Just say no to the mini frying basket habit.

Now I do not know if it is just me but do we seem to be getting more and more stuff with the food that we order. You ask for fish and chips and you get a more than you would ever expect. I speak of the mini frying basket one for the fish and one for the chips, the mini bucket with the pea puree in it, or mushy peas to me, and a pot with some tartar sauce. All set on a wooden carving board, slate or textured plate to look like sand.

It is not that I do not appreciate the fact that this can enhance the visual presence of the plate but is it not just taking away the skills of the chef in his presentation and just putting things in to pots, all be it very nice pots.  Dose it not add to the cost of the meal as you have to purchase and clean all these things, and does it actually look the way it is supposed to after they have slid all over the plate as it was rushed to your table.

I remember once, when I was about 17, I was garnishing a load of racks of lamb for a table with sprigs of rosemary. I remember the head chef asking me what I was doing so I told him as best I could; I was making them look nice garnishing them.  So he asked me if I would like to eat a whole sprig of raw uncooked rosemary, hard woody stalk and all. I thought about it and decided that I would not, so he asked me to remove them and think of something else to put on the plate.  He latter explained to me that if you could not eat it then you should not put it on the plate.  Now that is sort of what happen, perhaps a little more to the point and slightly pithier.

Now I know that this is all well and good and now we have so many option of how to plate up something it is so bewildering you do not know where to start. But I do think it is time to hold back on the mini cooking pots, pans, frying baskets, buckets and any other thing that you can think of.  All we are doing is detracting from the food, spending too much money on little extras for the plate, and in the end who gains.

I am not saying they are wrong but use them sparingly, when you cook it is supposed to be about the food, not what it comes on or in.