The position of an Executive Chef has many facets to it, from ordering, cooking plating, storage and so on that most of us are all very familiar with. Another aspect of the Chef story is actually getting the food on the plate and presenting it to the guest in a way that is eye appealing and encourages the guest to feel hungry even before taking the first bite! This is where a Chef needs to be a master of Food Styling or Food Design. Food Styling has two aspects to it, firstly the presentation of plated meals that will be made on a day to day basis and secondly, the designing of plated food for photographic shoots in advertising. The idea is to help advertise your product and to enable a wider audience to see what you are creating in your own part of the world. How good an artist and how good the imagination is, plays a key roll in how well the food is presented on the plate.

To take the daily restaurant presentation of dishes first, even before even starting to write a menu, a Chef would have in his mind the type of styling he or she wants to achieve for a particular type of outlet and start to plan his menu accordingly. Are the dishes going to be Coffee shop presentation, and if so, of a modern look, classical, what type of plates are being used and what are the cooking and staff facilities available to achieve the end results? Maybe the Chef is looking at an Indian restaurant or a Chinese restaurant menu, in which case the dishes will be planned accordingly for presentation in those particular styles. As the menu is written, each dish is pictured in the mind and incorporated accordingly. One good tip I picked up from a colleague who worked in Japan, was to actually sketch the dish on paper as how you envisage it being on the plate, noting placement of items, sauces, garnishes and so on. In this way, you can get a clearer picture of your finished item before you even start cooking