The Art of Intentional Plating: A Guide to Elevating Your Cooking Experience

In the world of cooking, plating has become an essential aspect of presentation that can elevate even the simplest dishes. But what does it mean to plate with intention? In many ways, it's about communicating a sense of care and attention to detail in everything you do, including how you prepare your food. When we cook for others, whether it's just ourselves or for a crowd, we want our guests to feel like they're receiving something special.

For example, imagine serving takeout from the local diner. Instead of slopping the food onto a plate and hoping for the best, why not add some flair? A plastic basket instead of a traditional dish can make it look more appealing. Or, if you're feeling fancy, use a sheet of newspaper to give it that retro chip shop vibe. The same principle applies to barbecue - think sheet pan with butcher paper instead of fine gold-rimmed porcelain. By paying attention to the little details, we can create an experience that goes beyond just serving food.

Plating is not about making something look fancy; it's about communicating a sense of care and thoughtfulness. When you ask someone to pour you a glass of lemonade, for example, don't just hand them a glass - add a lemon wheel on the rim to make it feel like a special treat. This attention to detail can elevate even the most mundane experiences into something memorable.

Now that we've covered the basics of plating with intention, let's talk about some tricks to take your cooking to the next level. My favorite way to add a sauce or purée to a plate is by plopping it down and then smearing a line across. This not only keeps things clean but also adds visual interest to the dish.

Another trick I like to use is slicing meat from thin cuts like skirt steak at an angle, which makes each piece look more substantial than it would on its own. Finally, there's the quenelle - a beautiful little technique that can add an extra touch of elegance to your dishes. However, be warned: it does take practice and can come across as fussy if not done correctly.

When it comes to sauces, seasonings, or fixin's on the side, the value of using tiny dishes cannot be overstated. I recall a conversation with my father-in-law about how much he loves it when I serve food with little bowls on the side for dipping or garnishing. These small details can make all the difference in creating an immersive experience.

Of course, not every dish is going to look pretty - some things are just inherently ugly! That's where creativity comes in. For example, if you take a big bowl of brown and add a few dollops of cream, you can create contrast and color. A sprinkle of chopped herbs or chives can also break up the monotony of a plain dish.

Finally, for those who might feel intimidated by the idea of plating with intention, don't worry - it's not about doing things "right" all the time. The most important thing is to do your best and have fun with it. As Aesop once said, "a crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety." By embracing the beauty of plating and taking the time to create something special for yourself or others, you can transform even the simplest meals into memorable experiences.

For inspiration, I recommend checking out accounts like @homechefseattle on Instagram - they offer a wealth of high-effort plating tricks that are still feasible at home. And remember, whether you're serving individually plated meals or a big family-style platter, the goal is to have fun and enjoy the process.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe first cooking video I ever made, before I even had a YouTube channel about cooking, was a lesson  on plating this sandwich. I instructed all five of my target viewers to cut their sandwich on a  bias and then position it thusly, with one half leaning on the other. I stand by that as a pillar  of plating food at home because those two simple steps achieve so many fundamental plating goals.  Cutting it in half shows the cross-section. Now, instead of one brown visual mass,  there is color and contrast. Cutting on the bias shows off more of the cross section than  a flat cut would, and a diagonally-cut sandwich will stand up taller with a big prolific point. Learning how to plate food online is sorta like trying to learn interior design or basic  photography. Most of the instruction feels like it’s targeted to people who already know what  a Boho Japandi Rhythm or f.8 aperture is. As if only professional chefs care about nice plating,  most of the instruction I’ve found focuses around presentation of fine dining dishes with squeeze  bottles and tweezers. There’s certainly a time and place for that sort of style,  but these basic concepts of plating can apply to your normal everyday dinners.So… back to height. If there’s only one thing that you focus on after this lesson,  let it be height. When you twirl pasta into a tight little nest before landing it on the plate,  that’s for height. 90% of the time you see a tuna tartare, it’s packed into a ring mold  before serving. Look at how much height that achieves, compared to just laying it into a  bowl. This new height-centric mindset requires you to do away with the cafeteria-style plating  you learned as a youth, where everything is separated into little mounds. Good plating  rarely takes into account the types of people who can’t stand to have their food touching. In fact,  there’s one really popular approach where you start with a purée or a mash, top that with a  salad or slaw of some kind, then top that with a piece of protein. That’s a great default daily driver for plating with height in mind at home, regardless of what’s on the menu. Apple purée,  brussels sprout slaw, pork chop. Sweet potato purée, kale salad,  chicken thigh. Cauliflower purée, bean salad, piece of salmon. I attribute this trend to  2016-era Chefsteps, and it had a chokehold on home plating for a good while at the time.Almost as impactful as height is contrast. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a more ubiquitous  garnish than minced parsley. Certain regional foods might use cilantro or chives, but parsley  is the premier goes-on-everything ingredient because it introduces a valuable pop of green  without too much in the way of flavor. That’s why it’s the go-to, but you can usually make a more  contextually appropriate choice instead. You’ve got a big bowl full of monochromatic red pasta?  Chopped basil brings striking green contrast. In the absence of herbs, a shower of grated  parm adds a flash of white instead. This dish is called chilaquiles. It’s a pan full of tortilla  chips simmered in red chile sauce. It’s all very one-note until you drizzle lines of bright white  crema across it. Professionals would probably turn their noses up at the idea of garnishing  these teriyaki meatballs with high-contrast sesame seeds and scallion slices, because of how played  out the garnish is but again… This is a guide for beginners. And if you’re just getting started,  some contrast on the dish is better than none, so fret not regarding whether your  garnish is passé. Try to introduce another color whenever you can. This poached egg in yogurt is  all white, but red chile oil brings striking contrast. This mole is one shade of brown,  but adding sesame seeds, even though they’re just a different shade of brown, adds visual interest.When you’ve figured out height and contrast, you can wade into the deeper waters of composition.  This is the arena in which restaurants have an advantage over you. Great restaurants have  interesting little morsels they can position on dozens of different dishware designs,  but your plating options are far more limited when dinner is a single hunk of food,  on the same bowls and plates set every single night. I think virtually all home cooks  can do almost everything they need with plain white round plates, but if you’re gonna get a  couple specialty pieces to improve your composition, here’s what I’d pick first:  1. A rectangular or long oval plate for things like tacos, sliced steaks, or seafood crudo. The  length facilitates the arrangement of foods that look best displayed in a straight line. 2. An  extra large platter for family-style meals like the big centerpiece roasted chicken or the pork  shoulder that’s meant to be passed around. 3. A couple one-offs, be they collectible, sentimental,  or just fun to have. I’ve got a couple hand-made dishes that are almost never the best choice,  but on that rare occasion that they are, it’s such a treat. Consider frozen french fries hot  out of the air-fryer. It’s not a fancy meal, so why try to make it look like one? Dump those  in a plastic basket for a diner look or a sheet of newspaper for chip shop nostalgia. Same  for barbecue. This meat belongs on a sheet pan lined with butcher paper, not fine gold-rimmed  porcelain. The point of plating with intention is not to make something look fancy.  It’s to communicate a sense of care. If you ask me to pour you a glass of lemonade, I’m gonna put  a lemon wheel on the rim. Same concept. It has no effect on the taste, until you remember that  food and drink taste better when you sprinkle in all those seemingly inconsequential niceties. I  still try to plate my food with intention even when I’m eating by myself. It’s good practice  for the times in which I’m serving others, and it feels nice to arrange myself a little treat.I think the problem with plating media is that it usually relies on tricks instead of  fundamentals, but now that you know the fundamentals, here are a couple tricks:1. My favorite way to add a sauce, purée, or gel to a plate is like this. Plop a dollop down, and  smear a line across. You can do it in a straight line or an arc, and I like how this doesn’t get  an extra dish dirty like a squeeze bottle.2. Slices of meat from thin cuts like skirt  steak look puny on a plate until you learn that slicing at a steep angle  makes each piece look much more substantial.3. The quenelle is a lovely little trick to  do for dinner parties, kinda like cracking open someone’s beer for them with the butt of a lighter  is a lovely little trick at college parties. But it does take a lot of practice and sometimes comes  across as fussy, so I wouldn’t recommend it until you’ve nailed the aforementioned basics. Here’s me  putting a quenelle of caviar next to a soy-cured egg enveloped in crème fraîche. Very fancy  high-concept plating here, but incredible snooty.4. When it comes to sauces, seasonings,  or fixin’s on the side, the value of a tiny dish can not be overstated. The other day my father  in law came over to eat and commented on how much he loves the fact that the food I give him comes  with little bowls on the side for dipping or garnishing. Never overlook the tiny dish. 5. Some things are just ugly. Look at this big bowl o’ brown. If I take an inconsequential amount  of cream, there’s contrast. A couple minced chives and there’s color. A little breadstick  on the rim for presentation breaks outside the circular plane for height, composition,  and looky loo with just a little effort you’ve got a well-composed dish at home. 6. There’s an instagram account called @homechefseattle, and it’s a fantastic  source of high-effort plating tricks that are still somewhat feasible at home,  even if you just use ‘em once a year for something like your anniversary dinner.I expect at least some viewers to be intimidated or overwhelmed by the notion of one more thing to  think about, when cooking itself is hard enough, but remember Aesop said “a crust eaten in peace  is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety”. The point you take from this video should  not be that there is a best way to serve your food at home. The fine dining tricks I mentioned at the  beginning of this lesson ain’t it, nor are the techniques I’ve outlined for you today. Whether  you serve individually plated meals or one big family-style platter, the point isn’t to do it  “right”, but to do it at all. I’ll leave you with a quote from Tamar Adler’s “An Everlasting Meal\":  You, of course, are not I, and it must be from someplace in you, not me, that you serve. If  you like symmetry, you must line things up. If you feel most satisfied composing plates  away from your table, do it happily, for it will be genuine and full of what is yours to offer.  Only remember what is plainly and always true: the act of serving fulfills itself.Trade has paid to be mentioned at the end of this video. Trade is a specialty coffee  marketplace that matches you with the your new favorite coffees from roasters across  the country. Their people travels around and build relationships with locally owned coffee  roasters all over the country, then make it available to you. Trade doesn’t make any of  its own coffee. Instead, they link up with independent roasters—places you’d love if  you lived nearby—and curate the best of thebest for you to enjoy at home. The coffee  they sell—from dark roasts and single origins, to decafs and espressos—is roasted to order and then  shipped to you within 48 hours of roasting. It’s been a long hot iced coffee summer,  but this month I’m transitioning back to a cortado every morning, and it’s as easy as  letting Trade know that I want a whole bean coffee that’ll make good espresso that pairs  well with whole milk. If you make coffee at home, get ready to discover how much better  it can be with Trade. That’s coffee at home, made better. Head to drinktrade.com/shaquille  to receive your first bag free. Trade guarantees you’ll love your first bag or they’ll replace it  for free. That’s drinktrade.com/shaquille for your first bag free when you subscribe.\n"