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Home / Advice / The Basics / The Basics, Lesson 8 – To Plate or Not to Plate

The Basics, Lesson 8 – To Plate or Not to Plate

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

One of the questions you face with any meal is whether to place the food on each plate and serve it that way, or plunk the bowls and casserole dishes on the table family style. Such decisions! Restaurant chefs have preplanned and rehearsed precisely how each dish is to be plated and they are serving quite specific portions. At home, it’s not that way.


As you can see, I opted for family style. My thought was that this would be a meal where some people would gravitate heavily to one dish over another, and I didn’t have a crystal ball to predict the choices. Also note that for this meal, I did a little layering of the tablescape. Just because you’re using a tablecloth doesn’t mean you can’t use placemats. Placemats not only protect your tablecloth, they add extra color and texture.


I ended up compromising. I added the pasta to each plate, but left the remaining offerings in their serving bowls or dishes.


After all, we were having spaghetti (Deloris made a wicked batch of homemade meat sauce!), edamame salad, and her version of pepper jack chicken (made with Dreamfield’s spaghetti noodles). Not exactly a typical meal.


One of the keys to success was the fact that there were just three of us dining and it would be easy for us to reach everything, including the small pitcher of balsamic glaze to use to top the pepper jack chicken.

The colors of the food even harmonized with the colors of our table. What more could you ask?

Stay tuned for the next lesson!

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