Plating the Dessert

There are some general guidelines to follow when designing your dessert plating.  Think like an artist--our eye is generally drawn to curves rather than straight lines.  Symmetry can be pleasing to the eye, but asymmetry will keep your eye moving around the plate.  Groupings of odd numbers (1 and 3) are much more interesting than groups in even numbers (2 or 4).  Don't be afraid of negative space.  No need to crowd your dessert together--let the white plate shine through.  Oh, that reminds me--white plates will be your best bet to show off your dessert to best effect.  Colors of sauces will stay much truer on a white background.  White gives a nice clean background for all your components.  Do you really want your mousse creation to compete with the big cabbage roses on your grandmother's fine china?  I didn't think so.  You can also use clear glass, especially when served on a white tablecloth.

Decide your color palette:  you can go monochromatic, with all colors being generally different shades of the same color.  You can have a complementary color scheme in which the colors used are opposite of each other on the color wheel, or you can have an analogous color scheme in which the colors of your dessert components are adjacent to each other on the color wheel.  Please remember, in coming up with your schemes, color combinations should always take a back seat to flavor and texture.

   

There are usually at least three components to a basic plated dessert--the main item, an accompanying sauce and a garnish of some sort.  Keep in mind that these three components should be flavor notes that complement each other and deliver a "harmonious flavor chord" when eaten together.  Sounds a little out there, I know, but trust me--flavors either go together or they don't! 

A couple of things to remember about these components:  your sauce should be just enough to get a taste in each bite.  When the main component is gone, the sauce should be gone--about 2 Tablespoons for a 4 oz. main component.  Garnish should a) make sense (why would you put a strawberry as a garnish on something that has nothing to do with strawberries),  b)it should be edible--nobody wants to eat around that artistic cinnamon stick (twig) that you stuck on their plate, and c)it should have a texture and/or temperature that contrasts nicely with the main component (crispy with gooey, warm with cold, crunchy with chewy, etc).  Also as a general rule, don't decorated the rim of the plate--leave it clear (or at least a major part of it clear) so when you're serving, you don't get thumb prints in your powdered sugar.  If you try to drizzle sauce on the rim, it will run and look amateurish and dumb.  Only sauce the flat of the plate.

Okay, now that the basic rules are more-or-less out of the way, here are some pictures with my commentary.    Some pictures show what to do, some show what not to do and some might just need a little tweaking.  All commentary is based on the guidelines above and is certainly not meant to be absolute judgments, just educated opinions.  All pictures are from flickr.  Please click on each picture to be taken to the photographer's photostream.  Check back here every few weeks.  I'll be adding as I find more good examples and non-examples.

But first, here's a video I put together showing some different ways of plating four components that most of us have in the house: ice cream, cookies, whipped cream and a sauce. Hopefully it will spark your creativity!

Okay, let's get on with the color commentary, shall we?

This appears to be a piece of tiramisu with 2 sauces--a creme anglaise and maybe a coffee or chocolate sauce.  Also, we have a tempered chocolate decoration and a chocolate squiggle (technical term).  While I wish I could see the whole plate, I can comment a bit.  There is a lot of negative space on the plate, which I like--the dessert components aren't all crowded together on a little saucer.  The tempered chocolate decoration adds a bit of a crunch.  I'm not sure that a rich dessert like tiramisu needs a creamy sauce--I'd maybe just have gone with some chocolate/coffee sauce or some coffee granita.

   

       
I really like this dessert.  No sauce here (which would not be my preference), but the cocoa powder and powdered sugar help emphasize the "Sno-Ball-ness" of this little guy.  Maybe I would have off-set the dessert a hair toward one corner and provided a little swoosh of chocolate sauce (or a cute little ramekin) for dipping.  Maybe a crisp coconut tuile for a little crunch would be nice.

       
This is an example of a home-style dessert that need a little refining to work in a fine dining situation.  'Member how I said use a white plate?  'Member that part about only using 2 tablespoons of sauce?  Well, here you go.  The black rim of the plate makes the piece of pie appear crowded, so use a white plate. Dip a long slicing knife in very hot water, wipe it off and make one clean cut.  Wipe, dip, wipe and repeat to make a really clean, elegant slice of pie.  Drizzle or swoosh on some saucebefore placing the pie.  Add a quenelle of whipped cream to the top of the pie.  Rather than a whole mint bush, maybe one little leaf would do here. 

                            
This picture was taken at a restaurant.  I like it, although the cross-hatch/zig-zag thing with the chocolate sauce is very Bobby-Flay-late-1980's.  Maybe curved lines; maybe paint it on with a paint brush; maybe graduated-sized dots.  Not Bobby-Flay-late-1980's though.  And I think a quenelle of mousse or ice cream would be much more elegant than the scoop.

            
This plate is a hot mess.  The mousse is fine.  The rest has to go.  Wee little bowl of whipped cream?  Gone.  Maraschino cherry?  Gone.  Kiwi sauce that has nothing to do with anything else on the plate?  Gone.  Cocoa powder (or is it cinnamon)?  Either way: gone.  Reboot:  mousse with either a wide stripe of chocolate paint or a swoosh of chocolate sauce.  Crispy and delightful cookie or tuile.  A quenelle of whipped cream or whipped creme fraiche on top of the mousse, if you really think it's necessary.  Walk away.

              
Friends, this is just about perfect.  Nice portion size, interplay of temperatures and textures, use of negative space.  It's just lovely.  There is assuredly some kind of "goo" under the little pan to keep it from sliding:  honey, chocolate sauce, something.  If you don't want to use a sauce as glue, a small white cocktail napkin will work as well.

                                   
This is a clean, simple and elegant presentation.  My only issues are that I think they should have hulled the strawberry and taken off its little green top (I think all garnish should be edible) and maybe done some very fine chocolate piping on the wafer cookie, just because it's so monochromatic.  Not real criticisms--its just my aesthetic.

                
Um, no, people.  Just NO.  And this was served in a fine dining restaurant!!

             
This is one crazy-beautiful dessert.  It has height, interplay of textures and temperatures and it looks nice on the plate.  I'm sad for them that their caramel sauce sort of ran together.  Otherwise, just about perfect.  Oh, okay, to be really picky, there is no blackberry coulis on the plate, so there shouldn't be a blackberry perched on the top.