FOOD DESIGN CONCEPT DEVELOPED FOR FOOD PLATING

Food Design Concepts

Food can stimulate several of our senses—sight, smell, taste, and touch. Food design can be explained as a selective and thoughtful process of cooking and presenting food to maximize its visual appeal.

Food presentation is not limited to ready-to-eat foods; it starts from selecting the ingredients, the cooking process, the cuisine, the chef’s skills, and the service wares. My perception of food will not be the same as yours, but visual appeal is mostly the same to everyone.

There is a great saying: “We eat with our eyes first.” This is very true—an indifferently presented dish will not get any praise for the chef.

If, in reading this book, you gain wisdom about cooking and presenting an excellent dish, our vision will be achieved. Please pass the knowledge you gain on to your colleagues and juniors—“knowledge is to share, and to share is to care.”

Food design is developed in a next-generation Indian cuisine movement by modifying, processing, arranging, or decorating food to enhance its aesthetic appeal.

Nouvelle cuisine chefs often consider the visual presentation of foods at many different stages of food preparation, from the manner of tying or sewing meats, to the type of cut used in chopping and slicing meats or vegetables, to the style of mould used in a baked dish.

The arrangement and overall styling of food on the plate is called “plating.”

Some common styles of plating include a “classic” or “old school” arrangement in which the main item is in the front of the plate with vegetable or starches in the back, a “stacked” arrangement of the various items, or the main item leaning or “shingled” on a vegetable bed or side item.

Item location on the plate is often referenced as for the face of a clock, with six o’ clock being the position closest to the diner.

A basic rule of plating, and even in some cases prepping, is to make sure you have the five components of a dish: protein, traditionally at a six o’ clock position; vegetable, at a two o’ clock position; starch, at an eleven o’ clock position; sauce; and garnish.

This kind of plating is seen in culinary colleges only for teaching purposes.

Chefs are only limited by their own creativity when it comes to plate designs nowadays.

Clock styles are outdated, and many chefs don’t follow guidelines. Instead, they use an abstract style, line style, pattern style, or even serve food straight on the cooking pan.

Lateral Arrangement

Slow roast lamb loin, coconut tossed rice dumpling, stir-fried spinach.In this style, we tried to arrange food on a line with alternate textures and items and focused on texture and cooking, since it is a medium rare lamb loin. This style is fit for a confident chef to show off his or her meat-cooking skills.