How the Food Looks Matters Almost as Much as the Flavors

The primary component to a good dish is how it tastes. How the food is presented matters more than most would think. When you’re served a dish at a restaurant you expect it to taste good and if it doesn’t look good you’ll automatically become less impressed with the dish.

The first thing you eat with is your eyes. The way the food looks directly affects our expectations on how it will taste. For example if a chicken czar salad looks dry and under dressed the dish will probably be remembered as dry and bland.

The flavors must come first. You cannot build a dish to its full potential starting with plating and working back to flavors. The actual flavor is the primary concern. There’s not much worse at a restaurant than getting a dish that looks gorgeous and appetizing and the flavors let it down. The expectation is set high, because it looks good and the flavors disappoint customer expectations.

It’s easy to make most food look good, or at least presentable. Certain items like biscuits and gravy have a harder time making look good, but you can make it look presentable. Plating shouldn’t be over complicated. Plating is actually pretty simple if you know the guidelines. Contrasting colors, height, flow, etc. The little details matte. For example the chicken czar salad. If you bunch the lettuce into a mound and carefully place the chicken on top sliced on a bias it’ll look far better than the flat salad with the uncut chicken breast.

i think any dish presented In restaurants should at least have an element of purpose on the plating. Things shouldn’t be thrown onto a plate.