Product Description

Feast your eyes.


Long awaited by professional chefs, this groundbreaking guide to food presentation will also delight and inspire culinary students and sophisticated home cooks. Acclaimed food writer and culinary producer Christopher Styler describes seven distinctive plating styles, from Minimalist to Naturalist to Dramatic, with several striking examples of every genre. Each plating suggestion is accompanied by clear instructions along with color photos of step-by-step techniques and finished plates. Complete with essays on plating from ten leading chefs and recipes for the dishes featured, this book is a work of art in itself--a must for the kitchen shelf.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8025 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-25
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Review
In the world of cooking, presentation is every bit as important as flavor. This idea is critical for restaurants, where a dish's appearance could determine the difference between excellent reviews and bankruptcy. Enter Styler's new work, a step-by-step recipe manual for home cooks interested in making their dishes look as good as they taste. This is no ordinary cookbook; think of it as a compilation of ideas. Ten of the nation's top chefs here introduce eight styles of plating. Delineated by chapters focusing on the art and principles of plating, the brief but packed text allows readers to indulge in various styles, including "Minimalist," "Artist," "Architect," "Contemporary European Style," "Asian Influence," and "Desserts: Classic and Contemporary." The book features photographs of chefs preparing dishes and is sparsely designed with an eye to beauty, allowing food design to take center stage. Styler doesn't seek to be an authority on plating but instead hopes that this work will serve as an introduction to the art. Highly recommended for large public libraries.
—Steven G. Fullwood, Schomburg Ctr. Lib., New York (Library Journal, October 15, 2006)

"Professional and home cooks…can take culinary presentation to the next level by learning the secrets of contemporary food styling." (Cakes & Sugarcraft, Autumn 2007)

“Professional and home cooks who are passionate about food can take culinary presentation to the next level…” (Inspired by Food, Summer 2008)

From the Inside Flap
An inspiring book for professionals andsophisticated home cooks who wantto take their skills to the next level,Working the Plate goes beyond adding adrizzle of something here or a sprig ofsomething there to explore both the principlesand the art of food presentation. Christopher Styler shares the secrets of seven contemporaryplating styles: The Minimalist, The Architect, The Artist, Contemporary European Style, Asian Influences, The Naturalist, and DramaticFlair. He also reveals the thoughts of ten leading chefs on the art of plating, from Terrance Brennan and Emily Luchetti to Suzanne Goin and Marcus Samuelsson.

Working the Plate includes several examples of each plating style. Stunning color photographs show both finished plates and the steps involved to duplicate the techniques behind such dishes as Roasted Quail with Chard and Potatoes, Parmesan Crusted Lamb Chops with Swirled Root Puree and Pea Sauce, Skate and Angel Hair Pasta with Caper Butter, Soba-Tofu Salad in a Nori Cone, and Bird's Nest Brunch.

Plating provides the all important first impression and sets the stage for the sensoryexperience of enjoying a great meal. With this overview of popular plating styles, you'll see how you can vary approaches and add adistinctive dash of élan and panache to the dishes you serve.

Discover the plating philosophies of these renowned chefs:

Wayne Harley Brachman, Porter House, New York, NY

Terrance Brennan, Artisanal, Picholine, New York, NY

Andrew Carmellini, A Voce, New York, NY

Suzanne Goin, Lucques, AOC, Los Angeles, CA

Sharon Hage, York Street, Dallas, TX

James Laird, Restaurant Serenade, Chatham, NJ

Emily Luchetti, Farallon Restaurant, San Francisco, CA

Tadashi Ono, Matsuri, New York, NY

Kent Rathbun, Abacus, Jasper's, Dallas, Texas

Marcus Samuelsson, Aquavit, Riingo, New York, NY

From the Back Cover
Feast your eyes.

Long awaited by professional chefs, this groundbreaking guide to food presentation will also delight and inspire culinary students and sophisticated home cooks. Acclaimed food writer and culinary producer Christopher Styler describes seven distinctive plating styles, from Minimalist to Naturalist to Dramatic, with several striking examples of every genre. Each plating suggestion is accompanied by clear instructions along with color photos of step-by-step techniques and finished plates. Complete with essays on plating from ten leading chefs and recipes for the dishes featured, this book is a work of art in itself—a must for the kitchen shelf.

Customer Reviews

Good first attempt at a subject
First of all, I am a professional chef. I enjoyed this book, but I doubt this book would have as much value for a home cook as it did for me.

The book is broken up into sections based on four "styles" of food presentation. Each style consists of a series of plates presented from actual chefs from their restaurant menus. Each "plate" comes with a large picture of the plate, a description of the dish's philosophy, and three smaller pictures, each with captions, highlighting one or two of the elements to plating that dish. Additionally, each chef is profiled sharing the reasons they believe in their particular plating style.

There is a section at the end of the book that gives the actual recipes for each of the plates presented. I didn't read them all, but they seemed incomplete, even within dishes (possibly the chef wouldn't release the recipe for a particular element to a plate). I was not so upset with this since I did not buy the book for any recipes.

I was mostly disappointed that all of the elements to plating each dish weren't included. Basically one or two (more often than not one) key techniques to each dish were highlighted in the three smaller photos. Because I am a chef I could complete most of these dishes but my girlfriend was baffled when I asked her until she had seen me do the missing step. Some of the techniques are used on multiple dishes and were maybe omitted because they would be redundant in the book or they may have seemed obvious to the author, but others should have definately been included since they are not common nor included elsewhere in the book.

Overall, this book had to get three stars because, though I learned from it, a person who hasn't been to culinary school nor worked in a high end kitchen would not be able to recreate all these dishes. However, the photography was absolutely stunning, and this will definately remain on my coffee table for people to thumb through.

I think this is a good first stab at modern plating techniques. I very much appreciate the fact that the author/chef and publisher attempted a book like this and I hope someone else will follow up with a more scientific and complete attempt.

working the plate
This book has opened my eyes on some great ideals and will help me through some plating issues while I am in school and for many plates to come. Plus my family really enjoys the fancy plating instead of the normal drop your food in the plate and go. Recommend this book to any culinary student or individual who just wants to dress up thier plates for dinner or any meal for that matter.

to you intend to kill someone?
do you really want to kill your son's mother-in-law?
she will drop dead when you invite her to have dinner and perform any of the suggestions given in this gorgeous book.
buy it and try!