I have been watching some cooking programs and the chefs keep stressing how to pile food on top of other food to achieve increased height. Then they add a galette or tuile to make it even higher.
What I don’t understand is:
What is so all-fired important about height on the plate?
Can’t you make an attractive presentation that fills the plate instead of everything being piled in the center?
Is this just a Freudian thing?
I’ve cooked for years in a variety of restaurants and have seen all kinds of “in” things that don’t necessarily make any sense…if it’s trendy, they will drool.
A chef will give you a lofty, poetic explanation for the height thing. Bottom line? It looks cool.
Peace,
TN*hippie
Yeah, that’s about it. It looks cool.
But, one of the reasons why they do it, that I learned in culinary school is this: perceived value. When you stack your items and make your entree look tall, it actually looks like more food than if you just lay it out piece by piece flat on the plate (especially when you’re at a high end restaurant where you’re paying far more for less volume). It’s a visual illusion, just like how horizontal stripes will make you look fat.
There’s a place in Toronto, the Elephant and Castle on Yonge Street, where, when you order Irish stew, you get a wide soup plate filled with the stew components, and in the middle a vertical three-scoop pile of garlic mashed potatoes. I thought it was quite bizarre whan I first say it. This thread now gives me an explanation…