Working the Plate or Craft of Cooking

Working the Plate: The Art of Food Presentation

Author: Christopher Styler

Feast your eyes.


Long awaited by professional chefs, this groundbreaking guide to food presentation will also delight and inspire culinary students and sophisticated home cooks. Acclaimed food writer and culinary producer Christopher Styler describes seven distinctive plating styles, from Minimalist to Naturalist to Dramatic, with several striking examples of every genre. Each plating suggestion is accompanied by clear instructions along with color photos of step-by-step techniques and finished plates. Complete with essays on plating from ten leading chefs and recipes for the dishes featured, this book is a work of art in itself--a must for the kitchen shelf.

Library Journal

In the world of cooking, presentation is every bit as important as flavor. This idea is critical for restaurants, where a dish's appearance could determine the difference between excellent reviews and bankruptcy. Enter Styler's new work, a step-by-step recipe manual for home cooks interested in making their dishes look as good as they taste. This is no ordinary cookbook; think of it as a compilation of ideas. Ten of the nation's top chefs here introduce eight styles of plating. Delineated by chapters focusing on the art and principles of plating, the brief but packed text allows readers to indulge in various styles, including "Minimalist," "Artist," "Architect," "Contemporary European Style," "Asian Influence," and "Desserts: Classic and Contemporary." The book features photographs of chefs preparing dishes and is sparsely designed with an eye to beauty, allowing food design to take center stage. Styler doesn't seek to be an authority on plating but instead hopes that this work will serve as an introduction to the art. Highly recommended for large public libraries. Steven G. Fullwood, Schomburg Ctr. Lib., New York Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

Introduction.

The Minimalist.

The Architect.

The Artist.

Contemporary European Style.

Asian Influences.

The Naturalist.

Dramatic Flair.

Desserts: Classic and Contemporary.

Painting the Plate: Sauces and Techniques for Finishing Plates. 

Index.

Read also Delizia or China Bayles Book of Days

Craft of Cooking: Notes and Recipes from a Restaurant Kitchen

Author: Tom Colicchio

From Tom Colicchio, chef/co-owner of New York’s acclaimed Gramercy Tavern, comes a book that profiles the food and philosophy of Craft, his unique restaurant in the heart of New York’s Flatiron district, and winner of the 2002 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America. From its food to its architecture and menu design, Craft has been celebrated for its courageous movement away from culinary theatrics and over-the-top presentations, back to the simple magic of great food.

Realizing that his own culinary style had grown increasingly unembellished, and gambling that New York diners were experiencing that same kind of culinary fatigue (brought on by too much “fancy food”), Colicchio set out to prove that the finest food didn’t have to be the most complicated. From its opening in March 2001, Craft offered diners simple, soulful dishes centered around single ingredients that went on to shake up many people’s ideas of what “restaurant food” should be like.

Craft of Cooking leads you through Colicchio’s thought process in choosing raw materials—like what to look for in fresh fish, or how to choose the perfect mushroom—to show that good food is available to anyone with access to a good supermarket, farm stand, or gourmet grocery. The book also features “Day-in-the-Life-of-Craft” portraits, which offer a fascinating, behind-the-scenes glimpse at areas of the restaurant beyond the dining room. These segments allow the reader to peer into the fast-paced prep kitchen, to witness the high drama of reservations, and to get a taste of the humor and empathy necessary to serve NewYork’s colorful visitors and foodies.

And then there are the recipes. Craft of Cooking presents 140 recipes that range from the simplest dish of spring peas to roasted fish; from lush but effortless braises to complex brining and curing of meat for homemade charcuterie, included to give the reader a “fly-on-the-wall” experience of visiting the Craft kitchen for themselves. Dishes are divided–like the Craft menu itself–into categories of meat, fish, vegetables, potatoes, grains, desserts, and pantry, and then further delineated by technique–roasting, braising, sautéing, etc.–with abundant suggestions and technical tips. Using Tom’s straightforward and friendly voice, Craft of Cooking offers recipes suited to any purpose—from a quick family meal to a festive dinner party for twelve.

As he did in his James Beard award-winning book, Think Like a Chef, Colicchio uses Craft of Cooking to teach, tell his story, and offer inspiration to cooks of any skill level. With more than 100 full-color and black-and-white photographs, Craft of Cooking is destined to become a staple of home cooks everywhere—the one “restaurant cookbook” they can’t live without.

Publishers Weekly

"I haven't tried to simplify these recipes for the sake of the home cook," writes Colicchio (Think Like a Chef). "Simple food doesn't mean simplistic. It requires a healthy dose of skill and hard work." And with that caveat, he offers up 125 uneven dishes. While there are plenty of recipes that are simple to prepare, most of the book's recipes require time, patience and, occasionally, deep pockets: Duck Ham must hang in the refrigerator for three weeks; Braised Monkfish calls for 17 ingredients, three of which are sub-recipes; and foie gras and black truffles make several appearances. Colicchio is unapologetic in including "behemoth" recipes-restaurant dishes that he admits may be out reach of most home cooks. Uncompromisingly fresh flavors are his touchstone, and squeamish cooks may find it disquieting to discover that many ingredient animals such as soft shell crabs and lobster meet their end at the cook's hand. Colicchio has subdivided the chapters into sections according to technique-roasting, saut ing, braising, pur eing, marinating. Each chapter includes ingredient portraits, as well as essays, that give a sneak peek behind Craft's doors. (While the photos throughout are nicely placed, the extreme close-up of carrots and celery on the cover is a kind of culinary Rorschach test.) The essays, though, are a jarring interlude because the book, which is written from Colicchio's point of view, suddenly does an about face by quoting the chef, and the disembodied narrator is never revealed. But will all this dampen sales? Certainly not. The Colicchio name is enough to sell this book, and the clear, simply written recipes will quell even the worst case of kitchen anxiety. Photos. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

The food of New York City's upscale Gramercy Tavern, where Colicchio is chef/ co-owner, was featured in his unusual first cookbook, Think Like a Chef, which provided a glimpse into how a creative chef develops his recipes. Since then, Colicchio has opened several of his own restaurants, including Craft, where he serves what he describes as "simple, soulful dishes centered around single ingredients," served family-style. With the sauces, condiments, and other such accompaniments listed separately, the choice of putting together a dish left to a certain extent up to the diner, the menu there at first stymied some, including restaurant critics, but Craft has since become one of the most popular restaurants in the city. Here Colicchio offers his favorites of its "ingredients-driven dishes": Pan-Roasted Chicken with Chicken Jus, Pan-Roasted Asparagus, Porcini in Parchment. As in the first book, there are thoughtful explanations of technique and why the recipes work; for the more adventurous cook, there is also a selection of more elaborate or labor-intensive dishes. Mini-essays on "Family Meal," "Lunch Service," etc., provide a behind-the-scenes look at the Craft kitchen. For most collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.