10 tips for arranging a plate beautifully

A tasty meal tastes even better when it looks attractive. In restaurants, a lot of attention is therefore often paid to preparing the plate. Also called dressing. You can also do this at home, for example for a festive meal at Easter or Christmas, or simply when you want to present the food extra beautifully. We give 10 tips that you can use for inspiration.

Extra attention for the plate

The shape and size of the plate determine how a dish comes out on it. Depending on the type of meal, opt for an oblong plate or an oval one. Or choose an extra large size, so that the food is not crushed and there is also room for decorations, such as drops of sauces or oils. A white board is always good, but you can also experiment with a colored version. For example in blue or black.

By heating the plate, your hot ingredients stay warm longer while preparing. For cold dishes, place the plates in the refrigerator in advance.

Start from the center

By starting from the middle to lay out the board, you make it easier for yourself. Because you know exactly how much space you have left. But it also looks nice to use only the right or left side of the board. Don’t overfill the plate. Place the rest of the food in bowls and place them on the table so that everyone can serve extra food if desired.

If you use puree, start with that and place the rest on/around it. If it is a dish with meat or fish, let it be the center of attention. It looks nice to vary in height. Therefore, place ingredients that lend themselves to this on top of each other or, for example, on their sides, into the air. Like a lamb chop, for example.

This way you can serve puree beautifully

Puree is not the prettiest ingredient. Therefore, you can place it on the plate with a garnish ring, for example. (This is also a good option for rice or couscous). You can also use it to make a ‘wipe’ across the board. Or use a piping bag to make beautiful swirls on the plate. In an earlier article we tell you how to make the tastiest mashed potatoes.

This way you can serve meat beautifully

Instead of dividing the meat over plates, you can also initially serve it on 1 large plate and divide it into portions from there. A whole chicken or turkey, for example, looks great. But it is also attractive to (partially) cut meat that is suitable for this into slices. Whether or not dressed with herbs, nuts or sauces. If you want to place the meat on individual plates, it would also look nice to cut it into slices.

Serve sauces (separately).

A dish is often only truly complete with an accompanying sauce. It just doesn’t look good to pour large quantities of it onto the plate. Therefore, use a spray bottle or a spoon to create zigzag streaks of sauce across the plate. Or pipe round drops of sauce onto the plate. This also looks great with oils. The disadvantage is that only small amounts of sauce end up on the plate. If you prefer to give a more generous portion, pour the sauce on one side of the plate.

Or in small jugs, which you place next to each plate. It looks nice and everyone can decide for themselves how much sauce they use.

Use odd numbers on the board

Strange, but true, in the case of a dish it looks less attractive when it is constructed symmetrically. It is therefore better to work with odd numbers. Therefore, for example, give not 2 or 4, but 1 or 3 pieces of an ingredient.

In the shape of a wreath

Before Christmas it is popular to present the Christmas menu in the form of a wreath. But this form of layout is certainly also suitable for other times of the year. For example, you can prepare snacks, a salad or dessert in this way.

Garnishes on the plate

By adding garnishes at the end, the result looks extra professional. For example, use small sprigs of green herbs such as chives, thyme or dill in savory dishes. Or choose cress (sprouting vegetables), such as cress.

For sweet dishes you can use nuts, mint leaves, dots of syrup, (cocoa/cinnamon) powder (sugar) or chocolate shavings. By varying the color, the whole immediately looks more sparkling. For that reason, you can also add beautifully cut pieces of tomatoes, edible flowers or fruit to the plate.

Cleaning the plate

Did you spill something while preparing the food? Then clean the plate, for example using a piece of kitchen towel. Otherwise it will immediately no longer look neat.

Look at examples

There are many examples of how to format signs on the internet. When you use a search engine and click on images, you will see them. Or look on YouTube for videos of it. This way you can get much more inspiration.

(Source: Archive, AH.nl, Culy, Uit Paulineskeuken,vlees.nl, Miljuschka, Coop. Photos: Shutterstock)