Presentation is everything

Presenting food is sometimes just as hard as preparing it. 

We all cook, not only for ourselves and the pleasure of it, but also for friends, family and, for some, for clients.

In many ways, its just as important to take time to present your food as prepare it.  And of course, if its for clients, we want them to come back to us!

I'll admit, I am one of those annoying people who go to charity shops and flea markets buying pretty single or dual pieces of china, just because I may need it "sometime".  But of course there are always the "bargains" for 3 plates or for 5 cups without saucers, and I do refrain, most of the time.

I've only a few pieces readily available at any one time because you need space to put the regular china as well but displaying my recent recipes I have found a new lease of life for the collecting bug and then it occurred to me what do other cooks or chefs use?

Many chefs in 4 and 5* restaurants and hotels (and those who aspire to be them) will use white, but looking through my not insubstantial number of cookery books, I seem to have found at least a few themes.

If its a country style recipe (read French, Spanish or Italian country cooking etc) these seem to be brightly coloured small bowls of gorgeousness or large white platters and serving dishes of stews and baked fare.  Although the more we venture to the east of the mediterranean or to North Africa, the bowls seem to come in three varieties, silver servers, brightly coloured terracotta and beautiful white china with elaborate edging.

The more sophisticated the dishes, it would seem, would invite a layered approach with a base plate of a colour or with pretty edging and then a simple white serving plate on top.  Plain or coloured clothes are used to dress the table and, in some cases, the amount of silver out numbers the china and the food.

But it doesn't stop there, serving bowls can be anything at all, pieces of moulded metal, pressed glass or carved wood.  I have been inspired, but what to do, without space to store it all?

And then there is the question of the shape of the bowl/plate/server, oval, circular, square or something different still?

My own thought is to present food as well as it can be.  If at a dinner party, especially an informal one where the party is all about the food, at least one main part of each course should be presented on a platter or large bowl.  Or if not at a table, then in an array of baskets, servers, bowls and plates.

For a more formal setting, white tablecloths are a must, but that doesn't mean smooth and starched, and you know that antique lace one that your great aunt, grandmother, or next door neighbour gave you all those years ago, well it was made to be used.   I've seen crape paper and crushed velvet used on tables before, and I must admit, having a white base tablecloth along a plane oak table with a roll of gold wall paper down the middle as runner, may sound cheap, but add your candles, your flowers and your place settings and funnily, it can look fantastic.