When food becomes art

epicuric

epicuric

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Prompted by a discussion in @Francesca's thread about steak tartare, and something that cropped up a while ago about serving food on a tennis racquet - what is the acceptable balance between taste and appearance when preparing a dish? In the steak tartare thread, it seems (although I may have misunderstood) that the main focus was to make the black plate look good, possibly, and I may be wrong here also, at the expense of the flavour combinations.

When did the simple garnish, the slice of lemon or the sprinkle of herbs or spices cease to be just about enhancing the flavour of the dish, and become instead a means of decoration? I really am in two minds about this. On one hand I take issue with pretentious gastro pubs serving up food on random bits of wood or roofing materials, but then I can't see anything wrong in making a dish look as appealing as possible. After all, it is said that first we eat with our eyes, then our nose and finally our mouth.

But at what point does the balance tip, and the visual aspect starts to detract from the the main sensation - taste? Would the taste experience be improved, or worsened if we ate blindfolded? To what degree is a good tasting dish spoiled by poor presentation? Alternatively, can an exquisitely presented dish compensate for lack of taste? Is there a science called 'sensory balance' that I need to know about?

Lots of questions... anyone got any answers?
 
@Epicure,

Firstly, perhaps taking a step back into ancient history, one shall find that the Japanese and the Chinese specifically were into grand deocrative presentations of food design long before the Escoffier & The Institute of Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France.

A poorly prepared recipe with low quality ingredients and an incorrect harmonizing group of ingredients, does Not Compensate for beautiful art of plates. This is a fiasco !

The main idea is to present one´s plates in a visually stimulating manner but retaining taste, balance and top quality ingredients as in Michelin level and top notch restaurants, Michelin or not ..

If you take a bowl of pasta for example, and throw it literally in a bowl and chow down, this is okay but if you were serving this to your loved ones or Friends, this would not be visually appealing.

The idea of The Art of Plating or Visual Gourmand Style dressage, is: " We eat with our eyes " as it has been stated. However, the key to beautiful plating are the ingredients for the 6 senses: Sight, then aromas or smell, taste, touch, audio ( you can hear crunch ) and the sentiments or intuitive feelings
that one has when they are taking each bite of the dish.

Food combining is a science and this is vital for the proper digestive factors / health related. Eating protein with starch is not healthy. Though world wide it is common place ..

At moment, this is a very brief post .. I can go on and on about the art of plating. And its history as I had translated a French book into English for a dear family member ..

Alot of research has gone into this subject especially amongst the Michelin starred Food Designers, Cuisiniers of France, The Asians and has extended itself to each country as it has always existed.. Persia during the 6th Century was renowned for its gold and silver foils for example. Iran, still incorporates these foils as well as Michelin Chefs .. Chef Joan Roca had created a group of dishes a couple of years ago, called: La Joyeria ( The Jewelery ) where he encrusted gold and silver foils into chocolate Desserts ..

A fascinating cuisine that I had, at a Himalayan Restaurant in Madrid Capital, had implemented a lamb roast with gold and silver foils.

So, what I am getting at, is this is not a new trend or a new Discovery. It is a renovation of historically classicism by adopting the best from each country and renovating it to provide the diner or customer or client with " A Visual Impact " and an amazingly extraordinary dining experience.

Call it Marketing if you wish.

Have a lovely day.
Thank you for posting.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am guilty as charged (including black glass board)

IMGP0796.jpg
 
I guess on plating, it depends on many factors. The main one being lifestyle. I can't say I have ever been in a restaurant where they served a bunch of garnishes to make the food look better.
You get your meat and your sides. Not even fancy at the high end steak houses here.

As to the comment about friends and food, I am probably fixing to horrify some of you.
I once had a dinner party. The guests ranged from teacher to nurse to financial to retired to college students. One student was upper class. All walks of life.
The guests were handed a plate and told to help themselves off the stove.
They all devoured the gravy they found in a bowl off to the side. (That wasn't gravy. It was the pan drippings from the roast chicken. So it was chicken fat, bacon, and margarine. )
Everyone loved the dinner and asked if they could come back next year.
Now yes, the upper class guy did look rather shocked at first but he promptly got over it.
 
@Cinisajoy,

It is extraordinarily interesting, that the guests had not employed their olfactory glands, or the sense of smell, to differentiate the nuances between a Brown gravy and chicken pan drippings .. Aromas can surely give one a good insight to the ingredients of a dish ..

I like your idea about people serving themselves from a kitchen .. Interesting surely !

Have a nice day ..
20.00 here ..

Thank you for your humorous post !
 
Francesca said:
@Epicure,

Firstly, perhaps taking a step back into ancient history, one shall find that the Japanese and the Chinese specifically were into grand deocrative presentations of food design long before the Escoffier & The Institute of Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France.

A poorly prepared recipe with low quality ingredients and an incorrect harmonizing group of ingredients, does Not Compensate for beautiful art of plates. This is a fiasco !

The main idea is to present one´s plates in a visually stimulating manner but retaining taste, balance and top quality ingredients as in Michelin level and top notch restaurants, Michelin or not ..

If you take a bowl of pasta for example, and throw it literally in a bowl and chow down, this is okay but if you were serving this to your loved ones or Friends, this would not be visually appealing.

The idea of The Art of Plating or Visual Gourmand Style dressage, is: " We eat with our eyes " as it has been stated. However, the key to beautiful plating are the ingredients for the 6 senses: Sight, then aromas or smell, taste, touch, audio ( you can hear crunch ) and the sentiments or intuitive feelings
that one has when they are taking each bite of the dish.

Food combining is a science and this is vital for the proper digestive factors / health related. Eating protein with starch is not healthy. Though world wide it is common place ..

At moment, this is a very brief post .. I can go on and on about the art of plating. And its history as I had translated a French book into English for a dear family member ..

Alot of research has gone into this subject especially amongst the Michelin starred Food Designers, Cuisiniers of France, The Asians and has extended itself to each country as it has always existed.. Persia during the 6th Century was renowned for its gold and silver foils for example. Iran, still incorporates these foils as well as Michelin Chefs .. Chef Joan Roca had created a group of dishes a couple of years ago, called: La Joyeria ( The Jewelery ) where he encrusted gold and silver foils into chocolate Desserts ..

A fascinating cuisine that I had, at a Himalayan Restaurant in Madrid Capital, had implemented a lamb roast with gold and silver foils.

So, what I am getting at, is this is not a new trend or a new Discovery. It is a renovation of historically classicism by adopting the best from each country and renovating it to provide the diner or customer or client with " A Visual Impact " and an amazingly extraordinary dining experience.

Call it Marketing if you wish.

Have a lovely day.
Thank you for posting.
Click to expand...
Despite my initial scepticism I find myself being drawn into this. I must confess, I approached this discussion from the point of view of a fairly rustic, self taught cook who doesn't need to sell plates of food for a living. Maybe I am missing a trick here. If I had created the Steak Tartare dish I think I would have been quite pleased with myself. And my wife would have been chuffed too. I think I need to study taking dishes to another (non rustic) level.

This book that you translated - is it available? (English version preferable - my French is very rusty)
 
Francesca said:
@Cinisajoy,

It is extraordinarily interesting, that the guests had not employed their olfactory glands, or the sense of smell, to differentiate the nuances between a Brown gravy and chicken pan drippings .. Aromas can surely give one a good insight to the ingredients of a dish ..

I like your idea about people serving themselves from a kitchen .. Interesting surely !

Have a nice day ..
20.00 here ..

Thank you for your humorous post !
Click to expand...
Tomorrow I shall start a gravy thread.
We rarely do brown gravy here.
 
Francesca said:
@Epicure,

Yes, there is an English versión however, in Pdf only at this time. It is also available in: French, Italian and Spanish in Pdf format.


I shall send you the link:
Http://www.visionsgourmandes.com
Click Language
Click The Bookshop
Click to expand...
Thank you @Francesca, I will be fascinated to read the book. Did you have a part in its creation?
 
Cinisajoy said:
I guess on plating, it depends on many factors. The main one being lifestyle. I can't say I have ever been in a restaurant where they served a bunch of garnishes to make the food look better.
You get your meat and your sides. Not even fancy at the high end steak houses here.

As to the comment about friends and food, I am probably fixing to horrify some of you.
I once had a dinner party. The guests ranged from teacher to nurse to financial to retired to college students. One student was upper class. All walks of life.
The guests were handed a plate and told to help themselves off the stove.
They all devoured the gravy they found in a bowl off to the side. (That wasn't gravy. It was the pan drippings from the roast chicken. So it was chicken fat, bacon, and margarine. )
Everyone loved the dinner and asked if they could come back next year.
Now yes, the upper class guy did look rather shocked at first but he promptly got over it.
Click to expand...
The best sort of dinner party!
 
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