Presentation Matters
Filed under {!-- ra:0000000038c40116000000001074dcef --}{if 'Presentation Matters' == '52home' && category_name == '52home'} Homemaking | Family Meals {if:else} Homemaking | Family Meals {/if}All this planning, shopping and cooking is leading up to something. Eating of course! But before we take our first bite of dinner, there’s one more aspect of the meal that needs our attention: presentation.
What’s so important about presentation? you ask. Well, imagine an artist who labors over a painting displaying it without a frame, or a businessman who develops a marketing strategy writing it out on a napkin, or an author who writes a masterpiece sending the publisher a rough draft. Presentation matters after all.
Listen to what Edith Schaeffer suggests:
“It is not necessary to have expensive food on the plates before they can enter the dining room as things of beauty in colour and texture….Eye appeal as well as taste appeal should be remembered…A plate can be thought of at times as a kind of ‘still life’—not a lasting one, of course, but lasting in memory…a thing of beauty. Not only does this give interest, atmosphere and pleasure to the meal, but it gives dignity and fulfillment to the one who prepared it.”
Now, I doubt you’d call any meal I prepare anything resembling a “still life.” But I’m inspired by Mrs. Schaeffer’s approach toward the appearance and arrangement of food. Attractive meal presentation can give pleasure to our family, it can enhance the dinnertime experience, communicate our love and attention, and maybe even make the food taste better!
Growing up, we did not usually have fancy or expensive meals for dinner, and neither would Mom claim to be artistic. But even as a young person, I noticed that she always gave thought to how the table was set and how the food looked in the serving dishes and together on the plate. She could make even hamburgers seem like a feast simply by the way she put the condiments in little bowls and arranged the tomatoes and lettuce and onions on a platter and filled a basket with individual bags of chips.
Mom taught me to at least try to consider food colors when picking the menu so the meal would look attractive on a plate. Or, as one author suggests, to consider “alternating colors and textures.” Oftentimes, this simply requires forethought as to what vegetable and starch would best go with what meat.
Of course, there are the artistic among us who can make oranges look like swans or do wonders with a few sprigs of parsley or a few motley vegetables. If you know someone like this who excels at food presentation, ask her to teach you some of her tips.
But even for those of us not blessed with artistic talent, let’s consider how we can give extra care to meal presentation. Let’s put that exclamation point on the importance of family dinnertime.