When you’re entertaining guests or having someone over for dinner, you want to make sure that the food you serve has the wow factor and not just in the way it tastes but in how it looks too. Professional chefs know how to plate food in a way that makes it looks irresistible and these six tips will help you make your homemade food look just as fancy and appetising.
Pick the right dishes
Before you even start cooking, you can improve the look of your finished dish by thinking about the food you’re cooking and what you’ll serve it on.
Think about how to use ingredients that look good as well as taste delicious, and mix up textures, shapes and colours. When it comes to vegetables, light steaming and roasting will help them keep their colour. Try to include different sizes on the plate too, with a mix of large and small items.
Choose white or plain, neutral-coloured plates or bowls so that the colours or designs of your tableware aren’t competing with your food. Stick to medium-sized plates as too big will make your food look lost in the middle and too small will make the plate look overcrowded. When placing the food onto the plate, leave a little room around the edges.
Add some fun creativity with sauce
If you’ve ever eaten at a fancy restaurant, you’ll know that when it comes to sauces, there are a wide variety of ways to add it to a dish that doesn’t just involve squeezing or dolloping it onto the plate.
You can swirl, drizzle, smear or even stencil your sauces across or around your food for maximum visual impact and a dish that looks like it belongs in a high-end restaurant run by a famous chef.
Use fresh ingredients
Fresh ingredients don’t just taste better, they look better too. That’s because they retain their natural colour and shape unlike many canned or frozen ingredients. They’re also easier to work with and chop into the shapes and sizes you require.
Cook with the right tools
Food with singed or broken edges doesn’t look appetising, so make sure that you have the correct equipment for the dishes you’re trying to create. Quality frying pans prevent food from sticking so that it cooks evenly, meaning it tastes and looks good when it’s served. Using the right kitchen tools and cookware ensures that your finished dish turns out like it’s supposed to. Invest in good-quality cooking essentials such as non-stick roasting dishes, utensils and pans.
Swirl noodles and pasta
Soft foods like noodles and pasta can be tricky to serve without them sliding around the plate and looking messy but ‘the swirl’ can give your pasta or noodle dish that professional finish. Use tongs to twirl the pasta within a large ladle to create a tall ‘bird-nest’ effect bundle. Then add a little of the extra sauce to the plates using one of your new techniques and plate the pasta on top. Don’t forget your garnish too!
Add the toppings or garnish
A garnish or topping can go a long way to giving it that extra-special something. Add sprigs of fresh herbs like basil, mint or parsley as a topping or a dash of spice, or a crunchy topping to elevate the dish and turn it into something a professional chef would be proud of.
