Impact of food presentation technique in restaurant 

Significance

The food is generally the focal point for the guest. It supplies the majority of the drama, excitement, and interaction and it falls to the chef to produce food that is flavorful and attractive. Food presentation is an important opportunity that allows chefs to emphasize the talents of the kitchen staff. The chef’s task is to exploit the full sensory potential of every dish to create a presentation that is practical, functional, and appealing to all the senses, which heightens the guest’s experience. Menu selections and food presentation integrate all aspects of the foodservice operation – including the theme, the menu, the style of service, and your clients’ expectations. The goal is never to simply meet those expectations and standards, but to exceed them.

Introduction

In the world of culinary art is well known that the appearance of food is one of the most important factors that will attract or reject your guests to choose a specific meal. It is the specific way how food is placed on the plate.When you're plating food, the goal is to create a dining experience that tempts all of the senses, not just the palate. When food looks appetizing the body actually produces more fluids that aid in nutrient absorption - so you might even say that beautiful food is more wholesome than food that doesn't look appealing. To achieve restaurant-quality presentation, start with brightly-colored, well-cooked food. Layer the food and play with contrasting colors and textures to increase its visual appeal. Finally, garnish the plate with flavorful herbs or spices to take it to the next level. 

THE ROLE OF DESIGN

Judgments about what is fashionable or beautiful are subjective. They change over time, sometimes quite rapidly. However, the basic principles behind good design and presentation remain constant, even if the specific expressions of those principles keep evolving into new styles and trends. It is important to remember and always think of these techniques as enhancements to the foods’ appeal. The food on a plate supplies important visual elements: colors, textures, and shapes. Additionally, the foods you serve also supply two important, but non visual, elements: aroma and flavor. The design principles at the chef’s disposal include symmetrical or asymmetrical compositions, contrasting or complementary arrangements, and the use of lines to create patterns or indicate motion.

A variety of words can be used to describe the elements and effect of plate design and presentation – simple, elegant, balanced, integrated, and unified. A certain amount of regularity and repetition is comfortable and appealing, but too much of anything becomes monotonous, whether it is an ingredient, a color, a shape, a flavor, or a texture. The real importance and focus of the food should always lay, ultimately, in its flavor and texture.

THE ROLE OF COLOR

Your guests will associate color in very specific ways; therefore, a food’s natural color is an important factor to consider in design and presentation of a dish. Green gives the impression of freshness and vitality. Browns, gold, and maroons are warming, comforting, and rich. Orange and red are intense, powerful colors. A dish should have colors that are in harmony (for example, green, blue, and violet are complementary colors, while blue and orange are contrasting). Clashing or contrasting colors are rarely an issue; a more common problem is the overuse of one color, which has a tendency to make the food look flat and unexciting.

THE ROLE OF TEXTURE

Texture is important to the way the food looks, as well as the way it feels in our mouths. The surface of a food will have a tendency to either reflect light or absorb it, making some foods glossy and others matte. Some foods have highly textured exteriors while others are very smooth. The way the food feels when you bite into it is another aspect of texture that the chef needs to include in a plan. Too much of the same texture is monotonous.

THE FOCAL POINT

Food has many dimensions and the shape, height, and lines of the food are important components of presentation. Cubes, cylinders, spheres, pyramids, and lines are just some of the shapes food can assume. Alternating or repeating shapes in a design is one way to add visual

interest to food arrangements; you can modify the natural shape of a food by cutting or slicing it. To give height to foods that are naturally flat, you can roll or fold them, and arrange them in piles or pyramids.Dimension can also be added to a dish by providing strong, clean lines that arrange the food neatly and logically; these lines can be straight, curved, or angled. When two lines meet, they create a shape and when a line is repeated, a pattern emerges. The more evenly spaced the lines, the more obvious the pattern, the wider the spaces, the more obvious they are as discrete lines. By providing a focal point to a dish you can introduce a large shape into a field of smaller shapes while adding height and make the arrangement logical and sensible to the guest. One common focal point, sometimes referred to as a grossed pièce (literally “big piece”), is simply a portion of a larger item, such as a roast leg of lamb or a terrine, left intact and arranged on the platter; the guest can instantly identify the food. Sometimes, in place of a gross pièce, there may be one or more significant garnish elements. Such a garnish functions in the same way as a gross pièce; they too are most effective, and attractive, when they offer some information about the food instead of simply adding a spot of color. The position of the focal point on a plate determines how the food is arranged. A focal point positioned off center means that one side of the arrangement appears to have more weight than the other. The lines extending away from the focal point are of different lengths. When the focal point is positioned in the center, it gives the impression that both sides of the arrangement are in equilibrium. The lines radiating from the focal point are the same length. Asymmetrical arrangements tend to look natural while symmetrical arrangements look formal.

THE COOKING TECHNIQUES

The cooking technique is vital to great presentation, because no matter how artful the display, the way the food tastes is the most important element. In addition to assuring that foods are flavorful and at the right temperature, the process of cooking gives the chef a chance to enhance the food in other significant ways.

“Visual flavor” is an important concept. Some techniques deepen or darken the food’s exterior; grilling, roasting, and smoking are a few examples. With these cooking methods, it is relevant for guests to be able to see the seasonings used on the food, i.e. specks of seasonings and herbs or the shine of oil from a dressing. Other techniques introduce new elements, such as coatings or wrappers; pan frying and deep frying are two such techniques. For an interesting selection, you should introduce a number of different techniques for a variety of flavors, colors, and textures throughout your menu.

How to make the next meal you cook look irresistible

Starting With Beautiful Food

1. Avoid a monochromatic color scheme

A plate of food looks most appealing when there's a high level of contrast in colors. Imagine being served a bowl of plain oatmeal or a dish of pasta without any sauce. Even if the oatmeal or pasta has been dressed with flavorful ingredients like butter and spices, it looks like a plain dish of starch. Serve the same bowl of oatmeal with fresh red berries and a swirl of amber maple syrup, or plate the pasta with a healthy drizzle of green pesto and chopped cherry tomatoes, and you've created a wholly different dining experience. No matter what you're serving, think of ways to add more color contrast

When you're planning meals, think ahead about the colors you want to feature on the plate. You might not be able to represent all the colors of the rainbow at every meal, but challenge yourself to have as much color as possible.

If you realize you're about to serve several like-colored foods, like grilled chicken and mashed potatoes, adding a serving or two of fruits and vegetables is a fantastic and easy way to add pops of color. The richest greens, oranges, reds, purples, blues, pinks and yellows on your plate probably take the form of fruits and vegetables.

If you're not sure how to add color, utilize garnishes. Nearly any savory dish is well-served by a sprinkling of fresh chives, parsley, dill, or mint. Lemon and lime wedges are welcome alongside poultry and seafood dishes.

2. Bring out vegetables' brightest colors. 

The way you cook your vegetables has a lot of bearing on the overall visual effect of a meal. Veggies that are a tad overcooked lose their color and tend to look less appetizing than those that are cooked just to the point of softness. To avoid mushy, pallid vegetables, aim to cook them until they're bright with a bit of crunch. Here are a few ways to bring out the best in your vegetables:

Lightly steam them instead of boiling them. Steaming vegetables makes them look appetizing and flavorful, while boiling creates the opposite effect. Take broccoli, for instance: steaming broccoli turns it a fresh, bright green and each floret retains its shape and texture. Boiling broccoli results in a mushy texture and a paler color, which isn't as pretty on the plate. The same holds true for asparagus, carrots, green beans, and many other vegetables.

Roast or sauté them with a little oil or butter. Roasted or sautéed vegetables look quite appetizing when they're allowed to caramelize a little in oil or butter. The bright orange or green of the vegetable is offset by brown, crispy spots. It's a delicious way to cook vegetables.

3. Sear your meat and let it rest.

 Many meat dishes look most appetizing when the meat has been seared. The sight of a steak or piece of grilled salmon with a brown, crispy sear will make your dinner guests' mouths start to water. In addition to searing your meat, you should let it rest for several minutes before cutting it. This allows the juices to absorb back into the meat, so that they don't end up running all over the plate.

There are exceptions to the rule of searing your meat. For example, if you're serving braised beef, you'll have to think of creative ways to make the meat look appetizing even though it doesn't have a crispy crust. Serving it with a sauce is a good way to add visual interest.

There are so many ways how one meal can be served and presented. Learn the basic rules about serving and food presentation. How to use an unusual techniques for food presentation with simple plates, and how can create interesting food presentation just with use of unusual kitchen utensils. I'll say more about the modern way of food presentation, methods and tools that you will needed and use of technological breakthroughs for futuristic slow food lovers.

Basic Rules For Food PresentationThere are certain rules that you need to follow, so you could be able to master some advanced techniques for food presentation in your restaurant:

Plate should not never be overloaded with food, but should not be even a seemingly empty

It is always necessary to leave blank the outer part of the plate along the edge. You need to create color contrast on the plate. Forget about symmetry, asymmetrical shapes are welcome. Mix large and small, soft and crunchy, bright and dark colors. Keep uniformity when it comes to portion size. Do not overdo with sauces, rather served them separately.

If you need to serve chicken skewers, meatball or shrimp rather use odd number of certain food than even numbers, it will look more interesting on the plate.

You can use it too but you do not have to stick to it. The old rule says that you have to look at the plate as a clock, and set specific types of foods at specific hours. At a 11 you should set carbohydrates (pasta, rice, potatoes), vegetables at 2 and in a case of dinner, at 6 you should set proteins, main meal (fish, meat, mushrooms). This old fashioned way of serving meals has its positive side and the one is that helps you to provide similar portion size. This aspect is very important part of food waste reduction management as well as for the calculation of costs and its impact in final restaurant profit.

Japanese Food Presentation Japanese style of food presentation has had a major impact on food design in general. Minimalism is present everywhere in Japan including kitchen and culinary art. We can describe it as the beauty of simplicity and uniqueness. Japanese would never put different kind of food on one plate, they rather separated it into several little bowls. This way of presentations removes all doubts about matching colors and forms, so if you do not have the talent to create a harmonious dish, this could be a good choice for you. The dish that you use take a major role in food appearance. They can be very simple or decorated with various motifs. The vegetable and meat is cut into the small pieces - that are suitable to eat it with chopsticks. If you think that your restaurant offers food that can not be served in this way, see how looks serving of fries on Japanese way. Irresistible!

Methodology

Participants

Sixty participants (mean age of 27.7 years, SD = 7.2; ranging from 18 to 58 years), 30 males and 30 females took part in the study. 

The visual arrangements characterizing the three conditions contained the exact same quantity of exactly the same ingredients. The ‘regular’ presentation condition consisted of a mix of the ingredients, which were simply placed in the middle of the plate. In the ‘neat’ presentation condition, the ingredients together with the sauces were placed side by side without touching each another. Lastly, for the ‘art-inspired’ condition, the ingredients were placed on the plate in a very specific mannerBefore being placed on the plate, the vegetables and condiments were prepared in exactly the same manner for all three presentations. While the sauces were specifically laid out on the plate for the neat and art-inspired presentations, they were mixed with all the elements of the salad for the regular presentation. The plate on which the food was served consisted of a white rectangle of cardboard (dimensions of 270 × 180 mm).The food consisted of a relatively complex salad with 17 distinct components made up of a total of 30 ingredients. They included three types of elements: vegetables, sauces (purees and a reduction), and condiments. The 17 components of the dish were as follows:•Vegetables: seared Portobello slice, shimeji mushrooms (briefly boiled with a sweet vinegar marinade), cooked and raw broccoli sprouts, a variety of endive salad, raw red and yellow pepper cut into fine brunoises, one slice of raw red pepper, three slices of red pepper skin fine julienne, half a slice of raw yellow pepper, raw cauliflower sprouts, five slices of mange-tout fine julienne, and half a mange-tout.•Sauces: beet purée, carrot purée, cauliflower and lemongrass crème, mushroom essence with squid ink, and, finally, pepperoncino oil.•Condiments: Spanish olive oil, and Maldon sea salt.

ProcedureA between-participants experimental design was used. The experimental setting, which was the same for all participants, was designed to replicate a typical restaurant table in a dark room, isolated by means of a curtain. On the table and over a white tablecloth were placed a fork, a knife, a paper napkin and a glass of water. The only lighting in the room, a small lamp, was directed at the dish. The three conditions were randomized across the various testing times (between 10:00 and 17:00 hrs) and gender was balanced for each condition. The experiment lasted for approximately twenty minutes. Upon completing the consent form, the participants were seated at the table and told the procedure by the experimenter. The participants were also instructed that they would be presented with a plate of food, a salad, and asked to eat it. Before they could start eating, they were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the visual aspects of the salad. Moreover, the participants were informed that after completion of the first questionnaire, they would be allowed to eat as much of the salad as they liked and that after they had finished they would be given another questionnaire to complete. While the experimenter explained this procedure, the dish was placed in an adjacent room. None of the participants were aware of the existence of different visual presentations and no further information was given concerning the aims of the study or the food they were about to eat and its preparation. 

When the dish was ready, it was placed on the table in front of the participant together with the first questionnaire. The participants were left alone while eating the food and completing the questionnaires.

All of the questions were presented using 10-point Likert scales. The first questionnaire was designed to assess the visual appeal of the dish and the participant’s expectations. The second questionnaire assessed the perception of intensity of different taste attributes (saltiness, bitterness, sourness, and sweetness) and again the same questions as asked in the first questionnaire (liking, tastiness and willingness to pay), this time testing the actual experience of the food rather than merely the participants’ expectations about it. For a complete list of the questions before and after consumption

Conclusion

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