Mashed Potatoes with Portobello Mushrooms, Pork Steak and Brocoli
Looking for tips on how I could’ve made this plate look better, would ricing the mashed potatoes be better than hand blending
by GENGISKHUNTT
3 Comments
Wobblucy
Don’t slam all the elements on top of the mashed potatoes to start with.
In regards to the mashed method, you generally want to avoid overworking them to avoid ‘glueiness’.
A ricer will ‘touch’ the potatoes less, a sieve will give you a finer texture then the ricer with a lot more effort.
Back to plating…
Once you get your mashed figured out, look to create seperation. That can be with a bigger plate, creating ‘height’ on the plate, or putting less on the plate.
A mediocre example, but in the same form as yours and you can see how much ‘work’ the white space on the plate is doing to keep it from looking like a mess…
There’s a lot going on here that doesn’t work, unfortunately.
First, the rim of a plate belongs to the server, not the chef. They need to touch that rim to get the food to the customer and there is never a good reason for food to sit on the rim. Bigger plate or smaller portion.
Second, the sizing/portioning of ingedients. Why are the mushrooms all those different shapes and sizes and why are you further highlighting that by setting them into the potato individually? Why is the broccoli that huge? You want to create a coherent picture, that’s very hard with these inconsistencies.
Third, I can’t tell if the black centrepiece is the pork or a portobello on top of the pork. In both cases, you need to adjust that. The pork is the star of the show, don’t hide it and don’t burn it to a crisp. It needs to sit on top of mash mountain looking luscious, juicy and shiny, not this.
Mash…It’s a lot of mash and the small plate makes it look even more. A ricer wouldn’t fix that. The fat collecting near the rim doesn’t help.
How to fix it: downsize your broccoli, blanch it so it’s vibrantly green whatever else you do to it after. Get your mushroom cut more uniformly.
Make an actual mountain of your mash that sits slightly off center on the plate, leaving 3/4 of the plate with space for your other stuff. Height is free real estate.
Next to your mountain, put your mushrooms. All together. If you want to, grill a whole portobello and lean it against your mash mountain on top of your other mushrooms, sitting at an angle.
Your pork can nestle next to mushrooms and mash, brush it with the juices from the pan to make it shine.
If we need the broccoli, tender stem would look nice, but if that’s not an option just use a few small florets and call it a day.
Move away from symmetry. It’s either executed perfectly or it looks very dated. Food is allowed to look like food. Make your ingredients look the best they can and that’ll be plenty inviting without jumping through extra hoops. Do not be afraid of negative space. It’s okay to see the plate.
OkFlamingo844
Why on earth did you blend your potatoes. That must’ve been the most god awful texture to eat. Like eating glue.
3 Comments
Don’t slam all the elements on top of the mashed potatoes to start with.
In regards to the mashed method, you generally want to avoid overworking them to avoid ‘glueiness’.
A ricer will ‘touch’ the potatoes less, a sieve will give you a finer texture then the ricer with a lot more effort.
Back to plating…
Once you get your mashed figured out, look to create seperation. That can be with a bigger plate, creating ‘height’ on the plate, or putting less on the plate.
A mediocre example, but in the same form as yours and you can see how much ‘work’ the white space on the plate is doing to keep it from looking like a mess…
https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/5072420-filet-mignon-with-mashed
There’s a lot going on here that doesn’t work, unfortunately.
First, the rim of a plate belongs to the server, not the chef. They need to touch that rim to get the food to the customer and there is never a good reason for food to sit on the rim. Bigger plate or smaller portion.
Second, the sizing/portioning of ingedients. Why are the mushrooms all those different shapes and sizes and why are you further highlighting that by setting them into the potato individually? Why is the broccoli that huge? You want to create a coherent picture, that’s very hard with these inconsistencies.
Third, I can’t tell if the black centrepiece is the pork or a portobello on top of the pork. In both cases, you need to adjust that. The pork is the star of the show, don’t hide it and don’t burn it to a crisp. It needs to sit on top of mash mountain looking luscious, juicy and shiny, not this.
Mash…It’s a lot of mash and the small plate makes it look even more. A ricer wouldn’t fix that. The fat collecting near the rim doesn’t help.
How to fix it: downsize your broccoli, blanch it so it’s vibrantly green whatever else you do to it after. Get your mushroom cut more uniformly.
Make an actual mountain of your mash that sits slightly off center on the plate, leaving 3/4 of the plate with space for your other stuff. Height is free real estate.
Next to your mountain, put your mushrooms. All together. If you want to, grill a whole portobello and lean it against your mash mountain on top of your other mushrooms, sitting at an angle.
Your pork can nestle next to mushrooms and mash, brush it with the juices from the pan to make it shine.
If we need the broccoli, tender stem would look nice, but if that’s not an option just use a few small florets and call it a day.
Move away from symmetry. It’s either executed perfectly or it looks very dated. Food is allowed to look like food. Make your ingredients look the best they can and that’ll be plenty inviting without jumping through extra hoops. Do not be afraid of negative space. It’s okay to see the plate.
Why on earth did you blend your potatoes. That must’ve been the most god awful texture to eat. Like eating glue.