Unleashing Picasso

  The wonderful Chris had popped over for a visit and a spot of lunch. As I served him his plate I was reminded that his presence has an interesting effect on my cuisine. The last time I cooked for him, without and planning or forethought, I produced a meal that was way more 'fine dining' than my usual style.

  Today, for no particular reason, the same thing happened. I'm not averse to that style of cooking and I know that there is generally a bit more of a Wow! factor for whomever is dining, but it's not my default style. Anyway, something occurred to me as I was putting the food on our plates.

A feast for the eyes

  I've often said that there is a lot of opportunity to be creative when you're cooking and possibly the most obvious time is when you're decorating the plate. But what does that mean? With a pencil and a blank page anything can be drawn. With a brush then there are all sorts of paints that can be applied to paper or canvas. Clay can be moulded and stone can be chiseled away. So let's put food into that arena and see what happens.

​​​​​​​  Let's assume that you're not impressed with the fashion for serving meals on garden tools or on the back of a goat and you want to stay traditional with crockery. The plate or bowl is now your blank canvas. The food is your medium and though it has taste, temperature and texture, for the sake of this exercise we're going to forget about those for a moment and concentrate on the visual. Now you're going to decorate your plate.

  I'm not going to tell you what to do or how to do it because A), I'd never be so presumptuous to pretend I know anything. B) There is no right (or wrong) way, but mainly C) It's just about fucking around and enjoying yourself. Think about height as well as colour. Layering different elements and sprinkling, squirting or scattering things all over the place just because the fancy takes you. As usual, I'll ask you to send me pictures of your creations because nothing would make me prouder. 

Let the creativity commence!

  ​​​​​​​

Kirk out

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