites next to each other.
Another way to bring out color is to parboil vegetables. By briefly immersing a brightly colored vegetable in boiling water, the color actually becomes more intense. The colors darken and become more vivid. You don't want to fully cook the veggies...just let the colors come out.
A second commonly used color scheme is dark and light. Dark reduction sauces on a light colored food or a white plate will give beautiful contrast. The sauce will stand out.
A brief example that highlights the point: serve a grilled or broiled salmon on a bed of wilted spinach (you can wilt the fresh spinach in boiling water if you desire, however I prefer to do it in a hot pan...the effect is similar). The heat used to wilt the greens will intensify the color. Placing the pink fish on top of greens will highlight the contrasting fish and make it stand out.
Don't forget to decorate the plate while you're at it. The plate is part of the appearance of the dish. Don't neglect it. Large, oversize, white plates or bowls are the easiest and most versatile. Get some.
The plate can be decorated in a multitude of ways; some wet and some dry. I like richly colored, aromatic, flavorful sauces, used sparingly to liven up a dull white plate. Two that I like: 1) make a cilantro mayonnaise--grind the leaves (stems removed) of 2 bunches of cilantro with minimal olive oil, an egg, sautéed shallots, and a touch of garlic in a blender. If you are afraid of using raw egg, use cream instead of egg and oil. You should be left with an intense, delicious, green sauce. 2) Red pepper sauce--roast red bell peppers, skin up, until the skin is crispy. Throw them in a plastic bag for 10 minutes and let them sweat. The skins will virtually fall off. Puree and season if desired. Fresh, ripe peppers are very sweet and probably don't need seasoning. Load the green and red sauces into separate squeeze bottles (like those used for mustard and catsup) and you are ready to decorate.
Take the fish from above. Using your squeeze bottle, put a green stripe, squiggle, or some other shape on the fish. You may want to practice on something first if this is for company. The more even and symmetrical the lines, the better it will look. Next, put a few red squiggles on the white plate. The plate should now show white plate, red pepper sauce, spinach, salmon, and green cilantro sauce. All the colors compliment and contrast each other, leaving a very striking dish. We’re not done yet.
We decorated with wet, now lets look at decorating dry. For years, Emeril has been serving food on plates lightly dusted with Essence. What is Essence? Basically it is a Emeril’s blend of Cajun spice whose notable ingredients are paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano, and thyme. Note the red/green ingredients. A light dusting of this reddish powder on the outside rime of the plate provides the same, if somewhat muted, contrast that we are trying to get from above. Parsley flakes are also commonly used to decorate the plate. Personally, I prefer fresh chopped cilantro since it is more aromatic, but either will do. Also consider finely chopper red, green, or yellow peppers. You could try thinly cut scallions. If you are looking for a white contrast, try some grated cheese or, even better, thinly sliced garlic. In fact, I’d throw some thin sliced garlic on top of that fish dish (nicely arranged in a star shape) after I dusted with Essence. The sky is the limit. I’ve even been known to dust things with Wassabi powder or ginger powder. Be creative. If it doesn’t look good, wipe it off and try again. Once you have squirted and dusted to your heart’s content, be sure to wipe the plate with a wet towel to remove any stray marks. Serve!
This is not meant to be comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination. It is just a start. Play. Have fun. Include the family. Kids love to squirt things.
Shape
Dinners in fine restaurants often derive their elegance from the height of the food. Getting that same look is simple. All you need is a form. Small spring form pans are best, but cookie cutters and even small sections of PVC pipe will work. The diameter of the form is up to you. For Potatoes and rice, 2.5 to 3 inches makes sense. Put the form on the plate, fill with something semi rigid, scrape the top so that it is flat, and remove the form. You should have a column of something on the center of the plate. Mashed potatoes or rice make excellent bases. Todd English, the executive chef at Olives, does his with Tuna Tartar. Anything malleable and slightly stick will work. Yet again, be creative. Try something.
Arrange the main course so that it uses the column. I once saw a rice column, on which steamed crawfish were arranged as a tent, garnished with a scallion (note the red, white, green combination). The dish was very elegant and was almost 8 inches high. It was simple and tall.
An example for home: Mash new (red) potatoes with the skins on. Roast a rack of lamb (coat the lamb in a mustard/corn meal paste, roast 25 minutes at 400). On a large plate, build a 2 to 3-inch column of potatoes. Separate the lamb ribs and arrange them like a star on top of the potatoes with the meat on column and the bones touching the plate. It only takes an extra minute to serve it like this instead of just tossing the stuff on the plate. The extra elegance is nice and requires almost no additional work.
Now, we start to combine the techniques:
Take the lamb from above and dust with some diced cilantro. Surround the potatoes with a lamb demi-glace (which is available commercially) or your own clear, dark brown sauce. This gives you height from the potatoes, arrangement patterns from the meat, and the red, white, green contrast. Simple and elegant.
Instead of serving shrimp in a bowl with a horseradish sauce, make it on a plate. Make a ½ to ¾ inch slice through the center of the head of the shrimp, fillet wise. The idea is to make a foot. You’ll have to try it a few time to get it right. If done properly, the shrimp will stand up once they are cooked. Plate a small dollop of horseradish sauce on the white plate; mount the shrimp in the sauce. Repeat for each shrimp. Dust with cilantro. This style of shrimp dish (hmm...I can't seem to call it by its proper name...yeah profanity filters) gives you height and color contrast in a more unique service style.
It is all so easy. With a little thought, it is obvious how one could dress up a simple pasta dish and make it look fancy without adding very much work. I’ll leave that as an exercise for you.
Most importantly, If you want to learn how to make your food look better, watch how they plate food on cooking shows. If they can do it on TV, you know you can do it at home. Forget about duplicating their recipes! Recipes are too limiting. Lean to duplicate their technique and then apply that to your own cooking. It is all just a matter of thought and the application of simple principles. Hey, if I can do it, so can you.
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bdolcourt
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Member: Bram Dolcourt
Location: Valhalla, NY
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After graduating in Chemistry from Brandeis and a short EMS career, I'm a Medical Student.
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