In this edition of Epicurious 101, Institute of Culinary Education chef and culinary instructor Ann Ziata demonstrates how to expertly plate your food at home. From choosing the right plate to the importance of highlighting the key ingredients, follow Ann’s steps to plate like a pro.
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00:00I'm Anne Ziada, professional chef and culinary instructor,
00:03and today I'm going to show you how to elevate your plating skills.
00:05We'll be going over six techniques to help you plate like a pro.
00:09This is Plating 101.
00:16Your plate is your canvas.
00:17Different foods belong on different plates.
00:19On my left side here is a big serving of pasta, of spaghetti pomodoro.
00:25It's in a soup bowl, so it looks very cramped and crowded.
00:28There's nothing wrong with this.
00:29It could look better.
00:30So on my right, I have a variety of dishes that you might have at home.
00:34I'm starting here with the wide shallow bowl.
00:36Already it looks bigger, more expansive, more relaxing.
00:40It has a little bit of a slope to it.
00:41It can hold pasta sauce really well.
00:44I have tongs here.
00:45You could also use a fork.
00:46You can use chopsticks, but tongs are nice and big,
00:48and they're going to help me create some shape here.
00:50Just give it a little twirl.
00:52So I have a plate wipe here.
00:54It's just a paper towel or a napkin with a little bit of water to it.
00:57We use these in every professional kitchen,
00:59making sure that the plate leaves the kitchen gorgeous.
01:02We're going to add some extra touches that weren't included in the first one.
01:06We're going to add a few garnishes.
01:07This is going to add more contrast to the dish as well.
01:10I have some Parmesan cheese here, and I have a microplane.
01:12I'm just going to move the cheese in one direction.
01:15For our basil garnish, we just have some fresh basil here,
01:18and then let's just place a few more artistically around.
01:22So looking at the two side by side,
01:24the one that I plated, you get a nice height from it.
01:27You can see more of the pasta. It's more inviting.
01:30This, we don't really have a clear focal point.
01:32It's all kind of mushed together.
01:34So when it comes to plating, it's all to serve the food and make the food shine.
01:41Contrast could be a difference of textures.
01:44We have soft elements, crunchy elements.
01:46These are things that we don't just taste, but we can visually see.
01:50And then also contrast of colors is nice too.
01:52Contrast is going to make the dish visually more interesting.
01:55It's going to make it easier for your eye to distinguish the items on the dish.
02:00The first bowl I have here is a bowl of butternut squash soup.
02:03There's nothing wrong with the soup, but it looks a little boring.
02:07It's a little one note.
02:08Starting with a nice empty bowl.
02:10I have my soup here, and I want to leave about an inch or so at the top.
02:14It gives the soup a little bit of a frame.
02:16Add a little creme fraiche to the soup.
02:18It's going to add a contrast of color with a little white in the middle.
02:21It's also going to add a little contrast of flavor with a couple of pieces of crouton here.
02:25We're adding something that's dry and crunchy to something that is very smooth and pureed.
02:30Some chopped chives.
02:32Now we have a fresh green element contrasting with something that's been cooked.
02:35We have our two dishes here side by side.
02:37We can compare the contrast of when your eye has place to go.
02:41You see more contrast.
02:42It's going to look fresher.
02:44So it makes the croutons look crunchier, which is really cool.
02:47Height is an important element in plating.
02:50Not every dish needs to look like a little pyramid,
02:52but we do want to add a little bit of height to it just so we can see everything in the dish.
02:57Adding height to your plate will make it look more dramatic.
03:00It makes it look more elegant, and it's going to make it look more three-dimensional.
03:03So here we have a salad.
03:05First, it just looks very messy.
03:08There's no focal point for my eye to go to.
03:10There's no visual direction for my eye to follow.
03:14First thing we want to do is add a little bit of color.
03:16First thing we're going to do is start with a nice clean plate.
03:19We're going to toss our lettuces.
03:21And here we have some lovely chicories.
03:23We have some radicchio, some endive.
03:26The chicories here, they add a lot more color to the dish.
03:29You can see a lot more contrast as well.
03:32And the shape is really interesting and fun.
03:34Whereas the spinach here, it can have its time and place, but it looks a little flat.
03:39The greens I have here are going to hold their shape better too over time.
03:43They're not going to wilt as easily as spinach will.
03:46Add a little vinaigrette here, just a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.
03:51Gently add a little bit to the leaves.
03:54On our first plate, the dressing, it looks like it was just kind of poured on top,
03:58which means it's not going to get evenly dressed.
04:00If we're pouring the dressing on the salad, it's also going to flatten it as well.
04:04And we are going for height here.
04:06Along with them, I'm going to toss in some crushed olives.
04:09So we're doing it a little differently than the original salad,
04:11which has it diced up into nice bite-sized pieces.
04:14We want a little more drama for this plate.
04:16So the best way to add drama other than height is having something a little oversized.
04:21So I have these two wedges of kabocha here.
04:24This is going to give a little base for the salad to build off of.
04:27If you're not using kabocha squash,
04:29a cauliflower steak or a large piece of broccoli, place our leaves down.
04:34I don't have to use all of them.
04:35I don't want to overcrowd it.
04:36So I'm just using what I need.
04:38Right now, I think it needs a little more green in there and it should look pretty natural.
04:42I once had a chef tell me that leaves should look like fallen leaves,
04:45like they just fell from a tree very naturally.
04:48So these are some really thinly shaved radishes.
04:51Quick pickled onions.
04:53So this looks a lot more colorful, looks more even.
04:56It's a really attractive fuchsia color.
04:59They become a little bit more tender to eat.
05:01They're not this bite of raw onion, which in this salad, it's just going to overpower.
05:06And it's very easy to make too.
05:07We have our feta here.
05:08I'm just going to use my hands to crumble it.
05:10Again, we want to make it look very natural, very elegant.
05:12I'm just kind of filling in around, trying to make it a little even, but not super symmetrical.
05:18When you're doing things in a more scattered style,
05:21I like to think more like a kaleidoscope,
05:23where it's actually the same image repeating over and over.
05:26And it looks like this big, beautiful design.
05:28And it's a little like messy in a way,
05:30but it's a very organized mess that it makes it aesthetically beautiful to look at.
05:34We have our pistachios.
05:36In the original salad, the pistachios are left whole.
05:39You don't really get to see their pretty green interior.
05:41So I prefer to use raw pistachios, a little bit of a chop on them,
05:45just so we still get that fresh green nutty flavor, see more of the color.
05:49We have some mint leaves here.
05:50Gently tear them.
05:52And this is my kabocha salad.
05:55And it is so dramatically different than the first one that it's almost comical.
06:00It's the same ingredients.
06:01It's the same elements.
06:02We just transform them just a little bit, just a few tweaks
06:05to take something that looks a little bit more pulled from your fridge
06:09and something much more high-end celebratory you could have at a special event.
06:13You could make if you're trying to impress someone, you have your friends over.
06:16Something you'd want to take a picture of, really.
06:22What is negative space?
06:23Usually it refers to any emptiness on the plate.
06:26If the plate is too full, it's going to look cluttered.
06:29We don't have a place for our eye to relax and to go to.
06:32Adding negative space is going to add contrast.
06:34It's going to add drama.
06:35It's going to give a way for things to pop and give it more dimension.
06:39In front of me, I have a dish that's plated with a pea puree, scallops, and shallot chips.
06:44There's no negative space.
06:45It looks bunched together.
06:46I lose a lot of the shapes of the scallops and even of the puree.
06:50I think also this dish has a lot of circles in it,
06:53which is very common in culinary arts where we love circles,
06:56but sometimes I think they're overdone.
06:59We want to add more straight lines.
07:00Right away, we have a pea puree.
07:02It looks really lovely, fresh green color.
07:04It's contrasting.
07:05It was a couple of tablespoons worth.
07:07I'm going to do it a little off-center.
07:09It's just going to be a little more interesting,
07:10and it's going to give us more negative space.
07:12I made a little dollop of the sauce,
07:14and I pushed down against the plate so you can see the negative space in the sauce.
07:18This is also going to give us a little landing pad for our scallops to live.
07:22So I have the scallops here.
07:23These are also a presentation side up, which is going to look much more appealing,
07:27whereas in this plating, it looks like the presentation side is being hidden,
07:31and we always are thinking about when we're plating what we want to show off,
07:34and then also what we want to hide.
07:35You see a lot more of this crispy ring.
07:38It looks very appetizing.
07:39I'm going to have them sit along the straight line.
07:41This way, they're not floating on their own.
07:44It's going to look more cohesive, and it's going to look more dramatic.
07:46It's the appropriate amount of sauce.
07:48It's not too much.
07:48It's not too little.
07:49Also, we have three here.
07:51When there's two of something on a plate,
07:52whether it's two scallops or two scoops of ice cream or two whatever,
07:56they're going to feel a little bit in competition with each other.
07:59Three, they're more balanced.
08:00They tell a story.
08:01There's a beginning, a middle, and an ending,
08:03and they're not just like one versus one.
08:06The shallots on this plate here, they're a little big.
08:08They kind of hide the shapes of the scallop.
08:11Here, we're going to use some smaller pieces.
08:13They're going to add some nice straight lines to the dish, which we love,
08:16and just a little crispy element of contrast too.
08:18For our last garnish, sliced scallions.
08:21Flavor-wise, this is going to work with this dish,
08:23which is a little kind of like a springtime fresh green,
08:26and this is going to highlight that freshness
08:28and kind of mirror it on a small level.
08:30And also, it has negative space, which we love.
08:32We love to see little holes in food, little lacy patterns.
08:35It's just very interesting and very pretty.
08:37I decided to just do one ring because there's a pile of the shallots,
08:41and I think one allows us to really take advantage
08:44of the negative space of the scallion,
08:46and it just looks nice and simplified.
08:48This dish to me really highlights the beauty of negative space.
08:51There's a lot of areas we can see underneath things,
08:54we can see behind things,
08:55and we also have a lot of emptiness on the plate too,
08:58which just gives our brain places to relax.
09:00The first one looks a little bit more choked up, right?
09:02Everything's kind of on top of each other,
09:04and you kind of are losing a lot of the shapes,
09:06a lot of the textures,
09:07because they're all just kind of hidden in this one blur.
09:10Negative space is going to allow your dish room to breathe.
09:13It's going to provide more contrast, more balance.
09:16It's going to make it much more visually interesting.
09:22It's important to highlight the key ingredient
09:24if you have an entree with a really nice focal point, right?
09:28This is kind of the main event of the meal,
09:30the main event of the dish.
09:31In this case, our main event here is a steak.
09:34We want to highlight it that it's so special.
09:36We don't want to cover it in sauce.
09:37We don't want to pile a bunch of things on top of it.
09:40And this plate here, this is very like TV dinner style
09:43or kids plate style at a cafeteria.
09:46We're going to take these exact elements
09:48and we're going to replate them
09:49so it looks a little bit more fine dining.
09:51The first thing we're going to do is cut the steak.
09:53I'm going to slice it at a little bit of an angle
09:55so we can really show off the inside of the meat
09:58and it will lay a little bit more relaxed.
10:00The steak sauce.
10:02Chefs love to put sauces on the bottom of the plate
10:04rather than on top of the food
10:06because this way we can see the food.
10:08The original plate here has a ramekin
10:10which can look really thought out
10:12and looks a little intentional,
10:13but in the end of the day,
10:14it's just going to get dumped anyway.
10:16So it's just kind of extra clutter on the dish.
10:18I'm going to do just a straight line
10:20so it follows the length of the steak,
10:23just a little off center
10:24so I have room for the vegetables next to it.
10:26We want enough just so it looks like
10:28it's going to not overpower the meat,
10:30but also not skimpy.
10:32Now you can see here the contrast
10:34of the inside of the meat,
10:35the nice crispy crust,
10:37generous amount of sauce,
10:38but not too much.
10:39Nothing's on top of it.
10:40Nothing's hiding it.
10:41It looks inviting versus this steak.
10:44You have to do a little work to kind of get to it
10:46and you're kind of hiding the doneness of the meat.
10:48So we have our sides here.
10:49We have some carrots and some broccoli rabe,
10:52roasted, nice and crispy.
10:54They're cut a little differently, right?
10:55We have round cuts here
10:56that are just a little kind of basic and boring,
11:00just like little logs.
11:01This is a nice roll cut on the carrot
11:03so you have a little bit more of a sharp line.
11:05You have some angles.
11:06You could see also the inside of the carrot.
11:08Really lovely dramatic shapes here.
11:10I'm going to start with the greens on the bottom.
11:12Just a little bed,
11:14a nice alternative to spinach.
11:16Lovely bitter green.
11:17Right away we have a nice contrast of
11:19something that is meaty and cooked
11:21and something that is fresh and leafy.
11:23Add some alternating carrots and broccoli rabe.
11:28I'm putting them together rather than keep them separate
11:31just because it should feel like one dish.
11:33Everything should feel very cohesive
11:35rather than like strangers at a party
11:37not talking to each other.
11:38I'm just making sure that there's contrast
11:40between the lines of the steak and the carrots.
11:43If they all look kind of parallel,
11:45it's going to clash.
11:46But here they're going in different directions,
11:48which is going to make it interesting.
11:50When we look at the two side by side,
11:52this one looks a little more ingredient,
11:54focused individually.
11:55There's not a lot of cohesion.
11:57They're just kind of floating in space
11:59and they have nothing in common.
12:01But here everyone is getting along.
12:03Just looks more exciting to eat.
12:04The sauce is free and flowing,
12:06which makes it look more relaxed,
12:08inviting and fun.
12:09When you highlight the key ingredient of the dish,
12:11it makes it feel very special.
12:13This is also the focal point of the whole dinner.
12:15We really want to make sure that we are
12:17giving that the attention it deserves.
12:22When it comes to plating,
12:23we want to remember that it's an art
12:25and we're just having fun.
12:27And I found that dessert is the course
12:28where you can get away with
12:29having the most fun as a chef.
12:31I'm telling you all my secrets,
12:33all the tips and tricks that I use,
12:34that I was taught.
12:36But at the end of the day, it's an art form.
12:38So use your own creativity,
12:39do what excites you,
12:40do what you think is beautiful,
12:42make it your own.
12:43To my left, we have a very classic
12:45s'mores, roasted marshmallows,
12:47chocolate and some graham crackers.
12:49We're going to take the same elements,
12:51deconstruct them,
12:52and we're going to also add some ice cream
12:54because for me,
12:55a real dessert has chocolate
12:56and something frozen.
12:58These are graham crackers
12:59that have been crushed into crumbs.
13:02I'm going to create kind of the ice cream
13:04as the focal point
13:04and then a bunch of lines
13:05that are directing us toward that.
13:08So I'm going to do a little bit off center,
13:10a little crumb trail.
13:11It's just like a teaspoon or so,
13:13maybe a tablespoon at most.
13:15I can make it a little cleaner,
13:16but I don't want it to look too fussy.
13:19I want to look like I've stumbled
13:20in the forest
13:22and I see this little path
13:23and I'm like,
13:23this is going to lead somewhere delicious
13:25all the way across the plate.
13:26I think for this,
13:27we can have a little fun
13:29and touch the rims of the plate.
13:30So I've got my straight line.
13:31There's some few stray crumbs around it,
13:33but I think it looks natural.
13:35Then we are going to
13:36put a little chocolate sauce on the plate.
13:38So this is the same as the Hershey's
13:40just melted down
13:41and I'm going to make a little circle,
13:43just a little dollop of it.
13:44I'm going to try not to make a mess
13:46across the plate,
13:47something for the ice cream to sit on.
13:49I have ice cream
13:50that's been cut into planks.
13:52So what you can do
13:53is take a container of ice cream,
13:55spread it into a terrine mold
13:57or like a cake,
13:58like a square loaf pan,
14:00or you can cut it directly
14:02from the container
14:03it's in into these nice squares.
14:05It plays off of the shape
14:07of the chocolate in the s'mores
14:09and the graham cracker.
14:10It also adds more contrast.
14:12We have some nice right angles here
14:13and a dish that has more circles on it.
14:15I have a nice offset spatula.
14:17So I'm going to add
14:18my little square of ice cream
14:21right on top of the chocolate
14:22and we're going to top it
14:23with three little roasted marshmallows.
14:27And that is your little
14:28fancier dinner party s'mores.
14:31You can see this one
14:32is a little bit more opened up.
14:33It's a little more abstract.
14:34We have a little frozen ice cream.
14:36It plays with similar shapes.
14:38All the ingredients are mostly the same,
14:40but it's just a little more fun.
14:41With plating desserts
14:42and being creative,
14:43there's really no rules.
14:44It's going to taste delicious.
14:45It's going to look really fun.
14:47Plating is definitely a skill
14:48and it's something worth practicing
14:50and kind of exploring with
14:52and creating your own style.
14:53It's going to make
14:54all of your dining experiences
14:56more elegant and a little bit more special.
14:59These little details
15:00make a huge difference
15:01when it comes to presentation.