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Food presentation


virtuocity

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Why is it nowadays eateries are serving foods in the most naff way possible in order to charge more?

Prime example- yesterday at Jefferson's .  Starter (parfait) served on a slate.  Main course on what looks like a medical kidney bowl.  Dessert served on another slate.

GIVE ME A CLEAN WHITE PLAIN PLATE!

On top of this, it's now become the rule that everything, where possible, should be presented in it's own wee bowl or dish.  Meat on the plate/slate/wood block, with fries in a mini bowl, veg in another bowl, side salad squashed into another ramekin etc etc, leaving me to disassemble the dish on to the inadequately sized plate.  

Mrs V's dessert was a crumble in a wee dish (fair enough), on a slate, with a scoop of ice-cream placed in a mini saucepan.  That's right- a mini saucepan!  It's like presenting whisky in a mug or curry in a sock.  What the hell does ice-cream have to do with a saucepan?!  I can only conclude that it's chefs being cheffy for the sake of it.  Dividing the crumble and ice-cream was, (on the slate, of course), a smear of sauce.  WTF.  How is anyone meant to eat this?  Do they want the customer to lick it off?!

Perhaps it's just me...

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I do agree to some degree.

A lot of it is "wacky presentation" just for the sake of it., and being faddy.

It is possible to present something smartly and enhance the look of the dish.

The icecream mentioned above is aprime example of how not to do things.

However something like a cheese board can look smart on a slate.

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1 hour ago, virtuocity said:

Why is it nowadays eateries are serving foods in the most naff way possible in order to charge more?

Prime example- yesterday at Jefferson's .  Starter (parfait) served on a slate.  Main course on what looks like a medical kidney bowl.  Dessert served on another slate.

GIVE ME A CLEAN WHITE PLAIN PLATE!

On top of this, it's now become the rule that everything, where possible, should be presented in it's own wee bowl or dish.  Meat on the plate/slate/wood block, with fries in a mini bowl, veg in another bowl, side salad squashed into another ramekin etc etc, leaving me to disassemble the dish on to the inadequately sized plate.  

Mrs V's dessert was a crumble in a wee dish (fair enough), on a slate, with a scoop of ice-cream placed in a mini saucepan.  That's right- a mini saucepan!  It's like presenting whisky in a mug or curry in a sock.  What the hell does ice-cream have to do with a saucepan?!  I can only conclude that it's chefs being cheffy for the sake of it.  Dividing the crumble and ice-cream was, (on the slate, of course), a smear of sauce.  WTF.  How is anyone meant to eat this?  Do they want the customer to lick it off?!

Perhaps it's just me...

Couldn't agree more . It's all that bollocks on TV  - Great British Menu, Masterchef and so on. I like watching them, but their influence is pernicious. Once in a blue moon I like all the fancy stuff -for example,  Wisharts in Edinburgh is a great restaurant , everything is deconstructed but it all tastes good. But only occasionally. Most of the time I'd rather have something well cooked , presented simply. Smears, foams, essences - in the bin. Slates - ditto. I'll accept a bowl for pasta, but that's it.

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for me the biggest crime against humanity is the presentation of food on a bloody bit of wood. I'm all for nice presentation and when i'm cooking for anyone i like to make sure it looks good. However, if you fart about with presentation to the point of making it more difficult for people to eat then as a chef you want taken out the back and slapped stupid for a few hours.

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  • 4 months later...

I hate the trend for putting food on flat thinks like slate or wood. Especially when the food is piled up right to the edges making it almost impossible to get onto your fork without spilling half onto the table. 

I was taken to a very fancy restaurant recently and while they did use proper plates the food was incredibly pretentious advertised on the menu as coming with all sorts of veg, beetroot in one case for example but when it arrived what you got was a "disc" about 2mm thick and the size of a two pound coin. The waitresses even had to lean over you and explain in great detail what everything was it was so bizarre. 

At the other end of the scale i was in a cafe in gatehouse of fleet a couple of years back and was served a portion of chips in a mug. About the most bog standard type of mug you can get as well!

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