Food Plating and Photography

General Plating Tips:

1. Height. Build upwards. Also helps to have a focal point (e.g. your protein). Everything works towards showcasing this. So if you have a filet mignon, for example, you could place it on top of your starch, or lean it against it.
2. Contrasting color. Herbs are great for this, but also consider it in the recipe stage. Choose veggies that don’t just taste good with your main, but provide a nice bit of color as well.
3. Odd numbers look better than even numbers. 3 or 5 of something is nicer than 4.
4. Use tools; ring molds are pretty basic, cheap, and a good way of plating neatly. Squeeze bottles (like the ones for ketchup) are also a less error-prone way of drizzling sauce, vs. using a spoon, which might cause messy drippings in places you don’t want them.
5. Use the right plate for the job. Serving soup or pasta? Use something deep like a soup bowl. A full meal with protein starch and veg? A round plate or square plate is pretty standard. Can’t go wrong with white, but other plain colors (for example, dark blue, with a combination of lighter colors — chicken with salsa on it and then rice, for example) might work. Experiment. Other shapes are cool too, like rectangles for appetizers and sushi.