by popular demand we are revisiting the
topic of sexy food trading first let's
talk sauce a few clever spoon drags and
your friends are guaranteed to whip out
their phones and tell the world what a
great chef you are the sauce is star of
our show today is a smoky red pepper
sauce here is a technique that works
well for sauces that are completely
smooth the thickness of your sauce can
range from a creamy soup to a stick as
Mayo put a dollop on a plate
wipe the back of the spoon and drag it
through the sauce make sure the spoon
goes all the way down to the plates it
can leave a trail otherwise you might
get something that looks more like this
the drag can be straight or curved
depending on your composition when you
are learning to do this get a bunch of
plates and experiment you can return the
sauce back to the pot so none of it is
wasted here is another possibility drag
the spoon with the sauce quickly through
your plate in a lime circle or some
other shape to make this work only the
edge of the spoon should come in contact
with the plate see like this and it is
important to move quickly otherwise
you'll get blobs of sauce instead of
thin streaks here is the same technique
done in a zigzag pattern this one works
best on the fairly thin sauces they
shouldn't be any thicker than my soup
here but can be as thin as oil now let's
deal with our protein today that's going
to be seared scallops after cooking all
proteins release some juice and you
don't want to have this puddle in your
plate unless you're plating it in a bowl
with lots of cooking accompaniments that
can absorb all that moisture that's why
it is best to let your proteins rest on
a separate plate how long your protein
should rest depends on its size scallops
are small so two to three minutes will
do lots of warm colors and flavors in
our plate so we need to add something
green and cool for contrast this is a
fennel almond parsley salad I prefer to
use my hands when I plate it gives me
more control
utensils and doesn't bruise delicate
foods here's another little trick to
have up your sleeve microgreens you can
put them on a hot dog and it will look
like fine dining
you can scatter them around the plate or
pile them on top no extra work and the
big presentation points if you've never
seen microgreens before ask about them
at your local Whole Foods but we haven't
talked about the elephant in the room of
Santa plating if you run the restaurant
and you put your food in the middle of
the plate I'm sorry but you're just not
hip enough to tell you the truth I think
of Santa plating will look as ridiculous
in 30 years as the tall food does today
when the food is sitting on the rim of
my plate I get nervous that it might run
away I'll try to show you an off-center
example that this kind of fun but please
don't use it on cooked proteins they use
juice even if you rested them on a
separate plate and inevitably drips into
the center of the plate in a Center
plating that little bit of juice won't
be noticeable but an off-center plating
you might end up with a puddle being the
focal point of your plate to solve this
problem restaurants often dry your
cooked meats on a paper towel to prevent
them from dripping I don't know about
you but I'd rather have juicy meat in
the middle of the plate then dry meat
off Center for this example I'm plating
sliced raw scallops for an appetizer
layered with our fennel almond salad and
here you go a super hip off-center plate
speaking of slicing proteins it's always
a good idea to experiment with different
angles scallops look best slice straight
down but a chicken or duck breast turns
out better when sliced at an angle see
how my knife is not at a 90 degree angle
to the cutting board this is also a
great way to get nice wide pieces from a
skinny little skirt steak last but not
least if you want to try a new idea
sketch it on paper first did you know
that my previous
chan was usability engineering as you
can see I am still a strong proponent of
paper prototyping and please don't take
the stuff too seriously in the end of
the day I think it's all fluff but if
your job is in the food industry this
fluff just might be what makes you stay
in business want to know how to cook
this type we just plated here out the
videos don't forget to subscribe to
Helens kitchen channel and if you're
ever in the Boston area maybe I'll see
you in one of my classes