Ok. By now, if you follow my blog and its numerous posts on plating food, you should have a good idea of what we are looking for, especially in the general areas: right plate, right colors, a nice crust for proteins, play with textures, etc… Today, I wanted to talk about the little kitchen...

Most culinary students try to improve their plated food presentations by adding stuff. They try to add because they think that by adding something, anything, like an extravagant garnish for instance, their plate will always look better. They think it can only add to the presentation. Unfortunately, the...

  This post is about the technique of cooking vegetables so they keep their natural, vibrant colors.  In culinary arts, the importance of color is easy to grasp. One must see a black & white photo of a dish and compare it with a nicely colored one to realize that color is essential to bring unity. And...

Texture is the visual or tactile feel of an element. In each composition, surfaces have different characteristics and appearances. The diner perceives these differences and responds to them, as much as he does to color. photo courtesy of starchefs.com  texture highlights (see photo above): caramelized...

My recent post “food plating: choose your support” has drawn quite a lot of interest. Today we hear from one reader. She made the following comment: “Submitted on 2009/07/27 at 11:18am I found this post to be particularly interesting. The stark difference in the pictures really stressed...

A diner in a restaurant is sensitive to culinary presentations, very much like a viewer is sensitive to a piece of artwork. He or she responds to stimuli and psychological perceptions influenced by his or her background, education, trends, etc… Chefs can influence that perception by effectively...

Just like your wardrobe, food is highly subjected to fashion and trends. I’m suspecting that most of us today wouldn’t normally dress in psychedelic outfits and platform boots to our next meeting in town, or go out to dinner dressed like this:         Or even like this:                   Likewise,...

Presentation of food is a complex art form, and is equally as important as taste. Patrons demand to be visually surprised and pleased. Therefore, a chef is a designer. He/She has to obey rules which, just like in architecture or photography, make a creation look impeccable or, at the contrary, visually...