When you invite people to your home, you want to give them the best you have
to offer. You plan the menu creatively, shop for the finest ingredients, and
work hard to prepare everything well. Yet you may be stymied when trying to
showcase your carefully prepared recipes on the plate.
To help you with that, we asked two of our experts in Cooking Light's Test
Kitchens -- chef and former restaurant owner Sam Brannock, and food stylist
Kellie Gerber Kelley -- to provide some ways to make your dinner plates eye-catching.
Here's how to make meals as stunning to the eye as they are to your palate.
1. Heavily patterned china distracts your guests' focus from the food. In
general, the more complex and colorful the finished dish is, the more it needs
a simple plate. Plain white or off-white dishes really showcase food.
2. Stacking or piling portions gives an illusion of a bigger serving, and
showcases colors and textures. If the bottom layer is rice, polenta, or mashed
potatoes, so much the better: Pale foods, like white dishes, act as a neutral
backdrop for your supper's star.
3. Soups and stews benefit from a scattering of chopped herbs, rather than
sprigs.
4. Garnish your finished dish with some of the fresh herbs you used to prepare
it. If you know you want to garnish with herbs, go through the packet and pick
out the prettiest sprigs first. Wrap them in a damp paper towel and keep them
in the refrigerator until needed. And remember, citrus zest, grated or julienned,
is also a fine garnish.
5. Use your vegetable peeler to shave Parmesan cheese into thin shards for
entrées, or to shave chocolate for desserts. Ribbons of vegetables, made
in the same way, are terrific for soups. Cucumber ribbons on gazpacho look especially
summery and cool.
6. Dust sweets with powdered sugar, cocoa, or cinnamon; use paprika on savory
dishes. The key is to sift the sugar through a small sieve.
7. Whatever your dessert, berries make it better. If you put fresh berries
on a store-bought dessert, it looks homemade -- they add color and the idea
of freshness. Herbs can garnish desserts, too. Mint can go on almost anything.
8. Pooling dessert sauces on plates provides a canvas for a dazzling dessert.
Put a thicker sauce in a squeeze bottle to make squiggles or dots.
