Garnishing and Basic Food Presentation

In yesterday's article, The Art of Garnishing, we talked a little about why we might want to add some garnishing touches to a meal, remembering the well used adage "presentation is everything".

But, even more basic than garnishing is choosing foods that complement each other in color, texture, and, of course, taste. You wouldn't want to serve an all brown meal; it just doesn't look appetizing.

Add some small sprigs of parsley, or a single leaf of curly kale to the plate. Just slicing a regular, organic radish into thin slices, then arranging along the outside of a black plate adds a lovely touch to any lunch or dinner.

Bits of organic lemon or orange peel (called the zest) topping off a dessert or salad, or arranged artistically in a few places around the plate just before serving, dress up the whole meal!

Okay, so how to do the rose radishes mentioned in the last article?

Click here for a nice, detailed set of instructions online with pictures for radish fans, radish roses, green onion and celery curls, matchstick carrots and turnips. It just takes a small, sharp kitchen knife to make these.I put my fun creations into distilled water, room temp, the night before and leave in the refrigerator overnight. If you need them later in the day, then by all means put them into ice cold water and refrigerate for several hours. These particular garnishes will usually last 3-4 days if refrigerated, and the soak water changed at least once.

Another neat, simple and quick garnish is the tomato rose. Using a sharp paring knife, lightly peel around a firm, organic tomato skin, without breaking the cut, making one long peel.

Maybe you have done this with an apple as a kid, trying to see if you can peel the entire apple skin without lifting the vegetable peeler or knife blade? Or am I the only adult who still likes to do these things?

Anyway, once you have at least most of the peel off, gently take it and tightly roll it up to make the center, and then loosely roll the rest of the peel into the shape of a rose. This looks so elegant in a vegetable platter or tray, or on any plate and people will always ask what it is and how you made it.

Click here for a nice video on YouTube to see exactly how it is done, and how easy it is.

We'll look at some more garnishing tricks tomorrow. Hope these were helpful!

Phyllis Towse