Story On A Plate 3899559878, 9783899559873

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PETONCLE LE MOUSSO - ANTONIN MOUSSEAU-RIVARD To serve a single scallop at Montreal's Le Moussa, chef Antonin Mousseau-Rivard creates a tableau that lends the humble bivalve an element of mystery. To achieve such a haunting effect, the chef first puts a bit of oil at the bottom of the bowl and covers it with ice. The scallop is seared and placed on top, anointed with spicy XO sauce, and garnished with edible flowers called tagetes. Finally, liquid nitrogen is poured over the dish, which diffuses the smell of the oil and primes the diner's taste buds. The orange petals offer the dish a bit of playful color and warmth, bringing to mind the arrival of spring atop a chalky cliff.

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CUCUMBER­ AVOCADO GAZPACHO WITH NORI JODI MORENO Jodi Moreno's cucumber-avocado gazpacho is the epitome of easy refresh­ ment. A New York City-based natural foods chef and cookbook author, Moreno puts cucumber, avocado, olive oil, white wine vinegar, shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt in a mixer, blending them for two minutes. She garnishes it with nori gomasio; its salty crunch lends a compelling textural contrast to the soup's creaminess. Here, the nori is accompanied by nasturtium leaves, lightly fried kelp, fennel fronds, salad burnet, and purple micro-kale. Photographer Gabriel Cabrera added them to play with different textures and provide focal points for the eye to travel around the dish. He finished it with a drizzle of sesame oil, which, Cabrera explains, "helps break the shapes into an organic arrangement so it feels natural."

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CHRYSAN­ THEMUM TOFU SOUP TATE DINING ROOM & BAR - VICKY LAU Traditional savory hot Chinese soup was the inspiration for the chrysanthemum tofu soup that chef Vicky Lau serves at Hong Kong's Tate Dining Room & Bar. "I wanted to use tofu as a pre­ dessert with a sweet soup, as it is a great palate cleanser," Lau explains. She also saw the dish as an opportunity to demonstrate the impressive knife skills required to cut the tofu, which the chef paired with a slightly acidic chilled tomato consomme. The tofu is its own adornment, its many cuts bringing to mind architectural and mathematical 3D modeling while also giving it the appearance of an other­ worldly flower. When you have a sharp knife and know how to wield it, less is definitely more.

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SEA URCHIN & ORANGE JAM TOASTIE SMOKE BAR - CORY CAMPBELL

The ocean isn' t far from Smoke Bar, so it follows that the Sydney restaurant's presentation of its sea urchin toastie would be as fresh as the seafood itself. Created by then-executive chef Cory Campbell, the toastie is the sum of a few potent parts: fingers of toasted brioche are smeared with orange glaze and whipped butter, then topped with fat lobes of sea urchin, and finished with chopped kombu. The mustard-yellow urchin is made bolder still by its contrast with the navy-blue speckling on the plate; the combination brings to mind the col­ ors of a Roy Lichtenstein comic, an effect reinforced by the dish's formal, almost geometric structure.

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CABBAGE LEAVES WITH WHITE CURRANTS NOMA - RENE REDZEPI At Noma, in Copenhagen, a pairing of cabbage leaves becomes the eye of the storm. They are an oasis of calm amid the chaos, an idea that is enhanced by the manner in which parsley-infused oil has been applied to the sides of the bowl: it looks like it was spun on a potter's wheel, creating an almost dizzying effect. The swirls force you to focus on the cabbage leaves-the tops of which have been steamed, the bottom chargrilled, giving them a mysterious, almost alien quality. They appear to contain secrets, or at least hidden layers of flavor.

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. TO BUILD A BEAUTIFUL/ PLATE, ST� .___________. T ITH THE RIGHT TOOLS Although "tweezer food" is sometimes used to describe overly fussy dishes, tweezers-and a few other basic tools-offer a simple, effective way to elevate your plating prowess.

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"The tools are a practical choice for many chefs and home cooks interested in going further in the design of their own dinners. Some of them are so commonplace that you probably already own them."

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02

W

hile Jack New's golden chirashizushi tacos (p. 170)

Let's start with chopsticks. New himself is a big

moribashi, or Japanese plating chopsticks, which he

are beautiful and otherworldly, they're also

fan of

a testament to the importanc� of tools in

uses constantly for almost all plating and garnishes. Their

plating. To present the chirashizushi, which he

tweezer-thin metal tips are so delicate that they can grasp

created as the chef at Sydney's Edition Coffee Roasters, New

and handle almost any ingredient with incredible precision

made good use of a circular mold, tweezers, and a shaker

and control. Even if you don't have a pair of

that he employed to finish the dish with a sprinkling of edible

chopsticks can still be useful in helping you pick up and plate

moribashi, most

more delicate ingredients. You may find yourself asking why

gold dust. While the term "tweezer food" can be used pe­

not just use your fingers; you could, but they're probably

joratively to denote especially finicky dishes, having a set of

warm, while chopsticks-and large tweezers, for that matter­

kitchen tweezers and other decorating tools is simply a prac­

offer temperature control, which is crucial when handling

tical utilitarian choice for many chefs, to say nothing of home

certain heat-sensitive ingredients such as chocolate, raw

cooks interested in going further in the design of their own

fish, and caviar.

dinners. Some tools-like chopsticks, spoons, and graters­ are so commonplace that you probably already own them.

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TOOLS

Wooden tongs are also useful for moving around less delicate ingredients, such as salad greens. So are palette

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knives, which are commonly used by artists to spread paint but are also very useful for spreading ingredients across the surface of a plate. New uses small palette knives to place meat and fish (along with large tweezers). Plating brushes and wedges offer another way to spread ingredients-and, thanks to the different shapes of their tips, they allow you to create striking designs in sauces, purees, or coulis. Their use isn't limited to plates, though; you can also use them to apply glazes to cakes or create designs in cake frosting. Like plating brushes and wedges, offset spatulas are also a godsend when it comes to spreading and smearing ingredients: their blunt, thin metal blade is particularly good for frosting, but it's also handy for transferring ingredients and for creating swooshes of sauces and purees on the plate.

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01 - A variety of spatulas. 02 - Kitchen tweezers. 03 1 A measuring pipette. 04 i A selection of spoons.

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05

New also employs "a hell of a lot" of spoons for his plating; he finds a good-quality quenelle spoon to be par­ ticularly indispensable. Traditionally, chefs are taught to make a quenelle-or a smooth oval-using two spoons, but the three-sided shape of the specially designed quenelle spoon allows the task to be done using one hand, turning uniform masses of food like ice cream or beef tartare into faultless ovoids. For the home cook just starting to explore plating, New recommends buying spoons of different sizes, as well as a slotted spoon. You can use them to experiment with creat­ ing different shapes and drizzling sauces on the plate. The humble plastic squeeze bottle is another plating hero. It makes it easy for chefs to .squeeze sauce or condiments onto a surface, and to squirt generous dollops that can then be turned into smears, swooshes, and other designs using other tools. A squeeze bottle can also be great

05 i A microplane. 06 j Plastic squeeze bottles. 07 -+ A selection of plating brushes. 08-+ A dusting wand.

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06

TOOLS

08

07

for "drawing" a condiment or sauce on a plate, provided you

fruits. Box graters provide a similar function to the micro­

have a steady hand.

plane; the best thing to do is experiment with grating differ­

New says he uses "quite a few circular molds,

ent ingredients to see what kind of effects the grater's dif­

just to arrange things" -like the chirashi, which are particu­

ferent holes produce. Just be careful where you put your

larly good for corralling ingredients like rice, sticky grains,

fingers, as they' re easy to grate too!

and chopped raw fish and meat into uniform shapes. Molds

Like the shaker that New uses to sprinkle edible

come in many different shapes, such as squares and trian­

gold over his chirashizushi, a dusting wand provides a way to

gles, and their purpose is limited only by your imagination.

evenly sprinkle ingredients such as powdered sugar, cocoa,

Another great use for them is cutting pieces of cake out of

and spices-and edible gold, if you happen to have some­

a larger whole.

over the plate.

A microplane is another frequently used weapon

If you' re just beginning to explore plating, you

in New's arsenal . The tool, which was originally created for

don' t need to go crazy and buy lots of new tools. Aside

woodworking, functions as an extremely sharp and very fine

from different spoons-some of which you probably already

grater, and is particularly good for creating "snow" -like tex­

have-New says it's fine to keep things simple. A microplane

tures from ingredients such as chocolate, nuts, hard cheeses,

is good, he says-"and maybe some plating tweezers if you're

and whole spices like nutmeg. It's also ideal for zesting citrus

feeling fancy."

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FLESH &BONE HIDE - OLLIE DABBOUS As elemental as its name, Flesh & Bone is what charcuterie looks like at chef Ollie Dabbous's acclaimed London restaurant Hide. The plate is at once stark and primal, the disembodied feathers and cured meat suggesting some prior violence that has been distilled into a savage elegance. Its preparation simply involves wrapping skewers with meat and setting them against a backdrop that brings to mind a winter hunting scene. There's something a bit Game of Thrones about it; it's a tableau where animalistic drama plays out before a willing audience.

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ACEITUNAS DEBODEGA ASTRID Y GASTON - DIEGO MUNOZ In 2013, chef Diego Munoz created a menu at the Lima restaurant Astrid y Gaston that told the tale of Italian immigration to Peru-"the way they saw and dreamed about Peru, and how they added to our culture in the gastronomic sense," he says. To tell part of that story, Munoz looked to the botija olive, a variety grown in the southern part of the country. Carefully, a black-olive brioche is fried and filled with botija-olive cream and then finished with salsa criolla, red onions, limo chili, lime juice, salt, and cilantro. Designed to be eaten in two bites, it's a small but potent vessel that-appropriately-contains a multitude of flavors.

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SUN CHOKE, WALNUT& CAVIAR Tl TRIN NED RAINER GASSNER "The masculine King of the Earth meets the feminine Queen of the Sea" is how chef Rainer Gassner describes this appetizer of sunchoke, walnut, and caviar that he serves at his restaurant Ti Trin Ned in Fredericia, Denmark. The dish is con­ sidered an autumn luxury, and presented as such: the simple plating, Gassner explains, is intended to showcase the ingredients "almost like pieces of jewellery-naked, without decoration." Caviar, arguably the most luxurious of the dish's compo­ nents, is the focal point here, aptly positioned in a way that recalls rare jewels in a display case. The simple layering of the ingredients also reinforces the dish's underlying promise: depths of flavor, left to speak clearly for themselves.

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MALT PANCAKES WITH HERBAL EMULSION & RED SORREL H0ST - JONAS CHRISTENSEN At H0st, head chef Jonas Christensen's salted malt pancakes are a study in the idyllic minimalism that is synonymous with his Copenhagen restaurant. Designed to be eaten with your fingers, the pancakes sit next to an emulsion of citrus and fresh herbs with raw cucumbers and oyster leaves, which is presented in half an oyster shell upon a bed of rocks that evokes a seashore. A crescent­ shaped plate of juniper buns, sourdough bread, and crispy sweetish flatbread complete a rough-hewn trinity. Together, the dish's components suggest the organic, ephemeral quality of an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture, or the stark beauty of the Danish countryside.

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SQUID-INK OREO THE MUSKET ROOM MATT LAMBERT

For the savory riff on an Oreo cookie that he created at his New York restaurant, the Musket Room, chef Matt Lambert sandwiched lightly poached squid between squid-ink short­ bread. To serve the "cookie," he wanted to plate it in a way that would add an element of drama to the dish, which was served as part of a series of small courses. The cookie sits on top of charcoal, which enhances its air of mystery; it could have been coughed up by a volcano, or washed up on a primordial shore. The wooden box emphasizes the idea of the cookie as a remnant of some kind of prehistoric geological event; it's a treasure emerging from the mists of time.

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PUTTING SUSTAINABILITY ON THE PLATE In Copenhagen, chef Matt Orlando is providing beautiful proof that modern gastronomy can be sustainable-and he's fostering a new language around the topic of food waste in the process.

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"Every single ingredient that comes into the Amass kitchen is used, whether in its original or upcycled form, and what little can't be used-or comp·osted-is turned into biofuel."

M

att Orlando is the chef and co-owner of Amass, a highly acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant known for its extremely progressive sustainabil­ ity practices. Every single ingredient that comes into the Amass kitchen, whether it's meat, fish, or vegetable, is used, whether in its original or upcycled form, and what little can' t be used-or composted-is turned

into biofuel. The restaurant's recycling system is one of epic proportions, as is its garden, which grows 80 kinds of plants. On the grounds of his second establish­ ment, a brewery called Broaden & Build that he opened in 2019, Orlando opened a research facility dedicated to food waste. The chef's commitment to sustainability does more than inform his restaurant's practices; it all but determines the way he puts food on his plates. Growing up in San Diego, Orlando didn' t spend a lot of time thinking about the restaurant industry's environmental impact, much less about fine-dining. "I wanted to be a professional snowboarder," he says, and to that end he eventually moved to Lake Tahoe, where he practiced the sport 150 days out of the year. He also discovered that "one percent of snowboarders make money"; following that revelation, he decided to return to San Diego, where he had worked in restaurant kitchens since he was 14. He took a job working for Francis Passot, a French-born chef who changed Orlando's perspective on cooking, ingredients, food, and life in general. "It was consuming, working for him, because he was so passionate," Orlando says. "You couldn' t help but be swept up in the wave of passion he had." Three years later, Orlando decided to move to New York to pursue his dream of working in fine dining: after stints at restaurants like Le Bernardin and Aureole, he got the oppor tunity to work in the United Kingdom at Belmond Le Manoir aux Ouat'Saisons and the Fat Duck. It was at the latter that he met

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MATT ORLANDO

01 ---. A bowl of grilled white asparagus, chamomile, and lobster oil.

02 +- Orlando at work in the restaurant's garden, which is home to 80 kinds of plants.

02

"Orlando wants his guests to eat everything together­ but he doesn't want to have to instruct them, either. The question that guides him, he says, is 'how do we plate food that looks beautiful-and that people can eat however they want?"'

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MATT ORLANDO

03 ----. Egg yolks curing in solids leftover from the restaurant's housemade egg white garum. 04 ----. Mackerel with green strawberry, lettuces, and rapeseed oil. 05----. A dish of pumpkin, salted seeds, and blackened skin. 06----. Dried tomato skins.

07 ,_ A woodsy bowl of whipped zander roe, garden herbs, and toasted seeds, 08 t Some of the ceramics used at Amass,

09 ----+ Orlando plans the plating of a dish.

07

"I want to respect the vegetable I'm putting on the plate. For me, it's really important that you know you're eating a piece of white asparagus. I think in Scandinavia we all value produce so much more because it's such a short window of when it is available. We want it to be center stage."

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MATT ORLANDO

08

Rene Redzepi, who had come to eat there; later, the two chefs began talking over beers, and Redzepi invited Orlando to work at Noma, which at the time was not the world-famous gastronomic mecca it is today. After working for Redzepi as his sous­ chef, Orlando returned to New York to spend three years as sous-chef at Thomas Keller's Per Se, then returned to Noma to take on the role of head chef. In 2013, he and his wife, Julie Bergstrom Orlando, whom he'd met while working at Noma, opened Amass in a former shipyard warehouse. Orlando opened Amass as what he calls a "normal" restaurant, but six months in, Amass's winter closure gave the chef the opportunity to step back and consider what he wanted for the restaurant. "A friend had asked me what was next, and the word 'responsibility' kept bouncing around in my head," he recalls. "I didn't know what it meant in the context of the restaurant, but it clicked right before we came back from vacation. I said to my wife, 'This is what we're doing to do; this is what we need to do."' When he shared his plans with his staff, he said to them, "I don't know how we' re going to do this because I've never worked in a restaurant like this, and you've never worked in a restaurant like this, but that's okay because we're going to figure it out together."

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10 \ A plate of green asparagus, dried black current, seaweed oil, and beer yeast, before and after. 11 +- Beef sherbet, rhubarb, salted grains, and pine. 12 --t Rhubarb, angelica, and roasted beer-mash cream. 13 --> A close up of angelica granita.

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It's only been in the last year, Orlando admits, that he's felt like he and his team have really started to figure out where they want to go: "It's a direction where every single component of every ingredient we use is thought of as an ingre­ dient and not as trash or waste," he says. "We never use those words in the restau­ rant. It's almost like you need to learn a new language to describe those products, because otherwise, no matter how delicious they are, they' re viewed as less than their original form." This focus on sustainability has transformed not only the restaurant's practices but also the way food appears on its plates. "I've definitely become way more vegetable-based in my cooking," Orlando says. "When I worked in New York, it was very protein-based: if you had a protein on a dish, then the vegetable should equal 30 to 40 percent of that pro­ tein. Now it's the opposite." The Scandinavian mindset towards plating has also had an impact. "You rea!!y want to respect the vegetable you' re putting on the plate," Orlando says. "For me, it's really important that you know you' re eating a piece of white asparagus. It hasn't been pureed or gelled; it's like you look at that plate and there's no doubt in your mind. That's also very Scandinavian. I think we all value pro­ duce here so much more because it's such a short window of when the produce is available; we want that produce to be center stage." One pet peeve he has about plating, he adds, is when food is spread out across the plate, with a small dot of vinaigrette or sauce, "and the waiter says, 'Okay, make sure you get a bit of everything when you get a bite."' At Amass, he wants his guests to eat everything together-but he doesn't want to have to instruct them, either. "So for us, when we plate, we take that into consideration-can they pick up a piece of asparagus and get everything in one bite?" The question that guides him, he says, is "how do we plate food that looks beautiful-and that people can eat however they want?"

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Plating the Season's Synchronicity At Amass, a dish of white asparagus is a testament to natural harmony and seasonal impermanence. Orlando tops the vegetable with a puree of borage and fennel, which grow together in the restaurant's garden, as do the cornflowers used as a garnish. The dish appears on the menu while asparagus is in season-and once the season ends, it's gone forever.

(I)

All of the dishes at Amass are made by K.H. Wurtz, a father-and-son team of studio ceramicists. This plate was based on the support beams in the middle of the restaurant, which occupies a former warehouse.

(II)

To plate the white asparagus, Orlando takes his cues from nature, where vegetables grow from a root system. So when he plates his vegetables, he uses the middle or the bottom of the plate as his starting point. "Everything will go out from there," he says.

(III)

(IV)

Plating the second piece of asparagus.

The two asparagus spears create a V' shape on the plate.

(V)

(VI)

A puree of borage and fennel is piped onto the asparagus. The puree is

Yellow cabbage flowers are added to the dish. "When we use flowers at

made by combining the two ingredients with egg yolk and a little bit of oil

the restaurant. we really use flowers," says Orlando. "It's not one or two. If

to add creaminess. Borage and fennel grow close to each other in Amass's

you just do that, it may look good but it doesn't taste like anything. I never

garden, which "has a huge influence on how we come up with flavors."

put anything on the plate unless it brings flavor to the plate."

(VII)

(VI]I)

Orlando prefers to plate using his hands, but "when you get to the bottom,

Orlando adds cornflowers to the plate. "They grow in and among the

you gotta pull the tweezers out, unfortunately," he says.

fennel, and get this sweet anise-y flavor" that works well with the rest of the dish, he says. The chef also uses them to break up the plate's yellow-black-white color composition.

(IX)

(X)

The dish, like its components, is ephemeral: "We have a pretty strict policy

To finish, Orlando microplanes a miso-cured, smoked, and dried egg yolk

at the restaurant," Orlando says. "Once a dish goes on the menu, we

onto the dish. The rich, smoky yolk connects the sweet, earthy,

never put it on again." This one enjoyed a brief tenure, and then, like the

herbaceous flavors on the plate, and its golden hue adds visual depth

summer, it was gone.

to the dish.

ASPARAGUS WITH HAM&EGG THE MUSKET ROOM - MATT LAMBERT White asparagus plays a visual trick on the diner at the New York restau­ rant the Musket Room, where the healthy vegetable is all but indistinguishable from a cigarette. That's a comparison chef Matt Lambert has heard plenty of times, but while he's aware of what his dish evokes, his intent, he says, was simply to "plate something a little bit differently." He chose the shape of the asparagus as much for its functionality as its aesthetics: it's easy to pick up each piece of asparagus­ whose tip is coated in dehydrated herbs-dip it in the yolk, and then drag it through the aureole of julienned ham. It's pleasure, meeting purpose.

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NEST EGG HIDE - OLLIE DABBOUS A sleight of hand nestled in a bed of hay, chef Ollie Dabbous's nest egg is a perennial favorite at the London restaurant Hide. A beguiling mash-up of the pastoral and the cutting-edge, the dish is an elaborate vessel for a savory scramble made from fried mushrooms, butter (both unsalted and smoked), whipped cream, parsley, and whole eggs. After being blended together, the mixture is cooked sous vide and then emulsified. After the emulsion is poured into the prepared egg shell, it's given a blast from a smoke gun and topped with the lid of a black cocotte. The effect is that of a Grimms' Fairy Tales illustration, with the cocotte resembling a witch's cauldron filled to the brim with mystery and intrigue.

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OYSTER & PARSLE Y EMULSION WITH SQUID­ INK-INFUSED TAPIOCA CRACKERS H0ST - JONAS CHRISTENSEN For this starter of oysters and parsley that head chef Jonas Christensen serves at H0st, he says he wanted to "take the seabed into the restaurant both in flavors and design." The dish is meant to go with the Copenhagen restaurant's champagne and sparkling wine. Its components are simple: an oyster-and-parsley emulsion is paired with squid-ink-infused tapioca crackers. The vibrant, almost eye-popping hue of the emulsion is echoed and complemented by the sprigs of greenery-and made even brighter by the backdrop of pale gray oyster shells and charcoal-colored crack­ ers. Here, balance is achieved by giving primacy to only one color, evoking unlikely life in a desolate landscape.

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FAROESE SEA SNAIL BROTH WITH PICKLES NOMA

RENE REDZEPI

A sea-snail shell serves as a natural and beautiful bowl for a sea-snail broth served at the Copenhagen restaurant Noma. The first of a two-part dish showcasing sea snails from the Faroe Islands, it is a study in deceptive simplicity. The broth in the shell is made from cooking the snails in an oil made of fermented barley and Ice­ landic Arctic thyme. The broth is then augmented with seasoned seaweed water and an oil made from hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. The broth is served in the shell with a mix of pickled seeds and herbs fringing its rim. The effect is both spare and mysterious, a shell with a secret to share.

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BIRCH-SMOKED SCALLOP WITH GREEN ASPARAGUS& A SAUCE OF GREEN STRAWBERRIES &PARSLEY FLOWERS H0ST - JONAS CHRISTENSEN A scallop shell is at the center of both the concept and the execution of the birch bark-smoked scallops that head chef Jonas Christensen created at the Copenhagen restaurant H0st. The dish "symbolizes summer," Christensen says, and combines "the best from the sea and the best from the rural." The scallop is chopped up and combined with green asparagus and a vinaigrette made from pickled green strawberries and parsley flowers. The purple flowers both echo the color of the shell and invite the eye into it. They create an element of asymmetry, creating a pleasing dissonance with the dish's symmetry-and a welcome pop of vitality amid the rocks and shells.

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USING COLOR ON A PLATE IS ANYTHING BUT BLACK AND HITE Color speaks loudly on the plate, which is why it's important to learn its language.

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"Ingredients that look good together tend to taste good together, too-especially if they're arranged in a way that allows the architecture of the plate's design to enhance the way the colors talk to each other."

T

he plate is perfectly agreeable, its smooth white contours almost calm­ ing to behold. But in chef Emma Bengtsson's hands, it's a backdrop for an island built of macarons, cake, and ice cream so beautifully and harmoniously hued that they incite immediate cheerfulness. It's dessert

as color therapy-and as convincing an argument as you'll ever see (or taste) for why color on the plate matters. While it has become a cliche to say that we eat with our eyes, that doesn't make it any less true. Ingredients that look good together tend to taste good together, too-especially if they're arranged in a way that allows the architec­ ture of the plate's design to enhance the way the colors talk to each other. But to understand why certain colors work together on a plate while others don't, it helps to take a step back and consider basic color theory-and why it can so easily be applied to what you eat. Color theory came along in the eighteenth century thanks to Isaac Newton; in addition to revealing the law of gravity, he gave us the first color wheel. The color wheel lays out the relationships between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, and is split evenly between warm and cool colors. Warm colors are stimulating-think bright tomatoes and tanger­ ines-while cooler ones-think moody eggplants and mellow blueberries-are con­ sidered calm and relaxing. The brilliant, happy contrast of the purple and yellow flowers on Ronny Emborg's dish of crab, tomatoes, and Arctic rose, lends vibrancy and a sense of playfulness to an otherwise stark white plate. It also attests to how successful color schemes. on the plate and otherwise. all go back to the color wheel. The plate is an example of a complementary scheme, which uses colors that sit opposite one another, like yellow and purple. Emborg also puts this theory into beautiful practice with the tiny purple flowers used to garnish his brilliant yellow dish of frozen flowers, sea buckthorn, skyr mousse, and egg yolk, which also uses the com­ plementary colors of red and green. Opposites attract, in other words. Pulling off an analogous color scheme is the culinary equivalent of land­ ing a triple axel. Analogous color schemes use three neighboring colors; although they're popular on the plate, they can also be tricky to get right. In order to work,

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COLOR

01 \ Spicy Indian pumpkin­ flower pokora with salad and a linseed coconut dressing at Babylonstoren. 02 _, Chargrilled chianina ribeye with olive and Babel Shiraz tapenade at Babylonstoren.

03 � Ronny Emborg's frozen flowers. sea buckthorn. skyr mousse. and egg yolk. as seen in The Wizard's

03

Cookbook.

the chef has to understand how to balance dominant, supporting, and accent col­ ors. In skillful hands, it can be stunning, as in the cucumber salad that Bengtsson created at the New York restaurant Aquavit: here, several kinds of cucumber, all prepared using different techniques (such as brining, fermenting, and pickling) share the plate with cucumber ice cream, duck charcuterie, and yellow cucumber blossoms. "I wanted to keep everything in the same color profile," Bengtsson says. "I could easily have put purple flowers in there, but I wanted this dish to just repre­ sent that aspect of the color profile." Rich, bold colors, on the other hand, require a chef who understands how to control the ever-present threat of chaos. This is often seen in triadic color

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COLOR

04 � Bryce Shu man's Spanish mackerel. tomato, and basil. 05 __, Ronny Emborg's crab. tomatoes. and Arctic rose. 06--> Emma Bengtsson's Nordic berries. sea buckthorn. gooseberries. and lingonberries at Aquavit. 07 __, Emma Bengtsson's cucumber, lavage, and duck at Aquavit.

schemes, which are made by drawing a triangle between three colors on the wheel, such as orange, purple, and green-three colors that chef Bryce Shuman uses beautifully in his mackerel, tomatoes, and basil dish. The brilliance of the orange tomatoes lends an exclamatory-but balanced-element to the plate, complement­ ing and accentuating the green and purple basil leaves and the pinkish-lavender hue of the fish. Shuman served the dish at his New York restaurant Betony during the summer, a season he refers to as "a highway to color"; he created the dish to take advantage of that. ''I'm a really visual person," Shuman adds, "and color is incredibly important when I'm thinking of final presentation." But what happens when there is no color contrast on a plate? When done skillfully, achromatic color schemes can be sleek and starkly beautiful; when they' re not, they end up looking like the edible equivalent of a Birkenstock. Grays, blacks, and whites tend to lend themselves most readily to this kind of treatment; in photographer Signe Birck's series of all-black and all-white dishes, clean, starkly outlined shapes help the food appear both otherworldly and oddly inviting. Here, too, the architecture of the design is crucial, particularly in the absence of color: in Shuman's all-black dish of beef tartare, carbonized onion, and horseradish, for example, the placement of a circle within a larger circle focuses, rather than sinks, the eye. Nuance, subtlety, and balance are just as important for creating har­ mony between colors as they are with flavors; more, Bengtsson points out, doesn't necessarily mean more. "It doesn't always have to be the bright red or green," she says of creating an arresting color scheme. "I firmly believe that brown and white and other subtler shades are in the color aspect of a plate. I can go completely in that direction too; it's always about highlighting what's on the plate." So perhaps it's not surprising that harmonious aesthetics fuel appetites: the eyes, after all, are our first taster.

08 +- Merijn van Berlo's endive with roasted pumpkin. pumpkin seed creme. pied de mouton mushrooms, bergamot gel, and macadamia nuts at Choux. 09 --+ Shaun Hergatt's Winter. 10 --. Bryce Shuman's beef tartare, carbonized onion, and horseradish.

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BEAN SALAD BETONY BRYCE SHUMAN For the tasting menu at his New York restaurant, Betony, chef Bryce Shuman wanted to create "a simple but interesting vegetable sal­ ad that was a take on the traditional family dish." Bean salad is enjoyed by families everywhere; at Betony, which closed in late 2016, it was also a study in fermentation. Shuman and his team used different kinds of pickling techniques for many of the beans and left some of them raw, creating a variety of textures and flavors. To plate the salad, the chef created a mosaic pattern in a ring mold, interspersing the beans with pickled onions. The onions were placed with the balance of space in mind- "but also, it's the way you eat," Shuman says. "You want to have even amounts of pickled onions. The dish has to taste good, too."

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KOHLRABI, YOGURT, LAST SUMMER'S PRESERVES, RHUBARB JUICE & BLACK CURRANT WOOD OIL CHOUX - MERIJN VAN BERLO Photography's rule of thirds comes to mind when contemplating chef Merijn van Berlo's presentation of kohlrabi, yogurt, and preserves. Served at his Amsterdam restaurant, Choux, it was inspired by the preserves made at the two­ Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant Kadeau. With this dish, van Berlo found a way to use his own by mixing them with a strained Dutch yogurt called hongop. Here, the preserves are made from pickled unripe gooseberries, spruce shoots, smoked hemp seeds, and dried sea lettuce. They are folded in very thin discs of brined kohlrabi that are tiled on top of each other to create a semicircle. The kohlrabi is topped with salted rhubarb, pickled elderflower, unripe gooseberry, red chard stalks, and red cone algae. It's presented alongside a pool of rhubarb juice broken up with oil that's been infused with black currant wood. The plate is made by a local ceramics studio, the Bird Tsang; it was designed with a built-in pool for the juice to be poured into. "It always looks like a perfect circle," says van Berlo, "resulting in a very balanced whole."

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SPRING ONION WITH BUTTERMILK & HORSERADISH DRAGSHOLM SLOT - CLAUS HENRIKSEN Made in the summer, when spring onion is at its best, this simple dish at Denmark's Dragsholm Slot illustrates the interplay of restraint and bounty, with the latter being confined to the flavors of the spring onion and the buttermilk­ horseradish sauce that accompanies it. Chef Claus Henriksen cooks the spring onion in butter and arranges it in the blindingly white sauce to best show off its verdant color; a few leaves and red petals of nasturtium cress complete the display. The brown plate recalls the soil, referencing the origin of the dish's components with quiet, earthy elegance.

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QUICK &EASY HERB & FLORAL GOAT CHEESE BALLS BABYLONSTOREN At Babylonstoren, a farm and luxury hotel in South Africa, goat cheese balls serve as the perfect blank canvas for any number of colors. Here, a trio of them appears against a backdrop that equally recalls classic still-life paintings, Easter garden parties, and the kind of vibrant color schemes found on a canvas by Gauguin or Matisse. The dish's preparation is as simple as its presentation: the balls of cheese-which can be filled with various ingredients­ are pressed with edible flowers, soft herbs, and dried spices, and served with sliced raw radishes and carrots. The vegetables' green leaves are left intact, further enhancing the image of a verdant, streamlined Eden.

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GREEN SHOOTS OF THE SEASON WITH SCALLOP MARINADE NOMA - RENE REDZEPI Spring's first tender leaves are presented without much fanfare at Copenhagen's Noma, where chef Rene Redzepi arranges them on a plate like a pizzaiolo scattering toppings across the surface of a pizza. Deep-pink leaves and yellow petals break up the tableau, which, like all of the dishes served at Noma, is without the burden of unnecessary artifice. It's just a plate of greens (albeit greens anointed with scallop marinade) designed to convey the season's glory-a glory that, the plating seems to say, is very much capable of speaking for itself.

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COLESLAW BETONY - BRYCE SHUMAN Coleslaw is an all-but-ubiquitous dish at American family gatherings. At his New York restaurant Betony (which closed in 2016), chef Bryce Shuman felt that it was important to plate his version of the humble dish as a circle because the shape "is all-encompassing and to me symbolizes family and gathering," he ex­ plains. "This dish is about people coming together." To create his perfect circle, Shuman made 2 1/2-inch-long matchsticks from green and white cabbage; orange, red, and yellow-streaked dragon carrots; purple and green radishes; chives; and broccoli stems. After being tossed in a bit of mustard dressing, they were built into a wreath around a metal ring mold. The result remains a pleasing testament to har­ mony, both interpersonal and aesthetic.

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In Tuscany, Luca Rosati draws on his years as a professional chef to inform the clean, bold images he creates as a food photographer and stylist.

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"Rosati begins by selecting the number of ingredients, and then the colors, surface, and background. 'The selection of the plate's material has become an essential element of my style,' he says."

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01 ,_ A bowl of citrus fruit. cucumber, and ricotta cheese.

uring the 15 years he worked as a professional chef in his native Italy and abroad, Luca Rosati didn't see himself as just a chef: he thought of himself as an artist, because he felt like one. "It is the chef who creates his style," he explains. "I always thought that my dishes must have a strong impact." That simple idea has carried Rosati from the kitchen to the camera: in his current role as a food photographer and stylist, he makes an impact through the way he plates and frames each dish. "Photography has to enhance the ingredients, the combination, and the complexity," he says. Born and raised in Tuscany, Rosati developed a passion for photogra­ phy while he worked and traveled as a chef. It was during his trips to Japan that he began to make the connection between photography and food styling. "I started taking pictures of food to understand the care Japanese chefs take in preparation, presentation, and skills," he says. ''I'm still fascinated by their style." His own style is clean, minimal, and bold; in one photo, uncooked spa­ ghetti is adorned with a halved strawberry, a slice of citrus, chili pepper, and a pair of sunglasses to mimic a face; in another, yellow Lego bricks are clustered inside a hollow soup bone. Light is at the center of Rosati's style: it "unveils details," he says, creating dimension. He describes his process as "studying creativity" -he combs through books, the internet, and social media, using his research and curiosity to see both his work and everyday life "in another light." When he styles a plate of

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02 .... Cocoa is partnered with papaya and foie gras. 03 -+ A plate of marsala, milk. and prickly pears.

"Today, Rosati's photographs entail fewer ingredients and props. 'Lots of stylists use too many complements and props, often distracting the viewer's attention from the main dish,' he explains. 'I decided to eliminate all the superficial elements only to focus on the ingredients and the meaning of the dish."'

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food, he begins by selecting the number of ingredients, and then the colors, sur­ face, and background. "The selection of the plate's material has become an essen­ tial element of my style," he says. Sometimes, the· plate isn't even a plate. For his Knife Plate project, Rosati photographed a series of dishes on chef's knives. The idea was born in his kitchen, when he was using his knife to make a tartare, "and the knife naturally became the plate," he says. After discussing the project with other chefs, he photographed the work of six of them, with each dish made with the knife that be­ came its plate. When Rosati began working as a chef, he used "complex and rich ingredients and several combinations of flavors all on the same plate," he says. "Today, I use three to four ingredients for a perfect combination of taste, flavors, and presentation."

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07 +- Rosati working in his studio.

"Styling and photographing have changed the way Rosati thinks about food. 'It helped me to give more value to the ingredients and to know how to enhance them with colors and shapes,' he says."

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08 -+ Pineapple, miso, coconut milk, and pecans. 09 -+ Squid, eggplant, ginger, and tea. 10

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That reduction has a parallel in Rosati's work as a photographer and stylist: today, his photographs entail fewer ingredients and props. "Lots of stylists use too many complements and props, often distracting the viewer's attention from the main dish," he explains. "I decided to eliminate all the superficial elements only to focus on the ingredients and the meaning of the dish." The plate itself, he says, is "the tool to create a harmonic composition," and for that reason he has placed increasing focus on using handmade ceramics in his photographs. In turn, styling and photography have changed the way Rosati thinks about food. "It helped me to give more value to the ingredients and to know how to enhance them with colors and shapes," he says. "Food is important. It is our source of life. It shouldn't be wasted. It should be loved."

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A Perfectly Imperfect Plate of Agretti Rosati uses the beautifully rustic lines of the plate to inform the elegant but relaxed presentation of his agretti with a creamy Parmigiana cheese sauce, mussels, and dried daisies. The placement of the mussels echoes the asymmetry of the plate, while the green of the agretti creates a striking contrast with the hue of the plate.

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LUCA ROSATI

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Rosati chose this dish, which was made by Michal Joniec of Slowburn

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"I like the dish to have movement," Rosati says.

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A few drops of lime juice add freshness and flavor to the dish.

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The dish is garnished with dried daisies, which add a pleasant bittersweet flavor.

SKREI COD & STEAMED OYSTERS WITH SMOKED-, MUSSEL CREME, SPRING HERBS, APPLE JUICE & LOVAGE CHOUX - MERIJN VAN BERLO The Skrei cod at Amsterdam's Choux is an exercise in perfect, earthy symmetry. Chef Merijn van Berlo dry-cures pieces of cod in a mix of salt, thyme, and juniper, and then rolls up and lightly freezes them before slicing them very thinly. Here, they've been made into what van Berlo calls "a sort of taco filling," with a cream of smoked Zeeland mussels, steamed Creuse oysters, cucumber, and chives. The concoction is balanced by an acidic juice of cel­ ery, green apple, and lavage oil, along with a fluid mignonette gel of shallot-infused Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar, and then garnished with the first shoots from the restaurant's garden. In considering the plate's design, "we wanted to check how a guest should be eating the dish," says van Berlo. "It was necessary to have some of the juice with every spoonful, so that's why we wanted a pool of it next to the fish; otherwise, the flavors would have been out of bal­ ance." Also, he says, "I think it resembles balance when you look at it, sort of a yin and yang."

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RAZOR CLAM, BEET, PUFFED WHEAT& HORSERADISH SAUCE THE WIZARD'S COOKBOOK

RONNY EMBORG

The complementary relationship between red and green provides a striking focal point for this dish in chef Ronny Emborg's The Wizard's Cookbook. The beet elements create an off-kilter frame for a vibrant green smear of dill oil, while a cluster of puffed grains offers benign but pronounced textural contrast. To plate the dish, Emborg placed razor clam atop bands of beet that he then rolled up like cannelloni and garnished with sago grains and dill. After arranging puffed wheat next to one of the "cannelloni," Emborg placed some dill emulsion on the plate and topped it with a disc of frozen beetroot juice. Then he added horseradish sauce to the plate and split it with dill oil. The shapes and their placement evoke a Kandinsky canvas-geometrical, abstract, and bold.

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DUROCPORK, BEET& ONION Tl TRIN NED - RAINER GASSNER There is perhaps no more elegant swine than the Duroc pork served at Ti Trin Ned, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Fredericia, Denmark. Chef Rainer Gassner roasts and confits the pork and then finishes it on a yakitori grill just before serving. It is accompanied by two lobes of beet that have been baked, dehydrated, and softened in rosehip tea, and an onion that has been prepared in chamomile and scattered with chamomile dust. The dish's inspiration, says Gassner, was "the long, dark Nordic days and our iconic hygge" -the quintes­ sentially Danish feeling of coziness-and the bright pops of color against the white plate in­ deed evoke warmth and life amid the backdrop of a snowy tableau.

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SQUAB & FOIE GRAS BAR WITH SATSUMA & FRESH FENNEL POLLEN JUNI - SHAUN HERGATT For this dish, which he served at his New York restaurant Juni, chef Shaun Hergatt first layered squab and foie gras with kuro powder and star anise, then pressed and sliced it to create a marbling effect. "The idea is a classic con­ nection of flavors that's also a spin on a little chocolate bar," says Hergatt; indeed, his inspiration was the Rocky Road bars he ate as a child. At Juni, which closed in 2016, he used savory ingredients to mimic the candy bar's appearance when it was sliced. A circle of satsuma sauce added another element to the dish's geometry, while a scattering of fresh fennel pollen provided a playful contrast to the dish's formal lines.

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TEXTURE LETS YOU FEEL YOURFOOD BEFORE YOU' EATENIT While it's not as immediately commanding as color or shape, texture can be a dish's defining visual element on a plate, giving you important clues about the experience of eating it.

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here are a number of alluring components in the chestnut, squash, and cinnamon dish that chef Daniel Burns used to serve at his New York restaurant Luksus, but it's the blinding white shard of chestnut meringue that tells you what it will actually be like to eat the dessert. "When you see it, you can practically almost taste and feel the texture

in your mouth," says Burns. As you eat the dish, he continues, "the textures play into it-you might want to smash the meringue so you can eat some of the crispy tex­ tures with more soft and juicy bites. If you eat the whole shard of the meringue, you don' t get the contrast; it might be off-balance." The dish-which also contains cinnamon ice cream, sweetened squash puree, slices of raw chestnut, and chocolate crumble-is a beautiful illustration of why texture matters in plating, and how it can act as the plate's main visual element. As it does with Burns's meringue shard, texture can prime your expectations of a dish. It tells a story as effectively as color, form, or aroma do-arguably even more so, since it allows you to imagine the sensation of the food on your tongue. Texture also tends to evolve more than these other sensory aspects, as a plate of food is eaten, which can in turn heighten (or detract from) your enjoyment of a dish. So how do you create visual impact with texture and plate your food in such a way that it enhances your experience of it as you eat? One approach is the one that Burns used with both his chestnut me­ ringue and his dish of pickled mackerel, dulse, and tarragon, which was sheltered with a chip made from caramelized onions. Because the shard is the dominant fac­ tor in these two dishes, literally overshadowing the other components, it tells you that you' re in for a lot of crunch-but also a lot of contrast with the softer textures on the plate. Bryce Shuman used a similar approach in his dish of caviar and charred beef fat, which he served at his New York restaurant Betony. At first glance, the dish appears to be all crunch, just a single crispy, puffy shard that evokes a piece of char­ coal (it's actually made from charcoal powder and tapioca that has been smoked,

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TEXTURE

01 \ Chaco Bar's Wagyu beef. uni (sea urchin). truffle, and reggiano. 02 - Ronny Emborg's Beehive. at Marchal.

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