My recent post "food plating: choose your support" has drawn quite a lot of interest. Today we hear from one reader. She made the following comment:
"Submitted on 2009/07/27 at 11:18am
I found this post to be particularly interesting. The stark difference in the pictures really stressed the importance of a good support.
Are there any dinnerware sets or service pieces you would recommend for a home cook?
Does shape matter? Is there a preference for the more modern looking square plates or the more traditional round?
What about the depth of the dish. I’ve seen pasta plates that have a distinct dip in the middle of the plate such as Villeroy & Boch New Wave Pasta Plate.
Would you recommend getting , and what foods would go best in them? My current set of plates are completely smooth across the top with no distinction, exactly like these plates. Would you recommend something like that? Thank you!"
First, thank you for your comment. There are a lot of questions in it and i'll try to answer them all.
Basically, virtually any support (plate) has a purpose; you just need to know a couple of rules. The most important thing to consider is the style of the cuisine you intend to serve. Are you cooking Rustic Italian, New American, Home- & Family-style, Asian, Keller-inspired tasting menu, Nouvelle, Classic, or just your own cuisine, which is a unique reflection of you? Of course, you'll have to decide that before even thinking of your support. This is important simply because you want to try to tie up the theme together. Serving a minimalistic, sophisticated dish out of The French Laundry Cookbook, for instance, on a rustic pottery plate of color wouldn't look great. It would clash with your theme. Using a thin, rectangular, large white plate would be more like it. And vice versa.
Then, you have to know your audience. Who are you cooking for? Are they a bunch of college students or some well-traveled gourmets?
Finally, a plate needs to match not only the food, but the environment it helps define. Take a look at your interior design. What type is it? Contemporary? Country? Asian?… Where you dine has a great influence on the theme of the evening. Make sure the type of plate you use somehow matches your environment.
Now that we talked about cuisine, guests, and interior design, let's look at the plates themselves. Yes, shape matters. As a general rule, you want to avoid a shape that distract from the main star: the food itself. Personally, while i like the design of the Villeroy & Boch New Wave Pasta Plate, I'm afraid its shape is also a little distracting.
In general, larger, white, round or square simple plates work best, regardless of cuisine, guests or interior design. As soon as we get into complicated shapes or colors, I find that the plates actually disserve the cuisine you intend to serve. Which is why, by the way, most restaurants use larger, white, round or square simple plates.
Pasta plates. Large, white, deep and heavy pasta plates are great. They portray most food preparations beautifully. Most, but not all. I usually use deep pasta plates to present rustic, saucy items such as a Braised Lamb Shank with polenta, Beef Bouguignon or obviously, Pasta. They are good for salads, too, because the inside bowl kind of keep the lettuce in the center and elevate the presentation. Remember, height is good.
They tend to be impractical, however, for all other purposes. So I would definitely buy a set of those, as long as they are not used as your primary plates.
So to sum this up, I would keep the current set of plates that you have, and buy an extra set of large, white, heavy pasta plates.
But let me hear what our readers have to say about all this. Leave me a comment below!
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2009.