Techniques To plate or not to plate (at home)

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Oshidashi

Oshidashi

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When we have friends over for dinner and I'm cooking (the usual scenario), depending on the dish, I will often plate individually; and I will also use heated plates, especially for fish and steak. My wife thinks such efforts are pretentious, even embarrassing, and only should be for restaurants. But I think individual plating enhances appetite and taste and can properly balance and apportion the main item, sauces and sides. Any comments?
 
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As I usually just cook for myself, plating is a no brainer. When I cook for company I have done both individual plating and family style.
For Christmas I'm having some family over and will serve everything on trays so folks can help themselves.

Regarding the opinion of your wife, I will respectfully disagree and say that imo what you do just shows that you care about your guests and the food they eat 🤷‍♂️
 
I can go both ways, with groups big or small.

When I'm putting on the Ritz, I like to plate so the assembly looks professional. Definitely wouldn't give my brother free access to the sauce bowl. Sometimes plating saves table space. Other times I just put the food on a side table and let folks have at it.

Agree with above that plating is just putting in a little more effort for guests (and a wee bit of showing off).
 
I plate at home only when it is just me and the Mrs. When we have guests, I usually arrange food on platters and in bowls, this can be done artfully as well to titillate appetites. Often times there are children around, and they really really really (I mean really!) like to serve themselves.

But there are occasions that can be exceptions to the above, just to be playful. However, even when I plate I often also bring platters, serving bowls, and sauce boats to the table so folks can help themselves to more.
 
When we have just one or two people over for dinner I’ll plate a small amount then put extra on the table for people to help themselves to seconds.
 
Most of the time it's just me and my wife. I will usually do a fancy artistic plating and then we eat off folding TV trays while we sit on the couch and watch our shows.

When we have company over it depends. Sometimes I'll do multiple plated courses and others everything gets self served off of the buffet.
 
I am just a home cook but I like my food hot so I developed a habit of heating plates in the microwave/oven top before serving food on it. It's interesting that this is a procedure done at restaurants.

My point being I don't think it's pretentious if what you are doing is serving a practical purpose.
 
I do plating for nicer stuff. A bowl of spaghetti, meh... just don't make it look sloppy. But a nice main and sides, yes.

Unless I'm feeling under the weather. Then just be grateful food was made, much less put on a plate.
 
Follow your instinct, or respect your timeline. It usually determines how much plating I do. It helps that culturally around here, people tend to just slap food onto a plate and serve you that way. Doesn't take much from there to get things a bit more nuanced and elegant. I rarely do self-serve so there's always some basic plating going to happen anyhow. Still many traditional stuff around here is pretty much meant to be slapped onto a plate, so there's that relief.

Except breakfasts. There's something much more into the zone with a "brunch" table with heaps of food for people to serve themselves.

Pretentious is a harsh word, especially for something pretty logical like heated plates... unless your lady finds that you get pretentious when you do that. Then she's right... obviously. 🤫;):cool:
 
i like to tell people what to do and how to do it right. ergo: i plate, a lot. (i.e. ”it's a sauce, not soup dammit!”)

pretty pictures are, meh ;) but still, this thread needs pics :D 'cause despite my faiblesse for plating, i suck at it.

.
 
One can artistically plate a platter just as easily as a plate (well, I can’t…)

I really love serving platters filled with food family style at the dining table. One person holds the platter while their neighbor serves themselves. If new guests don’t understand the protocol we explain it on the fly.

Never really cottoned to people getting up to shuffle off to another table to serve themselves
 
I worked in restaurants all through high school and college (long time ago) but I still catch myself trying to do a perfect a perfect pasta swirl with shaved Parisian and also stupid stuff like wiping any sauce dribble around the edge of the plate. When you do that for so many years it's kind of a hard habit to break. My wife is not impressed but also still schools me on the proper silver/glassware placement when guests come over :)
 
I do most the cooking for the two of us. Just by habit clean as I go so not a mess when I plate. When she bakes or makes salad stuff all over the place. I don't criticize.
I warm plates for just us. Even breakfast if making hash brown potatoes put plates in warmer so even couple minutes takes to make sausage & over easy eggs potatoes don't cool.

If eating by myself use a bowl😜
 
I think it's always nice to sit down to a meal that someone clearly enjoyed preparing. You're sharing food and time together with company--might as well let it show that you enjoyed preparing the meal for them. Plating's an extension of that. I don't think it's pretentious at all. If anything, it's the opposite--just slapping a bunch of food on a plate--that seems to show you don't care for the guests.
I suppose it could be taken as show-offy if it's crazy over the top, so best to stay away from the gold leaf and saffron-tonka bean foams!...
Warming the plates is always a nice touch--and used to be the norm for meals at home. (The old ovens had a warming compartment for plates!)
My vote--keep doing what you're doing. It sounds like you're trying to respect your guests and there's nothing to be embarrassed about there or for wanting to be a nice host. Nicely plated steak on a warm plate vs. steak slapped haphazardly on a cold plate... it's a no-brainer :)
P.S. A solution to your wife's misgivings--more wine.
 
We usually do family style. Most of the time for large groups people are bringing sides or more meat. It is a mystery until they show up but they know the theme.
I don't think there is anything wrong with plating up the meal. I just can't control it to that degree. Most of my friends are foodies and have their own way of dealing with what they bring. Plus, a couple of our friends have food allergies so they cannot eat everything.
 
Yes your best intention well prepared meal will have food left on the plate because of particular dislikes.😝 Just because you like certain foods doesn't mean others do.

I've learned not to put any heat spice in food for my better half. One of my sister's won't eat flavorful fish even salmon. Shrimp, but no crab.

It's a risk you take with plate serving as opposed to serve yourself style.
 
For company, it's family style w platters on the table, or buffet set up in the kitchen. I don't plate for guests because it's not really up to me how much of each item they want to take/ eat. Letting them choose what is best for them is how I show my respect for them.

When it's just me, my wife and my son, I have to stop my wife from plating my dinner when she's pulling cooking duty. Same reason -- she doesn't know how much of each item I may want that evening. Sometimes we'll put a helping of the main protein on the plates but usually it's up to each diner to take how much they want out of what they want.

I hear about making guests feel special. To ME, letting them get what they want vs me dictating it is how I try to achieve that. I only wish restaurants would let me pick how many slices/ pieces of the protein I want, how much of the starch, whether or not I feel like eating any broccoli or cauliflower that night, etc...
 
As the main food preparer for my busy professional wife and increasingly busy almost 14-year old daughter, I try to maintain a family tradition of a sit-down dinner most every night. Usually not fancy, but a chance to see each other and catch up. It's not formal but an anchor point in our lives (not sure my daughter sees it that way). Like most families, breakfast and lunch are often eaten on the fly; I'm dragging my feet on having dinner go this way too..

I just about always plate for them. Some of this is practicality- no need to move prepared food from the pan to serving dishes, and therefore less for me to clean up. Also an effort to ensure that my daughter at least has some vegetables on her plate. But also a way to be creative in putting the plates together with various condiments and garnishes if I have time.

For dinner parties, it's usually buffet-style although one of my signatures is to make a "demonstrator plate" to show what my "vision" is, especially if it's food that people aren't familiar with. But I always say they are free to put their own plates together however they want..
 
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