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.