As the final act of creation and the first element to leave an impression, the plating of a dish plays a crucial role in any dining experience. But what exactly does good plating look like today?
It begins simply, with a circular base of light pink and white cubes of kombu-cured hamachi and pickled jicama, daikon and green apple against a pure white plate. Then, a diaphanous apple cider gelée cut to the exact same diameter of the base is gently laid atop, flecks of dill, marigold petals and fennel pollen suspended within it glistening in the light. More layers, as a quenelle of golden smoked pike roe is laid alongside emerald-hued nasturtium leaves atop the gelée. Finally, the entire affair is crowned by a brilliant red nasturtium blossom, while a deep green sauce of nasturtium and lemon verbena whey surrounds the assemblage.
The dish—a seasonal addition to the tasting menu at Central fine-casual restaurant Cultivate—is a stunner with its bold swathes of red, yellow and green, yet for chef-patron Leonard Cheung, plating comes only a distant third when it comes to his priorities while designing a dish.
“If you think too much about the plating, it'll look like a clusterf**k. It’ll be too much stuff—to the point where it doesn’t look delicious anymore.”
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Indeed, plating is an oft-cited point of contention in the world of modern fine dining—one that has come under the microscope as diners moved away from delicately arranged morsels to more homey comfort food over the course of the pandemic.
Longstanding institutions of haute cuisine have also been crumbling all around us, with news of the impending 2024 closure of one such institution, legendary Copenhagen restaurant Noma, sending shockwaves through global food culture. In the wake of the announcement, observers began to dissect the unremitting back-of-house culture at the lauded restaurant required to produce such sublime beauty on the plate, leading many to ask if the culture of fine dining hadn’t gone a bit too far in its pursuit of perfection at the expense of the wellbeing of the kitchen’s rank and file.
Pop culture has also pounced on the moment to poke fun at the supposed absurdity of fine dining, and its focus on over-the-top plating, with films like The Menu and Thai production Hunger featuring lavish edible creations that conceal a darker truth about the movie’s fictional restaurants, where beautiful artifice shrouds moral decay.
It’s perhaps for this reason that chefs like Cheung—who was trained at the likes of New York’s Eleven Madison Park and NoMad—have been turning towards plating with substance and intention over surface. Cheung cites his time cooking at contemporary southern American eatery Husk in Charleston, South Carolina with instilling in him the importance of showcasing the beauty of the ingredients in their natural state.
“I learnt how to do barbecue shrimp and grits—dishes that are nothing close to resembling the fine dining experience at all. With that cuisine, you look at each individual product rather than the sum, because all the heirloom vegetables and the ingredients we used were already so unique on their own.”
See also: Eleven Madison Park’s plant-based dining experience: Is it worth it?
