Brief history of food presentations
Or even like this:
Likewise, chefs follow trends and try their best to stay away from a plate of food looking like it’s 1977. Some even wouldn’t get caught dead plating stuff from last summer!
Take a look at the pictures of the dishes below and tell me if they belong to one of Paris or Chicago’s trendiest restaurant, or if they definitely have not a certain “Saturday night fever” feel to them:
photo courtesy of flabbergastedly.com
photo courtesy of flabbergastedly.com
photo courtesy of flabbergastedly.com
photo courtesy of flabbergastedly.com
Right, I thought so! Pretty horrendous food, isn’t it?
But make no mistake about it. At one point, most people, and that could probably be your grand-parents, parents, or even you, went totally crazy about how cool this food actually looks. It seems, today, quite unimaginable.
So food presentation, like fashion, evolves. Who decides that? Well, marketers might tell you that demand (clients) creates offer (chefs). I think it’s a chicken and egg story. One thing is for sure, is that chefs, a little like haute-couture designers, remain receptive to what their clients demand, and offer their creation to the culinary world. Today, chefs like Grant Achatz (Chicago), Ferran Adria (Spain), Michel Bras (France) or Pierre Gagnaire (France) among others, are the force that pushes the canons of culinary arts design forward.
plate by Alinea's Grant Achatz
plate by Alinea's Grant Achatz
plate by Alinea's Grant Achatz
Not only does food “fashion” evolves; It also actually evolves quite fast. The frankenfoods you saw earlier date back from circa 1960-70. An era in terms of culinary timeline! Look, even today, spectacular foams and spheres for instance, invented by Ferran “the alchemist” Adria, and although all the rage a couple of years ago, already get a slightly tired air of deja vu, mainly induced by their ubiquity. What will happen of them in, say, 10 or 20 years?
foam (photo courtesy of relaischateaux.com)
- foam and sphere (photo courtesy of chefspencil.com)
And of course, culinary “coolness” is subject to fluctuating demographics, cultural differences and other factors. What looks coolest to someone in rural Iowa may look totally out of it to someone in New York City for instance, and vice versa.
What interests me here, however, is that for my plate to look like it has pizzazz, I’ll need to keep in mind 2 things. First, I need to make sure I know my audience (Iowa or NYC?) and two, I need to follow culinary trends relevant to my audience. Keep that in mind when you plate your food, people, because that’s important to remember.
LESSON FOR TODAY:
1. Know your audience
2. Be aware of culinary trends for your audience.
What is this blog about? Read the first post here.
3 Responses to “Brief history of food presentations”
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I have been ordering Gevalia since 1986, and I love the product and the service. Can’t say enough good things about it. My friends and family always compliment me on my coffee, and I’ve given it as a gift to friends to try it out and fall in love with it as well. As for my Gevalia Coffee Review, it is the best coffee and customer service around.
Good post…..even a year after youve posted it, its still relevent, probably even more so.
To Rose Dalila- What are you talking about you moron.
Good post, and great (contemporary) photos. This would also be fun as a web comic, no? A history of food presentation … skyscraper-high vertical presentations of the 90s … a tsunami of molecular gastronomic presentations … Anyway, thanks for sharing. I’m enjoying your tweets.