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Portion control is also something that is considered when it comes to food layout and presentation. Half of your plate should consist of vegetables; a quarter should consist of protein and a quarter should consist of carbohydrates. This is to ensure a healthy and balanced diet is achieved. As for other food groups, such as dairy and fats, moderation is key. 

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BfTNv0KFmyM/?taken-by=_artofplating_

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Trenchers

https://www.bonappetit.com/trends/article/a-history-of-how-food-is-plated-from-medieval-bread-bowls-to-noma

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Marie Antoinette 

https://www.bonappetit.com/trends/article/a-history-of-how-food-is-plated-from-medieval-bread-bowls-to-noma

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History of Food Presentation

Any foodie worth his salt knows that there's more to proper plating than a sprig of parsley and a radish flower, but most can't tell you how we got from shoveling down dinosaur drumsticks à la Fred Flintstone to the edible forest paintings of Noma.

Depending on where you dine, of course, what your dinner looks like might not be that different from what people ate a millennium ago, especially if you still yearn for the pre-Atkins bread-bowl fad (or go to Au Bon Pain every day). In the Middle Ages, plating basically consisted of ladling stews or porridge into trenchers--hollowed out "plates" cut from loaves of old bread, the staler the better. Sure, some royalty enjoyed elaborate, heavily meat-based feasts with over-the-top themes or off-the-wall twists in preparation (think turducken times 10), but for the hoi polloi? Presentation consisted of slop on a doorstop.

Thank Catherine de Medici for changing a lot of that in the 1500s. The daughter of the powerful Florentine family brought dining innovations--forks! ballet! topless waitresses!--with her when she married Henry II of France, and her cultural influence only grew as she became the most powerful woman in Europe. A century later, Louis XIV brought the lavishness of Versailles to its apex, and sealed cuisine's place as an integral part of French culture, both for its flavor and its aesthetics. But the French court's culinary spectacles largely remained just that: spectacles. Pretty to look at, not necessarily to be repeated in your own castle kitchen.

It was Marie-Antoine Careme, arguably the first celebrity chef, who brought plating into the modern world. Careme, who was born in 1784 and died in 1833, was an avid amateur student of architecture--he even considered pastry making "the principal branch" of the art. As chef de cuisine to personages all the way up to Napoleon Bonaparte, he presented dishes in the shapes of famous monuments, waterfalls and pyramids; he's believed to have invented the croquembouche.

Careme didn't just revolutionize pastry. He came up with the mother sauces, reduced the size of portions (particularly since he was largely working on large banquets with plentiful courses), and emphasized complementary flavors and pairings in presentations.

"For example, today with fried fish we need a cold emulsion," says

Sergio Remolina, a professor at the Culinary Institute of America and chef of the CIA's new Bocuse Restaurant. "That's a classic flavor, and he's the one who starts to pair the flavors like that."

But it was still only the elite who got to see and taste the benefits of Careme's innovations in cooking and presentation. Bringing a new aesthetic appreciation for food to the larger masses had to wait for Auguste Escoffier, who was born two years after Careme died. The timing was no coincidence.

"The Industrial Revolution is happening, and with the Industrial Revolution we have the first millionaires, people who travel for pleasure, the railroad," Remolina says.

Arguably Escoffier's most important contribution to the history of cuisine? A la carte service.

"With Escoffier the portions are still coming in large trays, plated in multiple portions, not the individual plates we know today that are heavily decorated with a lot of work on each plate," Remolina says.

Born to an era where most of the cooking was still done over charcoal and wood in separate buildings and then carried a relatively long distance to where people ate, Escoffier tinkered with devices and methods that allowed cooks to finish meals in the dining room instead. Now smaller, more individualized plates could be served without getting cold.

"People can choose what they eat," Remolinda says. "They're not eating off a presented menu. And fine dining is born as a business."

In the early 20th century,

Fernand Point introduced elements that would become signatures of nouvelle cuisine--seasonal ingredients with a focus on natural flavors, an emphasis on service and hospitality, lighter fare, and, above all, simplicity and elegance. He even made the now-ubiquitous baby vegetables a regular addition to the plate.

Point's approach was solidified by his most famous protege, Paul Bocuse, whose "neat and detailed" food presentations became the iconic images of increasingly popular nouvelle cuisine in the 1960s. The next generation of chefs, like

Charlie Trotter and

Alice Waters, took minimalism in cooking and presentation even further. Today, you get Noma's fried reindeer moss with cepe, which appears as if the kitchen had simply pulled up a square foot from a Danish forest and transferred it to a flower-pot saucer.

"In the late 1800s, the sauce is used to hide some of the defects in the meat or the smells because of the treatment of the protein, which could be a little bizarre," Remolina says. "Today, the goal is to feature the ingredient as close as possible to the source. If we have very fresh microgreens, or a fresh fish, we put it right on the plate. When we have a fresh item, we don't need to do much to it. The freshness of the ingredients guides the presentation."

With that in mind, the science-fiction foam impossibilities of El Bulli or the 28-course marathons of Alinea might seem a throwback to the elaborate feasts of Careme or the inedible intellectual noodlings of the Italian Futurists (think linguini in motor-oil sauce with steel nuts and bolts). But in the case of molecular gastronomy, the fanciful presentations are a way of emphasizing, not masking, the flavors.

"They work on extracting the essence of the ingredient, and they play with the sense and textures," Remolina says. "All the senses are involved. Now food is a show."

But don't worry that an age is coming when you won't be able to tell whether something on your table is a fanastically delicious, criminally overpriced meal--or something you forgot to throw out after an afternoon weeding the garden. Evolving presentations or no, great-tasting things will always taste great. Even if they're not served on the branch of a freshly felled birch tree tenderly raised by Greek Orthodox monks atop a mountain retreat in Arcadia.

"A good taco al pastor is going stay around forever," Remolina says reassuringly. "It won't change."

https://www.bonappetit.com/trends/article/a-history-of-how-food-is-plated-from-medieval-bread-bowls-to-noma 

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A plate of food looks most appealing when there's a high level of contrast in colors. Imagine being served a bowl of plain oatmeal or a dish of pasta without any sauce. Even if the oatmeal or pasta has been dressed with flavorful ingredients like butter and spices, it looks like a plain dish of starch. Serve the same bowl of oatmeal with fresh red berries and a swirl of amber maple syrup, or plate the pasta with a healthy drizzle of green pesto and chopped cherry tomatoes, and you've created a wholly different dining experience. No matter what you're serving, think of ways to add more color contrast. 

https://www.wikihow.com/Present-Food-on-a-Plate

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Antoine_Carême

Marie-Antoine Carême, byname Antonin Carême, (born June 8, 1784, Paris, France—died January 12, 1833, Paris), French chef who served the royalty of Europe, wrote several classic works on cuisine, and advanced the notion of cuisine as both an art and a science. He is often cited as the founder of French gastronomy and was a pioneer of grande cuisine.

Carême’s ideas—which included an emphasis on the artful presentation of dishes and on the use of fresh ingredients—caught on in restaurants throughout Europe, especially in France, where the French Revolution contributed to the development of restaurants, as cooks of the deposed aristocracy looked for work. Carême helped create a new culinary ethic befitting the new France.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Antoine-Careme

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http://www.thefatduck.co.uk/

http://www.thefatduck.co.uk/the-itinerary

The website for one of Heston Blumenthal’s restaurants; The Fat Duck. He describes eating at his restaurant as a journey. Perhaps a journey of discovery into the world of food as he knows it.

Heston even includes an itinerary for the journey. This comprises of memories from his childhood holidays. Each memory, described by touch, smell, sound and sight correspond to each course. This is a playful and emotive way of capturing something in food. 

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An Experience

It is clear that there’s an underlying science in food. Whether that be in the combination of flavours and how they work together, or in the layout of the food on a plate and how that affects the taste. Heston Blumenthal’s work with multi-sensory cooking has revolutionised the way we look at food. His ability to create unthinkable combinations of flavours and to deceive the mind is fascinating. He manages to incorporate every single sense into his food. It’s an experience over anything else.

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Den, Tokyo, Japan

Garden salad (image: Shinichiro Fujii) Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa pushes the potential of Japanese dining well beyond the boundaries of Kyoto’s centuries-old traditions. While his roots are embedded in classical kaiseki cuisine, he deftly incorporates influences from around the world, presenting his dishes with playfulness and humour.

2-3-18 Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo +81 3 6455 5433 http://www.jimbochoden.com/

https://www.theworlds50best.com/blog/News/the-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2017-the-list-in-pictures.html

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L'Astrance, Paris, France

Warm oyster with camembert, beetroot and oxtail Pascal Barbot spent five years working under Alain Passard at L’Arpège in Paris, but his CV also includes stints cooking in the South Pacific with the French navy and heading up Sydney restaurant Ampersand. His globe-trotting experiences are fully expressed at his small but chic restaurant, which combines modern French cuisine with influences from the Far East.

4 Rue Beethoven, 75116, Paris +33 1 40 50 84 40 http://www.astrancerestaurant.com/

https://www.theworlds50best.com/blog/News/the-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2017-the-list-in-pictures.html

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Attica, Melbourne, Australia

Whipped emu egg with sugar bag  Lamb, chicken, pork and beef haven’t made major appearances on the menu at Ben Shewry's Attica for some time now, but those interested in the macropod family will be pleased to see not just wallaby blood in the pikelets (think a sort of tea-time version of blini) but also salted raw red kangaroo with native bunya bunya nuts and purple carrot in the signature dish.

74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea, Victoria, 3185 +61 3 9530 0111 http://attica.com.au/#!home

https://www.theworlds50best.com/blog/News/the-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2017-the-list-in-pictures.html

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The Clove Club, London, UK

Trout tart  Formerly a supper club hosted in a London flat by owners Daniel Willis, Johnny Smith and chef Isaac McHale, The Clove Club took its permanent site at Shoreditch Town Hall in 2013 and quickly earned a reputation as one of the capital’s hottest restaurants.

380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT +44 020 7729 6496 http://thecloveclub.com/

https://www.theworlds50best.com/blog/News/the-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2017-the-list-in-pictures.html

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Vendôme, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

Langoustine At the vanguard of the new German school of cooking, Joachim Wissler re-imagines his country’s cuisine using international ingredients and techniques.

Althoff Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg, Kadettenstrasse, 51429 Bergisch Gladbach, Cologne +49 2204 42 1941 http://www.schlossbensberg.com/restaurant-vendome

https://www.theworlds50best.com/blog/News/the-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2017-the-list-in-pictures.html

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Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin, Germany

Beef and beetroot (image: ASA Selection) Tim Raue wanted to be an architect but didn’t have any money to study. He chose to enter the kitchen because it was the most creative option available to him at the time, working for several high-profile hotels before opening his eponymous restaurant in 2010. 

Rudi-dutschke-str. 26, 10969 Berlin +49 30 259 379 30 http://tim-raue.com/en/

https://www.theworlds50best.com/blog/News/the-worlds-50-best-restaurants-2017-the-list-in-pictures.html

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The ways of Heston Blumenthal

Cooking Methods

He has experimented with food pairing, in which recipes are created by identifying molecular similarities between different ingredients and bringing these together in a dish. One of the first such was Blumenthal's white chocolate with caviar. He created unusual combinations, including Roast Foie Gras "Benzaldehyde" and salmon poached in a liquorice gel accompanied by asparagus. While many of these unexpected combinations have been critically well received, Blumenthal himself has pointed out the limitations of such an approach, insisting that although food pairing is a good tool for creativity, it is still no substitute for the chef’s culinary intuition. ‘The molecular profile of a single ingredient is so complex that even if it has several compounds in common with another, there are still as many reasons why they won’t work together as reasons why they will.’

Blumenthal uses British history in his dishes. He became interested in historical cooking in the late 1990s upon obtaining a copy of The Vivendier, a translation of a fifteenth-century cookery manuscript that contained unusual recipes, such as a chicken that appears roasted but wakes up as it is served. He said "I'd had little idea the cooking of the past could be so playful, audacious and creative."

Multi-sensory cooking

Blumenthal calls his scientific approach to cuisine "multi-sensory cooking", arguing that eating is "one of the few activities we do that involves all of the senses simultaneously". One of the catalysts for this culinary approach was a visit at 16 to the restaurant L'Oustau de Baumanière in Provence, which at the time had three Michelin stars. The trip prompted a passion for cooking, above all because of "the whole multisensory experience: the sound of fountains and cicadas, the heady smell of lavender, the sight of the waiters carving lamb at the table". One of the other main inspirations for a multi-sensory style of cooking was the lack of space and opulence at the Fat Duck. "Places like the Baumaniere had a view and a history and architecture that took its diners to a world of beauty and indulgence. The Fat Duck didn’t have any of that, so it had had to capture the diners’ imagination in a different way – taking them to the mysteries of flavour perception and multi- sensory delight."

The event that cemented Heston’s interest in this area was his creation of a crab ice cream to accompany a crab risotto. "People had difficulty accepting Crab Ice Cream, yet if it was renamed "Frozen Crab Bisque", people found it more acceptable and less sweet. The phenomenon was subsequently researched by Martin Yeomans and Lucy Chambers of the University of Sussex, who served test subjects a version of Blumenthal’s ice cream flavoured with smoked salmon, but told one group they would be tasting ice cream and the other that they would be tasting a frozen savoury mousse. Although all consumed identical food, those eating what they thought was savoury mousse found the flavour acceptable while those eating what they thought was ice cream found the taste salty and generally disgusting. For Blumenthal, this confirmed his ideas. "If something as simple as a name could make a dish appear more or less salty ... what effect might other cues have on flavours and our appreciation of them?"

Since that point, exploring the sensory potential of food – via both research and the creation of new dishes – has been an ongoing and characteristic strand of Heston’s cooking. In 2004, working on a commission for the photographer Nick Knight, he created a Delice of Chocolate containing popping candy and took the imaginative step of arranging for diners to listen on headphones to the little explosions it made as they ate – the first time such a thing had been done. With Professor Charles Spence, head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University he has conducted several experiments into how our sense of sound can affect perception of flavour. In one experiment, test subjects consumed an oyster in two halves: the first half was accompanied by maritime sounds, the second by farmyard sounds, and they were then asked to rate pleasantness and intensity of flavour. It was found that oysters eaten while listening to seaside sounds were considered significantly more pleasant. In another, similar experiment, test subjects tasted egg-and-bacon ice cream while listening to sounds of bacon sizzling, followed by tasting it while listening to the sound of chickens clucking. The sizzling bacon sound made the bacon flavour appear more intense.

In Blumenthal's view, experiments such as these show that our appreciation of food is subjective, determined by information sent by the senses to the brain: "the ways in which we make sense of what we are eating and decide whether we like it or not depend to a large extent on memory and contrast. Memory provides us with a range of references – flavours, tastes, smells, sights, sounds, emotions – that we draw on continually as we eat." His dishes, therefore, tend to be designed to appeal to the senses in concert, and through this to trigger memories, associations and emotions. Thus the Nitro-poached Green Tea and Lime Mousse on the Fat Duck menu is served with spritz of ‘lime grove’ scent from an atomiser; and the Jelly of Quail dish includes among its tableware a bed of oak moss, as well as being accompanied by a specially created scent of oak moss that is dispersed at the table by means of dry ice.

The most complete expression to date of his multisensory philosophy, however, is probably the dish ‘Sound of the Sea’, which first appeared on the Fat Duck menu in 2007. In this, ingredients with a distinctly oceanic character and flavour – dried kelp, hijiki seaweed, baby eels, razor clams, cockles, mussels, sea urchins – are fashioned into a course that has the appearance of the shore’s edge, complete with sea ‘spume’ and edible sand. It is served on a glass-topped box containing real sand, and accompanied by headphones relaying the sounds of seagulls and the sea by means of a small iPod (placed in a conch shell) and earphones. The idea, according to Blumenthal, was one ‘of creating a world, of transporting the diner – through sound, through food, through an integrated appeal to the senses – to another place’.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal

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