Fr1ends of the ch1dren!

Knife drills 101

Easy and fun ways to improve your knife work.

In school I struggled with my knife work enormously, I would always stay after class, come in before class do whatever I could so I could improve just the smallest amount, and you know what? it payed off! I still wasn't good as half the people in my class but the next time we had a knife skills test I had definitely improved and here what I did.

Draw lines, and squares

After our first terms class had consistently not meet our instructors goals that he had wanted us too he had us draw. Draw lines, that were 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4" these are all the sizes of different cuts that we were supposed to do for the class in order to pass the test. I didn't do this a lot, as matter of fact just a few times, but even doing it that little bit I saw myself improving or gaining a little bit of confidence in my knife work, now if I had only stuck with this a little bit longer who knows how much better I could have become and faster.

Cut up a few dozen potatoes 

And by a few dozen I mean a few HUNDRED dozen! Thinking back to my first two months in culinary school is a little bit of a trip, I'm thinking back to just how much I used to struggle with even the simplest of task astounds me. I say basic but really I should say fundamental, at the time these skills were so hard, so new to me I didn't know what to do, but keeping with them, and practicing them and asking as many questions as I could get away with helped me soo much, so cutting potatoes might not be that much fun after the first 20 or so, but keep up with it, you'll be glad you did in the end.

Time yourself

This I did a lot of, and it wasn't by choice believe me hahahaha, but again it's one of the things that I'm really glad for looking back on it, because of this I got so much faster it was hard for me to believe at the time and even now it is, my knife worked has slip A LOT since I've left the culinary program and doing management now, pretty soon I'll be doing my externship so I'm thinking I'm going to revisit these myself and see how much I can improve. 

Breaking thru

So, you've hit a bit of a standstill, you just can't any ideas or your plating arrangement just isn't working for you, what do you do?

Start over. 

This might seem a little "basic" but in my opinion it's the best fix there is. for some reason your sauce just isn't cooperating with you, the broccoli got over cooked so now it's a pale lifeless green color or any other number of problems occurred. START OVER or 86 it (remove it). Like I said in an earlier post, hold yourself to a standard and never let your standards slip.
  

Take a break 

Again, a super easy suggestion, but both of these ideas work when you are plating your food, take a break, just take 5. Go have a smoke, if you're also having to start over because something is not working on the plate start on whatever it is you have to re-do. Maybe throw away your idea that you had started with and just "feel" it out, look at the plate the way the person is going to see it sitting down, imagine the sauce on the plate, where is it going to fit in best, do you want to use it as your negative space, how about the protein how are you going to draw there eye to it?

Copy 

There is nothing wrong with simply copying someone eases idea, after all imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Who knows as your going about the process of copying this idea, you might think of something else that fits what you're trying to do just a little bit more, or even add your own unique twist on it as well.

All of these can and probably will at some point be used in conjunction with each other at some point in time, some of my best work has come from using these ideas. Of course you may not be able to take a break if you're plating up food to serve as everyone is sitting down at your dinner table but you can start over, and then if you remember the idea you can just copy it, or while you're washing the dish if you're going to be re-using the same plate just look up an idea on your phone. 

A little bit about me

How did I get into plating food? How did I get into culinary in the first place?

Well, lets start with how did I get into culinary in the first place.

I've always been into food, and I've always liked cooking, it may or may not be for everyone my thoughts when I write a statement like that are: No duh who doesn't like cooking or who's not in to food. It's just such a huge part of who I am, that idea of there being people out there that do not share the same passion as I do for food is completely alien to me.











This is one of the earliest photos of I've ever 
plated 8/29/11. Like it says in the header at 
the top of the page "Have an artist eye" 
I always have, at least as far back as I 
can remember, before I got into culinary 
my first ever labor of love was photography. 

Below: 7/28/12

So, how did I get into culinary from photography?

 That's actually very easy. I've come to call it my quarter life crises. One day last year (I was 25, 26 now) I was freaking out, I didn't know where my life was going, I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I honestly felt like I should really have all this shit figured out by now, all my friends are starting out on new careers and having kids and getting married, but what the hell am I doing? So, I thought "Hey! I like food, and I like cooking I'll go to school for it" Simple as that honestly, luckily for me it's all worked out so far.

Have things changed since I've started school? 

below 9/26/13

Absolutely! At least in terms of cooking, and eating. I've come to terms with my BC life (Before Culinary)  I always THOUGHT I liked food, and THOUGHT I knew what was good, but it turns out I was horribly mistaken. Every once in awhile in class we'll talk about great restaurants in and around Portland, and a lot of the places that are mentioned I've been to. I have a lot of foodie friends so they would always drag me to there new favorite places, at the time I thought they were pretty good, never really understood the hype behind it. After going thru some of my classes and learning different tasting profiles I now am too raving about these places.

How do I feel about these changes?

3/13/14 below

For the most part, it's as you would imagine mostly good. At first I thought the changes would be more drastic then what they ended up being. I was so sure I would become a food snob, and to a degree I have. Just not as bad as I first believed.

                             1/26/15

Inspiration?

Inspiration

Where do we get it? Where does it come from? that's a hard question to answer, because there is no one answer for it, we always look for it expected, and unexpected places, but how often do we really ever find it? Rarely if ever I am going to wager. So, let's talk Inspiration, and where I personally draw it from.

Pictures

What kind of inspiration can you get from a photo? 

I feel like this one is a "No, duh" kind of thing, but never the less I have it down, it really is a great way to get really great idea's for plating. Not just any kind of pics will do, well I guess you can use any kind of photo to draw inspiration from. What I usually do is search for whatever the protein is I am going to be using as the center piece of my plate. For example... scallops!

 I chose this photo because it actually gave me a really great idea for a new dish I want to make, the title of the photo is "As cherries blossom, a taste of summer" I read as just cherries and from that I now want to make scallops with cherries!

Blogs

all kind of blogs, not just cooking.

There isn't really one particular blog that I follow, but rather I'll just google "bla, bla blog" and read, or sometimes just skim ideas. let's keep with this cherries and scallops idea I have now and want to follow thru with.  Alright here we go. This blog post here is really great it's totally great, all about just doing the bare minimum to the scallops and getting an amazing result out of it. 

Recipes 

Sometimes a recipe can a great source.

Alright, so now that we have the theme of our plate pretty well set, seared Sea Scallop with some use of cherry use in it. Maybe its going to come from a reduced cherry sauce, maybe a cherry glaze of some kind, or maybe even a cherry Beurre blanc we'll have to decide here in this step. The two ways I go about this are: using my favorite book, The Flavor Bible, or the Internet. I'll probably use a bit of both here. First I'll look up scallops and cherry's and see what the have in common  that will work as a sauce base,  veg, and finally some kind of starch to have a complete plate. 

Something random 

Some of my favorite ideas have come from random and unexpected sources.

Now, that I hopefully have a pretty solid idea and vision of my plate this is where I'm going to find that something that's missing from the plate, even I don't know what it is but this part I'm going to realize something is missing. So, in-between now and the time I go pick up the indigents I need, and start the cooking process, something will likely pop in to my mind, and I know it'll be from somewhere random, something I spot out of the corner of my eye as I'm walking around, something that's playing on Pandora or maybe a conversation I'm having with my Boyfriend, the last piece of the puzzle will come from the most unlikely of sources, as it always does.

Theory Vs Practical

What's it all mean? How am going to use all of this?

So, so far we have talked a lot about why to plate, when to plate, and and the elements that go into a decent looking plate, however what we have yet to do is actually discuss is: plating, the act of doing it, and how to approach it.

Sketching

Really? I can't draw!

Don't worry I can't draw to save my life, unless you want me to draw disproportional, lopsided stick figures in that case I'm your man!! 

But it doesn't matter if you can draw or not, the purpose of this exercise is get your thoughts on paper, so you have instruction on how you want it to look, so you visualize more clearly what it will look like when it's finished, so you work out anything that may or may not work, I used this a lot and I've always been pleased with my results.

Your Canvass (IE. the plate or what have you)

So you have your plate in front you, now what?

Now, you want to choose your plate, or whatever it is that you are going to use to put your food onto! For this one, I envisioned a rectangle plate would make things look the best, a circle just didn't seem to cut it.

Getting the food to the plate

Uhh... My hands duh!

Well...Yes you can use your hands, but I wouldn't recommend that, remember our blog post from earlier this month where we were talking about the right tools for the job? For this job I choose to use my hands, (moving the meat to the plate, with that bone sticking out I had a place to grab onto without damaging anything) than I choose a ladle, to spoon the chickpea puree onto the plate, thinking back I should have used something else, I didn't get the result I was looking for, maybe should have watered down the puree but no matter it needed up looking very dense. and tongs to move the broccoli Raab 

Fixing up a screw up

Oh F&*$ that go their!! Oh S^%* now there's sauce everywhere!

Honestly, the best way to fix up a screw up is just to start over, take everything off the plate and grab a new one, but if it's something that's small like a drop of sauce got somewhere it shouldn't have. Using that clean rag that you have on you would be a great way to fix it! if something is not where it should be, I would start over or try to clear the smudge which can be rather hard depending on what was placed.

To plate or not to plate.

When to plate:

A question that has be posed to me quite a bit since I have started this blog is: when should I plate? My answer to that is always! There isn't a time that you shouldn't be plating, there are time when it might be difficult to plate, or when you don't think you're able to plate, but plating should always be done! Like I said in a earlier blog "you eat with your eyes first" so in that regard everything should always look appealing to the eye, least you spent all that time in vain because you just tossed everything onto a plate and now it looks like garbage and suddenly lost your apatite.

Even on a Train? even on a Plane? even in the Rain?

It's not like they have a choice of anywhere else to go tho there stuck here!! *Muhahahahha!!!!*

All the more reason to do it! Yeah sure they ARE NOW stuck on the train, or on a plain in the rain with you, but what about next time? That's right there stuck there NOW, but they do have the chance to go with another company the next time they travel. 

But... but my food was so tasty everyone loved it.

Yea, sure that might be true. At the same time it could have been really bad as well, or just mediocre, and it's even more true that the plating of your food has little to no effect on the overall satisfaction of the people who are riding with you, but it's the little things that counts, "Oh man, do you remember  that steak we had on the plane to Japan last year? It was soo good" Tho in realty that steak was mediocre because the chef was in a really prissy mood that day, but is a stickler for the quality of the plate, but little things like the arrangement  of a plate can leave a lasting impression of good or bad in a diners mind. Yea, everything else might have been shit, but at least do what LITTLE you can to make your guest come back again, and again.

Snacks?

Why the hell should I plate my snacks? There just for me!! ONLY ME!!!! But, I might share...

Even if there snack, even if they are just for you, you have the chance here to improve on your technique, to explore new ways of doing things to find an easier way to do something. You would be missing a valuable opportunity to improve and there is never a point in your life that you can't improve a little further on something. 

Does it really need to look 5 star?   

I don't know is that the standard you hold yourself to professionally? If so I would say yes, with whatever you do always strive for perfection in it no matter what you do or how you do it, make sure it meets YOUR standards set them and ALWAYS adhere to them. with that said, don't be to harsh on yourself if it doesn't but try too.

Even at my in-laws?!

But I loathe them... sooo muchhh!!! ( I secretly love them, I just want to fit in with the cool kids so I say I hate them like everyone else)

Weather you hate them or not, the answer again is: YES!! And the why is surprisingly simple to understand and also shows them that weather or not they like you "look what I can do, bet you didn't know I could do that could you?!" Is this going to make them like you? Probably not, but who cares what they think, you're already married to their child! This just gives them a chance to see another side of you that may not have seen before and like I said will it make them like you? Who knows.

The Doctor!

Today we bring to you Doctor Who themed plating!!! 

We're going to go over a few different methods to achieve this, and in the end you'll be able to decide what's the best method to go about it, or the best combination of them to make sure that your theme get's noticed no matter how subtle or bold it may be.

Colors 

Using colors that are reminiscent of the show or certain episodes, monsters what have you. Using the right combination of colors here can make any Doctor Who fan squeal with girlish delight. This can be a little hard to execute, especially if you are as color coordinately challenged as I am. but here goes a nifty little color guide.

Stencils

An easy way to "Who" up a plate could be made by using stencils for a background of plate. I like this idea because you have so many more options available to you, but also a little bit harder to do, well you do it as pictured here using Sharpies which is a lot more permanent and less likely to loose it's integrity as food is placed on the plate, or do you roll the dice and use a cut with sugar, or different sauces? Different COLORED sauces!

artwork

Make your food look like a scene from an episode or monster, dalek shaped muffins, weeping angels cake, bow tie pasta (Bow ties are cool!) Whatever you want, it's your party cry if you want too. 

plates/cups/etc  

this is by far and away the easiest method to achieve your goal, it's easy I would almost call this cheating for the soul reason; merchandise is so readily available it's EVERYWHERE book stores, comic shops, places that are even nerdy have them it's easy, and fun, so I guess I wouldn't fault you all that much for doing it like this. 

The coolest thing about all of this is, these themes are transferable to almost anything that you're fan of.  

The importance of...

The importance of using proper technique is key when trying to create "crave ability" when a dish walks the floor and is placed in front of a diner. I've posted something similar, but this one well be more in depth and serve hopefully as a how to. 

Height

How and when. 

The how I see as easy myself, but with that said I still struggle with it from time to time as one my instructors once said "Just because it's easy doesn't make it simple" you can achieve height by simply stacking things on each other,

but, when you do that you kind of end up with something like the above. it's cool... but it's missing something it's got all the elements there, height, contrast, color, and negative space so what could be missing? Personally I think it's because the height is... artificial it's not natural at all. I think it would better if it were actually just all flat. like this one here, it's missing height, but you can't tell it's complete without it. 

Contrast 

Colors vs textures. 

There are a two different methods in creating contrast on a plate, I think that the most common method and by far the easiest is done with color, rarely do you see it done with textures or even shapes, and if it is done it goes largely unnoticed, even I stand guilty of this charge. This plate in my opinion is nearly flawless and I think to most people it would be flawless! The ONLY thing I would change here is the sprig of rosemary sticking out, the way I was taught is "if it's not edible it shouldn't be on the plate" "If it's on a plate they will try to eat it!"The contrast here is done in two ways and the second is very subtle and that's the contrast in textures. You have chewy or maybe soft flaky texture from the fish, crunch from the green beans, and light from the mouse or mash of some kind, THEN you have the crispy, very crunchy texture from the brittle there.  and of course you have all the different colors on the plate.

Color 

Natural vs artificial. 

This might seem almost silly, but it's true let's say... You have a plate of eggs in front you right? you're expecting them to be yellow maybe with some white or some color from the cooking process but instead of that you get... What's your first reaction to this? Mine is: What in holy mother of god did they do this? is this safe to eat?! It looks like it's gone nuclear! Second.. A very far second is oh, maybe it's like Dr. Sues Green Eggs and Ham, that's kind of cool. *shudders* I'm going to have nightmares. That's what I mean by natural vs artificial be careful when changing the color of food from the expected to the very unexpected, it will go either of two ways: Good, or VERY bad, very quickly.

Negative space

Why? 

Why... hmm, I'm having a hard time coming up with an actual reason here. The best reason I can give is... imagination. Now let's see what http://designmodo.com has to say:Too little space makes a design feel crammed, busy, cluttered and difficult to read. Even if the effect you are going for is one of chaos, space matters. Think of the space between lines of type, for example, without enough letters can touch and become unreadable.

That's perfect! There's just to much going on, you're so distracted by everything it's hard to concentrate on just one element of the plate, you lose interest, nothing is distinguishable from anything else. with that said, "flooding" the plate is a perfectly okay thing to do when plating, just use the sauce or what stock what have you as your negative space, negative space is just unoccupied space.

Flow 

Right, right, right,  left?! 

what does this even mean? I mean; lines, line should flow in the same direction. If you have have four pieces of Asparagus three of which are going root to head THAN you have one going the opposite way messing up everything, it doesn't flow anymore, it's broken, you broke it. but! It is easy to fix, just turn the one little rebel the same way as it's friends and everything is okay.

Notice, your eyes seem to stop when it get's to the

bone that is not following the same direction as

the other two.

Position 

How to avoid... Stuff. 

By stuff I mean, symbols and faces. Let's take a look at the placement of the carrots and nuts, what does it remind you of? Right? now weather this was intentional or unintentional  I couldn't say, but, you have to keep these things in mind, just stand back look it, look for something that shouldn't be there, and keep it in mind when put long slender objects on a plate next too round objects, or round objects on smaller or bigger rounder shapes... 

The Art of Plating

The Art of Plating 

News

Do you really need to know what's going on in the culinary world?  or what I have to say about it?

The team here at The Art of Plating seem to think so, and I really like that. Whenever I happen to take a look there seems to be a new article on something happening out there in world. I'm not to sure how well I'd do at presenting the news so I like that they can do it well.
Recipes 

You want to know how to cook?!?! 

Well I guess that goes with the territory now doesn't it? I haven't gotten to try any of them as a matter of fact I didn't know they had them until just recently so I definitely plan on stopping by again soon to see what they have to offer. 

Discussion 

Letting people have a say?!

And here I thought you just wanted me to talk at you. While I don't use or even like Twitter all that much seeing how it's used here makes me want to start one even if it's used for nothing but this and that's all I'd likely use it for.


The Doctor: Imagine that. Human souls trapped like flies in the World Wide Web. Stuck forever. Crying out for help.

Clara: Isn't that basically Twitter?
Videos

Today? Yesterday? or maybe even Tomorrow? 

Videos are something that I don't always see on blogs and I see them pretty frequently here and I like that. It's where I got the inspiration to do some of my videos (to be  added)  I really hope this is a trend that catch on with other blogs. 

Ramen with David Chang

I love Ramen!! Any and every-type of Ramen out there! This isn't the time or place to go into a discussion on all the wonderful types of Ramen out there, they're never ending it seems! But, we well however go over the process of making Ramen from start to finish.

Noodles

The type of noodle

There is a very specific type of noodle used in making Ramen: Alkaline!

                      INGREDIENTS

                      3 C (400g) all-purpose flour

                      4 t baked soda

                       1/2 C (100g) warm tap water

                      2 C (100g) cold tap water

making the noodle

1. 
   1: To make baked soda: Spread a half-cup of baking soda on a foil-lined sheet pan. Pop it in a 250°F oven or toaster oven for 1 hour. Store extra baked soda in a jar with a lid indefinitely.
2. 
   2: Put the warm water in a large mixing bowl. Dissolve the soda in it, then add the cold water. Add the flour, stirring and mixing to form a crumbly, pebbly alliance—not exactly a nice dough.
3. 
   3: Turn that crumbly dough out onto a work surface. Knead it together, working the dough for 5 full minutes. (It will be a tougher sparring partner than any flour dough you’ve ever tried to make.) Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes, then knead for another 5 minutes. (You will curse and sweat.) Re-wrap the dough and put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
4. 4: Divide the dough into five or six portions. Roll each portion out using a pasta machine (Italian-made is fine). Progress through the thickness settings one by one. The final thickness of the noodles is up to you, as is the width and shape into which you cut them. I like taking the dough to the second-thinnest setting, then either finely hand-cutting them or cutting them through the finer of the two cutters that came with my machine. Keep the noodles well floured to prevent them from sticking.

Cooking the noodle

5: Cook the noodles in a deep pot with plenty of water. Noodles cut on the thinnest setting will only need two and a half or three minutes to cook. Check the noodles regularly while they’re cooking; if they stick together, rinse them under cold water immediately after straining them from the pot to stop the cooking and rinse off any excess starch.

Broth:

We're going to go with a Tonkotsu-style Broth.

                       INGREDIENTS                  
                       6 liters of Water
                      2 pieces of Kombu/Konbu
                      80g of Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
                      1.8-2kg of Chicken
                      2.5kg of Pork Bones
                      450g-500g of Smoky Bacon
                      5-6 stalks of Spring Onions
                      1 medium sized Onion
                      2 large sized Carrots

Making the broth

1: Add Kombu into water in a large stockpot and bring it to a simmer under high heat. Turn heat off and let the seaweed steep for 10 minutes to allow flavors to infuse. Remove all seaweed and add Shiitake mushrooms into the stockpot. Bring water back to a boil, and reduce heat to gently simmer for 30 minutes. While simmering, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2: Remove Shiitake mushrooms from the stockpot
Add the chicken into your stockpot and leave broth on a gentle simmer. Remove any scum that rises to the surface of the broth. You can add additional water to keep the chicken covered. Keep simmering for about 1 hour.

3: While your chicken is simmering, put your pork bones in a roasting pan and place them into the oven for 1 hour (turn them over after 30 minutes to ensure an even browning on both sides).

4: After 1 hour, check that the chicken meat pulls away easily from the bone. If it does, remove the chicken from the broth. If not, continue to simmer until you achieve what is required.

5: Once you’ve removed the chicken, add the browned pork bones (from the oven) as well as the smoky bacon. Continue to heat at a gentle simmer and remove any scum that surfaces. After around 45 mins, remove the bacon.

6: gently simmer the broth for 6 to 7 hours or as much time as you can (it is recommended that you stop replenishing water after the 5th hour)

7: Add the spring onions, carrots and onions into the stockpot and simmer for the final 45 minutes. Remove all pork bones and vegetables from the stockpot. Strain the broth through a very fine sieves The broth can be used at this stage (with the tare, of course) or you can reduce it by half over high heat and keep them in containers.

Bowls:

What kind of bowls should I use?

Well, this is an easy one! Ramen bowls! preferably Japanese style one, 

These bowls are generally characterized as wider, and average depth.

It's all so Shiny!!

Well... You want to start your adventure into plating but you find yourself in Sur La Table, but have no idea where to even start? 

A little forewarning: getting started and getting everything you need will be expensive, however will worth it, to start it off I'd pick type of plates you want and buy a nice set of them. Here's a little guide to the types of plates you'll see and what the CAN be used for. 

Plates: 

Dinner:

These little beauties might just set you back the most of anything else on our list. Typically used  for the main course of a meal, and typically round not always. The, shape, size, and style should be taken into consideration when using these.

Rectangle:

Probably my personal favorite type of plate. The options and combinations that these guys are capable of is nearly never ending, very adaptive to any type of cuisine and offers a lot of negative space.

Appetizer (Put a bird on it)

These and desert plates are new in my arsenal of plating, I haven't worked much with these, but so far I love these guys! They're great for making small portions looking large with the help of some height. 

Dessert:

Another small plate, typically a little fancier then there appetizer counterparts. They really can be, and I feel are often used interchangeably.

Utensils?:

Of course! How else are we going to get it on the plate?!

The Ladle.

I typically use this to get hot liquid like a such or something like that on to my plate. Now I say hot liquid because you can't really store anything hot in a squeeze bottle which is actually my prefered tool, I find it has a lot more control than a ladle but, that's just me.

Tongs:

As with everything when it comes to plating the more control that you have the better. You really do want to find a pair that are sturdy, with the right reach for your application, you want to be sure when choosing out pairs you want to be sure to keep in mind what you're working with, is it something fragile like poached fish? something sturdy like a steak from a hot grill? if it's fish your probably going to want something like the ones pictured nothing that's going to tear the flesh but with the steak you don't have that problem.

Rag:

Let's not underestimate or forgot about the rag! because we all know little accidents happen a little drop of sauce here or there, some crumbs on the side or just fingerprints can take away the visual aesthetic you're going for on your plate, so keep a CLEAN and damp rag on you.

Plating? What’s so special about it, why do it?

Plating? What’s so special about it, why do it?

Why is it important to plate things?

Eat with your eyes

Well, the saying goes "You first eat with your eyes" So it's important to have things look pleasing to the eye, as one of my instituters once said "It could be the most tasty thing this person will have ever had but if it looks like someone just shit on the plate they are already expecting it to taste like shit" 

It’s so pretty I’m going to die!!!

The opposite is also true, if it's something that looks just amazing you're probably going to think "Oh Man look at that!! It's got me AMAZING" When, in reality it's actually pretty horrible. 

Shapes, shapes, and more shapes.

Shapes can add a much needed contrast to a plate and draw a diners eye to a particular area or dish on a plate. 

But why?

But why.. yes but why. Well, let's say you want them to look at your protein first because that's where you spent the most money and time on so of course you would want them to look at that first right? well you can do that in several different ways.

Do they have to be shapes? 

Why... why is that even a question? Of course they have to be shapes.. Or do they?! NO!! no, not all but they should follow some sort of a symmetry like in the plating above, there are no identifiable shapes but your eyes are drawn to the way the lines flow, towards your center piece. 

COLOR!!!!!

Color is another way to draw your diners eye to where you want it, by using alternating shades and tones of colors.

All of lights (all of the lights) (Lights, lights) All of the lights.

Now when I say lights, I don't actually mean that you should buy strips of lights and attach them all to your plates, well unless that's your thing... but you should however use bright colors or darker colors to create contrast.

But, I’m color blind…

Are you really? Well even if you are uses the shades that catch your eye the most that's something even people with color sight will notice.

Why’s it so tall?

Because again CONTRAST and EYE APPEAL. That's the whole point of everything you do on a plate, if something looks soft, use something that gives a sense of "hard" or "crispy" again, this is setting in your dinners mind what the dish will be like, will it be nothing but soft things like steamed veggies or mashed potatoes. 

That’s what she said!!

She didn't say tall... but she did say big. It was to much, there was to much going on the plate, there was to much food. less is more, it really is. I always thought that this was crazy but when the plate is crowded there it just looks... bad.

Because, why, that’s why.