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When adjusting presentation it will be necessary to visually assess foods and particular dishes and
possibly to change accompaniments and garnishes to maximise eye appeal, balance of plated foods,
colour and height of foods.
Serviceware needs to be suitable. On occasion it will be necessary to change the serviceware in order
to fit food onto plates or to ensure that the representation is as good as it can possibly be.
All serviceware must be clean, with no chips or cracks and any spills or drips must be wiped clean
with a one use disposable towel.
Good presentation is an art, which takes into consideration what will be on the plate and how the
plate will be set up. The presentation must be sufficiently strong and stable so that when food arrives
at the table, it is still attractive and inviting.
Plate sizes, shapes and styles will vary greatly. The image or theme of a restaurant will dictate, to a
large extent, the types and style of crockery used. Fashion also influences the type of crockery used.
For instance, some restaurants will choose to use oversize plates, whilst others might elect to use
square or rectangular plates-attractive presentations allowing for white space on the plate so that
the main ingredients are the focus of the presentation. Overcrowded plates-with too much food and
too many varieties of food are unattractive and unappealing. For this reason many restaurants will
choose to serve vegetables and salads or other accompaniment, as side dishes-in separate bowls or
on plates.
The lip of plates should always be clean. Spillages must be wiped with a clean paper towel.

It is currently fashionable, in some enterprises, to stack layers of food in the centre of a plate. This
leaves plenty of white space; however, it can make meals difficult for serving staff to carry-due to
instability-and can make eating the meals difficult because diners have to disassemble the food
before eating it. It also means that meat juices and sauces drip onto the food below making a soggy
and often very unappetising mess.

If you do choose to stack foods use common sense with the balancing of food and with the types of
foods included in the stack. For instance, curries should not be served on or over the accompanying
rice and if pappadums accompany the dish they should not be stacked under the rice or between the
rice and the curry. Customers do not wish to eat soggy, limp pappadums in order to satisfy some
chef's odd sense of design. If food must be stacked the ingredients and the sauces used should be
fairly light. AT -bone steak with pepper sauce, placed on top of a stack of chips will rapidly become an
unpalatable mess as the chips soak up the meat juices and the sauce.
Temperature

Food temperature contributes a great deal to the customer's enjoyment of the food. It is, therefore
important, to ensure that foods are served at the correct temperatures. This means that hot foods
should be served, collected and taken to the table promptly so they do not cool too much. Cold foods
should be served immediately and not left to warm-up at room temperature.
Hot food should be served on hot plates; cold food must be served on cold plates.

Some years ago there were fairly strict rules about positioning food on a plate. These days chefs
match the presentation of food to the restaurant theme and they use their imagination to make
attractive, interesting presentations. The important things to remember are that the foods served on
a plate must complement each other-not too many colours and textures that are the same and not
too much contrast.

Make foods attractive, but do not spoil the customer's eating pleasure by overdoing it. By plating
salads or vegetables alongside the food or by using appropriate garnishes, you can also add colour,
texture and height to make the meal attractive.