Food Styling Tips for the Home Cook

It's no secret that we experience food with our eyes as much as we do with our taste buds. I think we can all agree on the fact that our most memorable meals not only tasted delicious, but also looked it. Professional chefs have known for ages that the aesthetic appeal of what's on a dinner plate often influences our perception of its flavor, and the right presentation has the ability to elevate food from being just a meal to being an experience.

Sure, Michelin-rated restaurants and celebrity chefs have raised the concept of food styling to nearly architectural standards--but that doesn't mean it cannot be applied to home cooking.  Keep in mind nobody expects a home cook like you or me to be able to build an Eiffel tower out of crystallized caramel drippings to place atop our flambé dessert. The fact is you don't even need to know what the hell the term flambé means to make your tasty home-cooked meals that much tastier and enticing by following these four simple, basic food styling rules:

Rule #1: Think of Plates as Fashion Accessories for your Food

The dish you choose is the canvas for your culinary artistry. Make it a point to have more than one dishwasher-safe set in regular rotation. This allows you to match the meal to the plate, just as you would match different pairs of shoes to different outfits. If all you own is one set, it's never too late to start collecting. No need to spend a fortune, either. My favorite places to hunt for unique plates, bowls and serving trays are bargain stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx--where you can often find dishes sold individually, which allows you to build coordinating sets or mix and match at will for a fraction of the price you could pay at other stores. Oh, and one last thing please: ditch the paper plates. Your home-cooked meals deserve to be treated with dignity.

I scored these Tiffany-blue crackled enamel beauties at Marshall's for about $3.99 a piece

Rule #2: It's All About the Ratio! 

Don't just pile it on--save the sloppy mountains of food on a plate for those in line at Golden Corral. You want the serving size to be balanced in proportion to the dish you serve it on...aim for at least one third of the plate's total surface to be visible after you're done placing the food on it. Always lay the food down carefully, using kitchen tongues or other food handing utensils if need be to deliberately arrange the meal's different components. Even a humble chicken stew can look like a Top Chef creation if the carrots and potatoes are beautifully laid out on the plate.

Coq a Vin Stew

Rule #3: Garnish the Power of the Garnish

Keep fresh herbs handy, or better yet, grow your own. Not only will they infuse your recipes with the lovely flavors and aromas that dried herbs don't even come close to matching, but they can also be used to add just the right amount of pretty to a plate. A couple basil leaves here, a rosemary sprig there, and chopped parsley everywhere. Mint leaves, berries and chocolate shavings are no-brainers for desserts. Lemons and limes are always good to have handy as well. Just slice them up, then place strategically on the plate and you've got yourself a spruced up meal guaranteed to elicit all sorts of ooooohs and aahhhhhs!

A plain slice of cheesecake gets a little help with just a drizzle of raspberry liqueur, berries and mint

Rule #4: Wipe It Off

You've come this far, so don't skip this step. Before you serve your meal to your anxiously awaiting audience, do what the pros are trained to do from Day One of cooking school, which is simply to grab a clean paper towel and wipe off any unwanted sauce or food drippings that may have landed on the plating surface detracting from the presentation.
Now you're ready to share and enjoy all the effort and love you've put into creating a beautiful meal. Just pull up a chair and watch their faces light up in anticipation of what's sure to be a spectacular treat. And then tell them they can thank you later by doing the dishes :-)