Is it just me or does food taste better when it looks good? When you go to a fancy restaurant, you expect good tasting food, and normally you would expect it to look good as well. But how many of us really pay attention to how the food looks when we cook at home? It's not so hard to make a great tasting food, but quite often we just toss it onto a plate and munch away.. Should we pay more attention when serving food at home? I'm sure you do it when you have guest over, but do you do it when it's just you and your other half? To decorate your food, you don't need to do much, and you definitely don't need to have special skills to do it.
How about we give it a shot!? Next dinner you cook, serve a plate just as it is and another, with a bit more thought put into how to put the food on a plate and perhaps sprinkle something green over it. Give it a shot and taste both plates. Which one is tastier, which one do you prefer? I will try this with you and share my result, you do the same!
Basic kitchen equipment and ways to use it to decorate food
Cookie cutters
use a circular one to serve a wee pillow of mashed potatoes or shape other foods on a plate
when serving stickier and stronger sauces try dipping cookie cutters into the sauce and then creating fun lines on the plate (such as balsamico or sweet chili sauce)
cut shapes with them. For example, when serving toast with something, cut the toast into any kind of shape with the cookie cutters
Spatulas and brushes
Use spatulas and brushes to create delicate and fun lines over the plates using sauces, jams etc
Piping bags
If you don't have one, you can use strong baking paper and create it yourself or use clean plastic bags. Click HERE for an easy tutorial video made by Wilton to learn how to create a home made piping bag.
If you are thinking of getting one but don't want to spend a lot of money on it, I recommend rather buying disposable pipe bags rather than a cheap reusable one as those break instantly!
You can use different nozzles and even just the bag opening to serve food in a super easy and beautiful way. World is your oyster when using piping bags!
Using multiple dishes to serve food
think adding small serving bowls or ramekins to big plates - serve sauce or some other part of your meal that can be easily separated on a separate dish
Squeeze bottle
helpful tool to make wee dots and swirls
These are just few ideas that I have previously used. Do you have any other amazing ways to use kitchen equipment to help decorate food?
Cheers!
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