My Plating

I've been practicing my plating skills as soon as I entered the kitchen on my sixth week of chef school. I continue to practice these skills both at school and at home. I enjoy making the appearance of any food that I serve look good. You what they say ~ We eat with our eyes first and then with our mouths.

This is my first attempt at plating and using sugar work. These are profiteroles filled with pastry cream and drizzled randomly with chocolate. The sugar was drizzled randomly on parchment paper and then moved to the plate for plating of the profiteroles.

The bottom layer of the chocolate mousse desert is made from a thin slice of genoise cake. Chocolate mousse was piped inside a ring of chocolate that was made by applying a thin layer of chocolate on vinyl and leaving it to set in a ring mould to form the shape you see. Raspberries and mint leaves are added as is mixed berry coulis in the form of dots surrounding the chocolate mousse as finishing touches.

This is a larger version of the chocolate mousse desert. In a restaurant you likely won't get one this size. I plated this mousse with sliced strawberries fanned out at top with mint leaves. I used mixed berry coulis on the plate making the shape of a stylized rain drop (or single quote) with tiny mint leaves.

Ratatouille a la the movie Ratatouille. I didn't plate the ratatouille the same way that the original chef had plated his ~ I may try so next time. I decided to try to replicate the ratatouille as it is formed for baking in the oven. I selected layers of ratatouille from the baking disk and placed them in a circle on my plate. I added a bit of the sauce to the centre and added spires of chives to give the plate a bit of height. Added around the ratatouille are sprigs of thyme.

This minestrone soup is plated simply and cleanly. I was sure to scoop the soup in to the bowl without any splashes. I piled the bean and vegetables high in the centre of the bowl before adding the liquid. I topped the soup off with chiffonade nappa cabbage, sprigs of Italian parsley and chives.

Pho Bo a Vietnamese soup that usually doesn't come with such artful plating. But it does come with accompaniments when served. I used a nice bowl shape as Pho is usually served in a round bowl. For this dish, I piled the rice noodles high in the middle of the bowl so that you could see them along with the thinly sliced beef that is traditional for a Pho soup. Accents for plating included are Thai basil leaves, and Thai chili peppers.

Mint pea soup is platted with a circular drizzle of heavy cream. Mint leaves are placed in the centre of the soup. Very simple and clean plating for this uncomplicated soup.

Honey glazed root vegetables ~ carrots and parsnips. A ring mould was used to centre the vegetables on the plate. Chives were added to the centre to give the dish height. I added small chopped chives and sprinkled them around the plate as well as on the root vegetables themselves.

My french onion soup au gratin is plated with a simple garnish of parsley. The plating here is more about the use of the type of vessel the soup is served in and the melted cheese that tops the soup. A traditional french onion soup bowl is used - placed on top of a white plate.

Ratatouille formed in a ring plated with shaved Parmesan on top with placement of chives. I also added shredded Parmesan to the plate around the ratatouille.

Simple cheese plate served with french bread baked at chef school. The french bread is sliced and stacked in offset layers. The cheeses are chevre noire an artisan cheese from Quebec and Morbier a cheese from France (ash runs through the centre of this cheese) purchased from The Cheese Shop.

I decided to make a chicken salad with left over chicken for dinner one night. To practice plating, I used a ring mould to fill with chicken salad. First I used spinach plating the leaves in a circle and building it until it looked like a nice flower. Then I placed the chicken salad. Simple but nice looking.

This is my chocolate mousse desert that I was graded on for school. I plated my desert using pulled sugar as my base. Blue berry coulis was dotted on the plate for added contrast. Small pulled sugar berries with mint leaves were made to add more interest. The chocolate mousse was topped with a strawberry that had been sliced and fanned and mint leaves.

For this plate I used two banana crepes that were rolled. I sliced one of the crepes to show the filing and stacked it on the other. I placed a few banana slices on one side of the plate and on the other a strawberry sliced and fanned with mint leaves. Caramel was drizzled around the crepe in a random pattern.