Plating

There are no hard and fast rules to how our meals at Cacio Pepe are to be plated. Plating food is an artistic interpretation, and everyone has a different sense of what looks good to their eye. Below you will find I have laid out some basic guidelines to how we would plate food in the restaurant. This is by no means how you have to plate food every time, but is a good general guideline to how it should work. All of our cooking instructions come with pictures of what we decided to go with in our plating style, but have fun with it, and create your own masterpiece. Also below I have illustrated some tricks of the trade in creating an artistic canvas, showing different methods of placing your puree on the plate. Please feel free to share your pictures, of your fully plated meals, with us on Instagram at #caciopepemeals

  • Place your puree on the plate, in whatever you way you see fit. (See puree chart underneath)
  • Place down your starch of the plate.
  • Next place your vegetables, in any fashion you would like.
    4. After you have placed your vegetables, this is when the protein of the plate goes down.
    5. And the final touch is the saucing and the garnish for your dish.
    Buon Appetito!

Puree Tools

tools used for plating puree in restaurants

Spoon, palate knife, brush, pastry scraper, paper towel.

plating puree on plate with spoon

Spoon

Dump the puree directly into the centre of the plate, take the back side of a spoon, and starting from the centre of the puree, make circles around until you have the desired size circle.

plating puree on plate swoosh spoon

Spoon


Place a large dollop of puree on the middle left of the plate, put the back side of a spoon at the far left of the puree, and making a semi circle motion, spread the puree out.

plating puree small dots

Bag



This method is basically using the bag the puree comes in, as a little piping bag. By cutting the very edge of the bag, pipe out the puree into desired sized dollops.

plating puree zig zag pattern

Bag



This is the same method as prior, but instead of different sized dots, we are just using lines, to cover the plate, and add a splash of colour.

plating puree pastry scraper

Pastry Scraper

Place a large spoonful of puree on the far left side of the plate, as long at the pastry scraper is.  Place the scraper at the far left side of the puree, and spread it across the plate.

plating puree palette knife

Palate Knife



This is the exact same method as the previous plate, adding a large spoonful of puree on the far left side of the plate, and dragging it across with the palate knife.

interesting way to plate puree on plate

Glass/Pot


This method is a cool artistic approach by pouring your puree into the centre of the plate in a round circle, then stamping a water glass, or pot on top, and pulling it up creating the pattern.

plating puree on plate 3 swooshes

Spoon




This is similar to the second method, where we use a spoon to put down a dollop of puree, while dragging the spoon in a semi circle motion to create the line.

plating puree on plate dots circles

Bag




Here again we use the puree pouch  as a tiny pasty bag, by cutting the very corner.  Start by making some large swirling motions to make circles around the plate, you can then go back in and add the dots.

plating clean lines puree on plate

Paper Towel



Here is if you want to make straight thin lines, or fine curved lines. by placing a dollop of puree on the plate, and running a paper towel from where it starts, to where you want it to end.

plating puree on plate multiple swooshes

Spoon


Here we use the spoon method, to place 5 dollops of puree on the plate and drag the spoon across them in a small semi circle to make the desired shape.



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plating puree on plate splash

Spoon

This method at Cacio Pepe is known as the hot mess. Place a large dollop of puree in the centre of the plate, and with the back of a spoon, slap it down on the middle of the puree. Viola! A beautiful artistic plate, and a colourful new paint job for your kitchen.