When thinking about dishes, one of the first things that come to the mind of the cooks is: how I am going to assembling the dish; how to order things, the decorative elements, the harmonies of the ingredients, the final appeal. A lot of things that we ended up translating into leaves with several paths and smudges to achieve what we want.

Many chefs give their advice and everyone has their own style of doing things, there are those who prefer the simple, others the complex. Some classic, another avant-garde. A few elements to the plate, many others. Here the vital thing is to look for the attractiveness of the product and not to sell false promises in the dishes.

In order to get started in the art of assembly, the essential thing is to practice and learn from as many styles as you can. Here are some tips that I recommend to all who wish to reach a little beyond the usual.

Read magazines and related books

It is normal to run into a cook who has no idea how to mount a dish, and is simply because he has not read and researched enough. A good cook will look for your inspiration and ideas in the designs of other chefs, this is how many we started and also we will polish our technique until achieving something more personal.

There are excellent magazines, websites and author books available with examples that will open our minds to a more artistic world.

Know the assembly basics

You can not master something without knowing the essential bases of presentation and assembling dishes. Everything related to the balance, units, focal point, flow and height that must have the dishes is something fundamental to start and have more experience.

Practice, practice, practice

As you know, the best way to do things is to do them over and over again. It is the only sure way to master the techniques. If we want to have our own style or satisfactory, then hundreds of dishes we must mount until fine tuning.

Thanks to this we were able to improve our pulse, our attention to details, our efficiency in assembling a plate and having a more critical view of the good and bad in the assemblies.

Related: 6 essential attributes in a chef

Do not overload

Decorating a dish is the signature of every chef, but everything has its limit. It is normal that at first, we do not like much the way we set the dishes, but the idea is to avoid putting and elements that opaque the beauty of simplicity that puts.

We like to eat something delicious and not something that you know to excess makeup. We must avoid making a dish with an excess of decoration and follow the following message: If we think too much about missing the plate, it is because it is ready!

Ground the reason for the assembly

Here is something essential: The cook does not put elements on a plate by compromise, if not because it justifies their harmony and flavor. Each ingredient should have a reason to be there: either because it combines very well (acid sauces for very sweet desserts) or because we want to intensify the aroma (bouquet or fresh herbs) or simply by the color contrast (green, colors on red earth).

Here we try to avoid giving the excuse that “I wear it because it looks good” or “because I like it”. Without cook it is forced to put things because if, since behind each plate there is a work of flavors, mixtures, and attractions that give that “magic” to the dishes.

In the same way is based on how to place things on the plate for a better appeal: play with reliefs and heights, locate the main elements in areas of greater attention, decorations should be fair without removing the role of the other ingredients and so on.

End Note

In conclusion, it is about teaching to help get things done and learn from the foundations and fundamentals of the cook. Even so, we must not forget that the essential thing is the taste of the products, after that, we can design the way of presenting to make them even more exquisite for our eyes and give the pleasure to eat.