The Importance Of Food Plating In The Digital Age – How To #WIN At Being Visibly Delicious

We’ve all heard that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for food. People eat with their eyes first because it’s built into our psychology, and the necessity of a visual feast has only grown in recent years with the rise of social media and the ever-present online foodie. 

Food plating is the process of assembling and beautifying food to enhance its presentation. Well plated food can add value to a dining experience and allow you to sell your dishes at a higher price.

Food plating and presentation could be the key to unlocking more in your business – and luckily you don’t need to be a maestro artist with hours to spare to nail the basics. Food plating like a pro is as simple as harnessing inspiration from your kitchen, paired with a few key food plating ideas. 

Why is food plating important?

Even before chefs and restaurateurs felt the pressure to perform for social media, plating or food presentation has always been very important.  Back in 2014, a gastrophysicist team at Oxford University put the importance of good-looking food to the test.

The test involved 60 diners trying one of three salads: the first was a regular tossed salad, the second a very neatly arranged salad, and the third a salad inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s Painting Number 201. All three salads contained the same ingredients, just presented in a different way. However, they were definitely not received by the diners in the same way.

Before beginning to eat, diners rated the Kandinsky-inspired dish higher for complexity, artistic presentation, general liking, and indicated that they would be prepared to pay twice as much for this salad as for either the regular or “neat arrangement” salads.

Shockingly, the presentation seemed to also affect perceived taste for diners. Participants rated the Kandinsky salad higher for "tastiness", despite it receiving similar ratings to the other salads for the four basic components of taste: salty, bitter, sweet and sour.

"A number of chefs now are realising that they are being judged by how their foods photograph – be it in the fancy cookbooks [or], more often than not, when diners Instagram their friends," explains Professor Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the University of Oxford and a co-author of the study.

How has social media impacted food? 

The rise of social media has only amplified diners’ fascination with beautiful food. Chefs and restaurateurs have felt the increasing pressure to influence dining decisions and captivate their audience using social media. In 2021, if your business is not active on social media, you will find it increasingly difficult to attract new business and social buzz.

Therefore, considering how your dishes will photograph is more important than ever for chefs, and having a team who are great under pressure while maintaining attention to detail is essential. Your next critic could be any of your diners, armed with a phone and a following, with an ability to represent your business on the internet forever.

How to improve food plating

Investing time into learning how to do food plating is an investment into the future of your business, and your food doesn’t need to be Heston levels of interesting to make a lasting impact. Start with the basics, get comfortable, and work your way up from there. Some of the fundamentals of food plating are:

1.    Create height on your plate

Playing around with height and scale can help guide your diner’s eye around the plate, like an artist guides eyes around an artwork. Creating taller sections is instantly impressive and easy to achieve with tools like mousse rings or pastry cutters to construct layers.

2.    Have a key focal point

You’ll usually always have a hero in your dish, so take a moment to highlight it. Typically, the hero is the protein, and you can think of your other dish elements as supporting roles to the main attraction. You can arrange your sauces or vegetables in ways that point to the dish hero to draw in the eye.

3.    Play around with textures

Texture is not only visually important, but it also has a big impact on the delivery of taste, so don’t shy away from shaking up your go-to dishes with textures, foams, and sauces.

4.    Odd numbers are key

It may sound simple but that’s why working presentation around odd numbers can be so great. The human brain is naturally attracted to odd numbers on a plate because the lack of balance creates visual allure. Try plating your dishes with ingredients in groups of three, five, or seven.

5.    Lean into contrasting colours

A lot about the first impression food makes on diners comes from colours and the use of certain colours can impact the taste. We recommend steering clear of artificial colours and looking to natural colours to provide your dish with impact. Contrasting colours, in particular, can be very eye-catching and for photography, the brighter the better! 

6.    What you serve on matters

It might seem like the least important thing when it comes to food, but the plates and crockery you use will also impact how your diner enjoys their meal. You can think of your plates as a canvas for your food, so everything from their colour, size, or style can be something important to consider. Play around with what you have available and don’t be afraid to be bold.

7.    Consider less is more

Portion size is important to a meal’s perceived value. One could assume that a more luxurious meal would be smaller because it’s more exclusive and harder to come by, so going with smaller portion sizes can help your reputation. Your meal should always leave diners wanting a little bit more, so don’t overload them.

8.    Use edible garnishes and decorations

Micro herbs and edible flowers are hugely popular and an easy way to bring colour and freshness to your plate. Make sure to use garnish tweezer to avoid handling your decoration and keeping it beautiful and fresh for longer.

9.    Simple is good

Complexity has its time and place in the kitchen but trying too hard with your plating can make dishes look over-engineered and stilted. Use one or two of the basic plating tips and own them – make them part of your wheelhouse and let the quality of your cooking do the rest.

10. Put your spin on it

Chefs are food artists and food plating is just an extension of that art, so don’t be afraid to get creative! Draw inspiration from your kitchen and what you know about your dishes to find your voice and style.