8 Introduction

What makes a worthy plated dessert? Many will argue presentation, complexity, or the type of plate it is served on are important factors. Texture is also critical in making a dish successful. Mushy apples would ruin an otherwise perfect apple pie, and how helpful is the granulated sugar garnish on the crust? But most will still agree that the most important factor in creating an exceptional plated dessert is flavour. Whether it is a simple slice of pie served in a casual restaurant, or an intricate, multicomponent dessert crafted for a fine dining establishment, flavour is what makes a dessert memorable.

Dessert plating styles are constantly changing and evolving thanks to today’s creative pastry chefs and cooks. Past trends included towering architectural assemblies that were impressive and beautiful to look at but were difficult to eat, or making complex designs on the rims of plates with squirts of sauce or dustings of cocoa or icing sugar (which often ended up on the diners’ sleeves). Gradually the trend has shifted back to focus on flavour, and we have discovered that great-looking and great-tasting desserts are obtainable without unnecessary complexity.

An important factor in the development of a plated dessert is to consider how it will work in relationship to the restaurant’s theme and menu. Desserts and dessert menus should be considered a continuation of the dining experience. It is essential to recognize that the dessert choices should not just be tacked on at the end of a meal without first thinking through the style of menu, the type of business (pastry shop, hotel, or restaurant; casual or high-end), and the clientele. You can make the most beautiful and flavourful food possible, but if it doesn’t sell, you are doing a disservice to the business owners and missing out on customer satisfaction. Desserts prepared with these concepts in mind are seen as products that will not only increase the average cheque but will also draw public attention to the establishment and to the creativity of the kitchen, thus bringing in more customers.

Because it is difficult to agree on how best to present a dessert, it is impossible to set down a list of hard-and-fast rules to follow. Therefore, in this section we discuss a number of ideas that influence chefs and cooks in their decisions and some of the factors to consider when planning a plated dessert.

Customers love desserts, but not all customers will order them. In most restaurants, perhaps 50% of the customers, at most, will have dessert. A majority of diners are simply too full to order a traditional full, large dessert, but they would welcome something a little sweet or something to share. Most customers who don’t order dessert might be interested if something light, refreshing, and intriguing were offered. Therefore, when planning for variety, don’t forget to include simpler, lighter options that will appeal to diners with smaller appetites. Having a cheese platter or perhaps a savoury dessert are popular options too.

There are two stages to the art of the baker or pastry chef: first, making and baking all the doughs, batters, fillings, creams, and sauces (with the correct techniques); and second, assembling these components into finished desserts and pastries. The same principle is applied to plating dessert presentations. A plated dessert is an arrangement of one or more components. For most desserts, all the components are prepared well in advance. A plated dessert itself, however, is assembled à la minute (at the last minute). All the components needed—including mousses, meringues, ice creams and sorbets, cookies, dough, cake layers, pastry cream, and dessert sauces—are used to make a presentation that is more than the sum of its parts.

When planning for a plated dessert, there are five characteristics that should be considered. Three apply to mouth feel and flavour, and are the most important:

• Flavour
• Texture
• Temperature

The other two are visual:

• Colour
• Shape

Flavours should enhance or complement each other, such as a caramel sauce served with roasted fruit, or offer a pleasing contrast, as a tart flavour (lemon) paired with a sauce that is sweetened. To achieve this, taste the components separately and then together to evaluate and make sure they work together.

Plan for pleasing combinations of texture and temperature. If the main item is soft, such as a mousse or ice cream, add a crisp or crunchy component such as small cookies or caramelized nuts for a texture contrast. Temperature contrasts are also pleasing, such as a scoop of ice cream with a warm fruit tart.

Visually, a variety of colours and shapes can be attractive, but be careful not to include too much or the result will come across as a jumble. The plate needs to be visually appealing. Through the balanced use of colour and shape, you can present a dessert simply and elegantly. Let the food speak for itself. Brown is a good colour, and a well-prepared dessert with a few shades of brown can look very appealing. A traditional tarte tatin, for example, needs little or no garnish to make it look appealing if the apples have been caramelized properly.

All of these elements together create a palette from which an infinite number of combinations affect you differently whenever you put food on your table. Chefs and, now more than ever, pastry chefs are always trying to push the senses to the limits in never-before-thought-of ways, but the underlying principles that make food taste good are unchanged. Here is a short summary:

• Variety and diversity in textures and the elements of taste make for interesting food; avoid monotony.
• Contrast is as important as harmony, but avoid extremes and imbalance.
• Food that comes from the same place (time/season or location) usually works together.
• Fresh and ripe rules every time.

Let’s now walk through the process of deciding on and preparing a finished dish.

Step 1: Visualize

When deciding what to make, you need to draw on what you have to work with. Consider the following:

• Available ingredients: what do I have, or what can I get now?
• Past experiences: what worked, what didn’t, likes, dislikes, etc.
• Olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) memory: picture in your mind how something will taste or smell.
• Sensory triggers: what catches your eye, or what smell, sound, or feel of a raw ingredient gets you thinking of an idea?

Step 2: Flavour profile

Once you have the basic idea or main ingredients in mind, think of the flavour profile.

There are a number of elements making up all of the things you taste, depending on your cultural background, but essentially there are only a handful of elements that compose all of the taste profiles. Western definitions traditionally break taste into four major elements:

• Salty
• Sweet
• Sour
• Bitter

Asian cultures have added the following to the list:

• Umami (literally, “pleasant savoury taste”)
• Spiciness
• Astringency

Step 3: Introduce the other senses

The other senses contribute to the overall experience in a variety of ways. Imagine if food didn’t have the following attributes, which in many cases provide our first impressions, lasting memories, and overall like or dislike of a certain dish or dining experience:

• Temperature: both real and perceived (such as mint as a cooling sensation or spice as heat)
• Colour: use a wide palette
• Shape: create visual interest
• Texture: some of each creates contrast
• Mouth feel: dry, fat, rich
• Smells: avoid overpowering or distracting
• Sound: noisy, difficult foods may spoil a mood or setting

And always try to remember a few guidelines as you go along:

• Think outside the box; try new things.
• Too much of anything is never a good idea.
• Great dishes hit on multiple senses in a variety of ways.
• Look to classic combinations for inspiration, then make logical leaps. If flavours work together in one context, they will do so in another. A great example of this is the recent trend of bringing savoury pantry items into desserts.