Hi, this my second attempt at improving my plating skills with this dish (you can find my previous one at my profile).
I want to thank those of you who gave me suggestions last time, I followed them as I understood and reduced the number of elements and portions. I think it worked really well. I experimented with two versions of the plating. I feel I prefer the first one.
I would love to hear your thoughts, critiques and suggestions on this one.
Cheers!
by FloppyDrone
10 Comments
There’s something very 60s/pop art about the plating that I’m not a fan of; I think the color of the chimichuri sauce coupled with the almost geometric lines of the dish (especially in the second picture: the asparagus at an angle, the three fondant potatoes in a row mirrored by the three slices of steak…) are giving the dish a very dated, boring appearance…
…Which is a total dissevice to your food, because those fondant potatoes have me almost closing my lap top right now to go make some (the color on top is beautiful), your steak looks gorgeous, and you maintained the bright freshness of the asparagus.
With slices of beef like this, I prefer to see it fanned out with the sauce underneath rather than in a line like that: that gives me “Dad sliced the beef and portioned it out at the dinner table” vibes. Take the asparagus and place it on top of the beef, where all the layers meet at the head of the fan: this gives it a little height and dimension, and also creates two layers of bright, beautiful green to contrast with that gorgeous red meat.
And then a suggestion others might not agree with: keep two fondant potatoes together, separate the third and place it on the opposite side of the plate. I think that will fix the “here’s your portion of potatoes” look that the side-line is giving. Make sure the edges of each potato are touching the chimichuri sauce so that the components are visually connected as a whole.
Then put that plate in the mail and send it to me, because I want this for dinner tonight.
I prefer the second plate , I think it’s because you can see a bit more if the asparagus . It’s looks like you have blended your green sauce, Chimichurri is alot different from what you’ve got here. You can roughly chop all your ingredients up then just pulse them in your blender rather than leaving it on. Looks nice tho Chef
I get that these other comments are addressing your Qs/fulfilling the point of this sub… but I don’t actually feel that way. I think #1 is spectacular and mouth-watering. (Though I’m not such a fan of #2—a bit awkwardly contrived, I guess? would be my take on that. Ingredients still look great…)
Everything looks very well prepared and appealing. However maybe too much potatoes? They are certainly cooked to perfection, but maybe one less? Fondant potatoes are heavy.
I remember commenting on the first iteration of this dish, and you’ve done so well. Night and day. I can completely understand the plating might not be to everyone’s style, but I think the first version looks great. Really bold and artistic. The second plating doesn’t do it for me at all.
Is the asparagus just blanched, or did you grill it as well?
I prefer the first, and it’s very close to how I’d plate it up.
I’d place the asparagus in the middle of the plate, chimi on one side, potato’s on the chimi then lean the sliced steak across the asparagus and potato. Also leaves room for a pan sauce across the steak
You need a sharper knife to slice the steak, especially in pic 2
I’m not convinced by the chimichurri sauce – it looks great but if I ordered steak & chimi and then got steak & herb oil I’d be a bit put off.
the ribeye is a little under it also looks pretty dry. uneven coloring on the fondant potatoes, why is there one leaf of parsley on one potato? it just looks misplaced everything else looks ok though.
I like both. You can perfectly see every component. But the meat on your second one…. It looks like you used your mouth instead of a knife.