Cooking is beautiful and beauty manifests itself in cooking. Personally, I think if you make a so-so dish then it is bound to taste better based on the presentation. Right? Right. Take Gordon Ramsey for example. He is forever going on about proper 'plating' of a dish. And it is all about height ... the higher you 'plate' things the more dramatic the impact. Colors play an important part too and high contrast eventually leads to a more appealing dish. What I don't get is the tiny morsels of food 'plated' on a huge dish ... why not use a smaller plate? It just seems like there is too much wasted space if you don't fill it up with something.
I guess food is like art ... there are abstract presentations and more traditional displays which you can throw in to the mix. Remember when we were little and our parents warned us not to 'play' with our food? Well I think any self-respecting good cook out there ignores that advice because you have to play with your food if you want the proper look and especially if you want it to behave the 'right' way.
So bottom line for food presentation is to:
1) Add height
2) Use contrasting colors
3) Play with your food
But most importantly, enjoy the experience.
