Food Presentation Depends On Our Aesthetic Sense!

By Author: samantha kirk
Total Articles: 62
Comment this article

I am a big time foodie and never compromise with eating. Though I don’t over eat, I am not someone who gets satisfied with the smell of the food and carry on with my dieting. I am not a Hollywood actress who has to have a size zero figure. I love trying different cuisines and different kind of food. I am always glued to the food channels that are a part of my Dish TV Packages. I enjoy learning about the new cuisines around the world and anything related to the food industry. I would never boast about having chef-like culinary skills, but I have sharpened my skills by watching these programs. I have become wiser with my cooking. It is fun to see some of the chefs really enjoy what they do and they treat cooking like an art and treat the dish that comes out like their baby. Even if there are people who are happy to eat anything and not care about the taste or how they are made from would become foodies by watching these programs.
I don’t know how many of them give importance to the presentation of a dish. By presentation, I don’t mean that it should be a perfect one with the right setting and placement. It just means ...
... presenting the food the right way. A food plating or presentation depends on three components. The first and the most important is the cooking itself. If it is a sweet or savory, a main dish or a side dish, etc. The second element is the equipment used: whether the food that is made is steamed, boiled, baked, barbequed, fried, etc. the third element is the plate selection. It is the kind of plate or bowl that is going to be used for plating the food. The first component can be controlled by the person who is cooking as the choice of dish is completely up to him. The third element depends on the aesthetic sense that a person has. It does not mean that the dish that is going to be used for plating should be fine china. It just needs to be the right dish for the food.
As I said, presentation need not be too frilly. A simple garnish over the food would also be good enough. The way the food is placed also comes under the presentation category. For example, if you have made a risotto and a dip for it. You can mould the risotto using a cup of an interesting shape and place the dip in a small cup nest to the molded risotto. This does not require any garnish or expert vegetable cutting skills for presentation. There are certain dishes that look its best when it is in the form of sloth. Soups can be the best examples. Any food that is messy to eat and which does not come under the “table manners” category can have rough-look presentations. The food is tempting when they are presented this way, if the presentation is too perfect, then they would not come under the fast food category.
If you have vegetable carving skills, then it is an additional advantage when it comes to food presentation. Your vegetable carving skills need not necessarily be as good as making roses out tomatoes, animals using different vegetables, etc. learning to make interesting shapes with different vegetable would be good enough. Even shaving a carrot vertically would make a great accompaniment in presenting the food. Food presentation is not as hard as many perceive it to be. It all depends on how well we can make the dish that we have cooked pleasing to the eye.

Samantha Kirk is a freelance writer and an active blogger. She is a foodie and enjoys watching food programs that she has subscribed through her Dish TV Packages.