Wednesday 7 October 2009

Decorating a Plate



I have been trying to learn the art of decorating a plate in the fancy style that chefs often use. If you are going to try doing it you need to spend plenty of time practising. The chefs make it look easy but it isn't. Obviously the food used for the decoration has to match the food on the plate as regards taste but if you are looking for particular colour ideas you could try some of these these.

With Green
Take a bunch of fresh herbs such as Parsley and Sage. Immerse them in boiling water for 20 seconds. Strain them and put straight into ice cold water. Put the herbs into a blender and mix with some light oil such as rapeseed oil. Add some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and blend again. Bottle the resulting liquid and stopper it to keep it fresh. Use a paintbrush to put it on the plate or simply dribble it into a round spot.

With Red
Tomato Ketchup

With Orange
Barbecue Sauce

With Yellow
A slice of Lemon

With Yellow
Sweetcorn.

With Purple
Mash some beetroot and put it into a piping bag.

With Brown
Brown sauce.

With Brown for a dessert
Choclate sauce

With red for a dessert
Strawberry sauce.

4 comments:

  1. As is the case with many things, practice makes perfect, I suppose. That and a lot of damp paper towels, a la Gordon Ramsay! :0)
    Canadian Chickadee

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  2. Very pretty.

    I love it when a restaurant (or more accutaely a chef) decorates the plate with something really yummy. My favourites are slices of starfruit and chinese lanterns/physalis (that I saw in tesco last night and couldn't resist buying, but I doubt they'll be making it to a plate before they get eaten!)

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  3. Yes, Helen, it was seeing a dessert plate decorated with those at our garden centre restaurant that set me off on doing this!

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  4. Just found another great food blog with beautiful presentation: http://www.cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/

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Comments are always welcome.