Wow your insta with NEFF’s plating techniques.

 

Now you can make every plate look as good as it tastes. Follow our simple food plating tips and take your food to the next level – impressing loved ones and followers.

 

In no time you’ll be piping, swiping and layering like a master chef.

• Always hero key ingredients.

• Choose props that work well with your chosen dish e.g. grey will make greens and oranges really pop. Neutral tones will allow the food to take centre stage.

• Never put anything on the dish that isn’t edible.

• Each stage should add another element of flavour as well as colour and texture.

• Use the rule of odds, as groupings of 3 or 5 elements are more pleasing to the eye.

• Visually plate your dish as you wish the diner to receive it.

• Coral tuille is a simple decoration made with flour, water and sugar. It works for sweet or savoury and you can add colour. The mix is whisked together in a bowl then each spoonful is boiled in a frying pan to create a lace thin tuille.

• Once cooled, the tuille can be broken into geometric shards to add a modern decorative touch.

• Vegetables are shaved with a peeler or mandolin and placed into a bowl or simple marinade of olive oil, thyme and lemon. Use a circular cookie cutter for perfect circles of beetroot.

• To plate, pipe the cheese mousse in alternate sized balls, so when eaten, each mouthful is different.

• Thin strips of vegetables are then woven around the mousse.

• Finally, delicately place the tuille onto the dish. As well as texture the tuille shards add extra height and a pop of colour.

• When scattering, be sure that each element/colour has a shard on top.

• Props/equipment: dark tones work well to contrast with the pink beetroot and white goat’s cheese. Mixing bowls, whisk, frying pan, piping bag, Vegetable peeler/mandolin.

• Salt bake celeriac in a salt dough until tender. The dough is then broken away to reveal the celeriac. For aesthetics, the celeriac can be trimmed to a perfect circle with a round cookie cutter.

• To plate, apply a Carrot puree swipe with the back of a dessert spoon. Don’t hesitate, be bold and go for it. Keep the swipe to one side of the plate as asymmetry gives the dish a modern feel.

• Lamb cooked medium rare so it’s nice and pink, perched on top of the puree with chard placed around it. Keep the lamb central to the plate as the hero ingredient.

• Cook red onions in a little lemon juice or vinegar to bring out their colour. Bright fresh colours will add vibrancy to the plate.

• Celeriac is added to the plate and a spoonful of lamb jus to finish.

• Props/equipment: the finished plate is quite classical with a modern twist. Mixing bowl and rolling pin for the salt dough, baking tray, knife and round cookie cutter for the celeriac.

• For your base, take a cookie cutter slightly larger than the size of your cheesecake and fill with your base. This will give greater visual impact and add extra colour and texture to the plate.

• Shave thin slices of rhubarb with a vegetable peeler and poach these lightly in a warm stock syrup (50:50 sugar & water). Dry out low and slow in the oven then wrap around a wooden spoon to achieve a curl.

• The rhubarb brings an extra colour to an otherwise pale dessert. Here we used two shades of pink, a rhubarb puree and a rhubarb syrup made by reducing the rhubarb poaching liquid.

• Take your time with piping and consider areas of the plate you want to see and which should be covered/exposed. Use a piping bag or squeeze bottle for extra control and precision.

• Fresh thyme leaves add colour as well as an extra layer of flavour.

• Pieces of stem ginger are added last for a pop of flavour.