Spent a few hours trying out different ways of plating a dish. Some seem really pretentious, hah! While some resemble how many of the trendy restaurants are doing. It was fun, and a great way of exploring visual aesthetics in food. Also shows how a dish is plated can affect how a guest may approach eating it. DISCLAIMER: All things I say are just opinion, and you are more than welcome to disagree with me. How much weight my opinion holds is up to you. But I hope you enjoy the photos.
On a side note:
Parfait recipe is made lighter by using 18% cream instead of 35%. Adding iota carrageen to bring back the rich texture and body is a great way to achieve lowering fat content.
500g of poached chicken liver (poached sous vide, in milk, with star anise, bay leaves, and seasoning)
400g 18% cream (brought to a simmer with 2g iota carrageenan)
100g butter
seasoning.
Once all ingredients are cooked, puree in a blender until smooth. Cool overnight.
The first 2 are probably my favourite, aesthetically. Also, to me, the plating makes sense and doesn’t feel as rigid. You get bites of parfait, skin, and herbs, and you get to decide how much of the coulis you want per bite. It feels composed, without being strict.
Contrast the first 2 with the next 2 plating styles. These just screams rigid. Where’s the white table cloth? To me, if I plate a dish like this its because I want to take full control of just how much of each ingredient you get per bite. But that’s just my way of thinking. I could be wrong here.
The next 2, I think, is quite a common style these days, and has been for the past 2 or so years. Small bits of each ingredient “randomly” cascading around the plate. This is why I think it works – you get to spread the ingredients around, it has this very casual feel to it yet still can be very appealing. Lastly, the chef also gets to control how it is eaten without the dish appearing pretentious.
TorontoFoodLab 
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