There are many areas of concern when preparing a fine meal. The taste of the food is very important, but the smell is also important. The smell is what calls everyone to the meal and those wonderful aromatics should never be ignored. Once when he was at home, I was sautéing mushrooms for scrambled eggs and Jerry came in. He sniffed and said that if the school cafeteria smelled like that, he would love eating lunch.
Another very special concern is the way the food looks. Using varied colored food is an easy way to prepare a beautiful plate. Picture in your mind the look of the plate the night you fix baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and cucumber salad. Everything is white and the plate will look uninteresting. Recently I looked at a plate with Salmon, mashed sweet potatoes and carrot salad. Too much Orange!!
Small changes will liven up the plate. Put tomatoes, bell pepper, and purple onions in the salad. Top the potatoes with a sprinkle of grated cheddar cheese or chopped herbs. Set off the chicken or fish with a simple salsa added to the top before serving, or if you like it spicy try a dribble of green Tabasco.
I’m not much of a fan of putting something on a plate that I don’t expect to be eaten. When you go to a restaurant they are always putting some strange leaf or hunk of fruit rind. There are plenty of ways to add to the plate without that.
I buy the three packs of bell peppers in yellow, orange and red. Take a side off of a pepper and cut it into thin strips. Toss several strips on the top of a piece of fish or meat to add color. Other veggies work the same way - carrots, Jicima, Avocado, green olives, etc.
Make a pan gravy for your chicken or fish by deglazing the pan with a little white wine. Throw in some sliced green olives and pour it across the meat or fish.
Desserts:
You could chop up some mint leaves and sprinkle them with a few raspberries across the top of a plain dessert to have something special to serve.
I keep a squeeze bottle of chocolate in my refrigerator all the time just for garnishing purposes. I can take it out, warm it in the microwave for a few seconds, and with a few squirts turn any desert into something special. Just a zig-zag pattern of chocolate across the top of a piece of pound cake makes all the difference in the world
The simplest chocolate garnish is grated chocolate. Use cold chocolate and a grater to get tiny chocolate flakes to sprinkle over a desert. Place the chocolate in the sun and allow it to warm slightly then draw a potato peeler across it to form chocolate curls.
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, Kiwi, mandarine Orange slices, etc and add a great color. You can just sprinkle a handful of fruit over plain cake or ice cream to really jazz it up. Try the chocolate squeeze bottle and the fruit and who needs the cake?
Just remember: Plating Matters!!