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Food Presentation Secrets: Styling Techniques of Professionals
 
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Food Presentation Secrets: Styling Techniques of Professionals [Hardcover]

Cara Hobday (Author), Jo Denbury (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews) |
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Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2010

A practical guide to adding that professional flourish to any dish.

Food Presentation Secrets provides professional cooking school instruction, tips and recipes for more than 100 sweet and savory garnishing ideas. Using this comprehensive guide, any home chef can make professional-looking garnishes with delicious edible ingredients.

Five comprehensive sections reveal the techniques, tools, ingredients and designs used by chefs in fine restaurants. Step-by-step illustrations show how to assemble the garnishes, and each is graded in difficulty from one to five. Handy checklists, tip boxes and identifier directories explain the best ways to use the different garnishes.

The features include:

  • How and why to garnish, history of garnishing, modern garnish styles
  • Essential cooking tips and rules of presentation
  • The aesthetics of plate styles and shapes
  • Useful tools and essential knives
  • Core garnishing techniques using sauces, gravies, oils, salsas, pestos, foliage, flowers, fruit, vegetables, flour-based garnishes, dairy, sugars, pastries, ices, chocolate and textures

    Food Presentation Secrets rivals a professional culinary course and will give all cooks the confidence to create attractive designs for any type of menu.

    (20100924)

    • Frequently Bought Together

    Customers buy this book with The Book of Garnishes by June Budgen Paperback $9.86

    Food Presentation Secrets: Styling Techniques of Professionals + The Book of Garnishes
    Price For Both: $29.23

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    • This item: Food Presentation Secrets: Styling Techniques of Professionals by Cara Hobday Hardcover

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    • The Book of Garnishes by June Budgen Paperback

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      Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
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    Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

    Editorial Reviews

    Review

    The book lays out plating and cooking methods in methodical detail and accessible language, from radish roses to noodle nests. (Niesha Lofing Sacramento Bee 20100324)

    Recommended for large or specialized culinary collections...as a text in culinary schools [and] in the kitchen of the adventurous home cook. (Christine Bulson Library Journal 20100622)

    If you are ready to take your own cooking to an entirely new level, Hobday and Denbury will be your guides. (Terry Peters North Shore News 20101125)

    If you're looking to master fancy food presentation, these step-by-step guides can help you get the process down pat. (Ashley Gartland Oregonian )

    With a few basic skills, you too can serve food with flair and impress everyone. (Byron Eade Ottawa Citizen )

    About the Author

    Cara Hobday has been a professional food journalist and stylist for 14 years and is the author of a number of cookbooks. Jo Denbury is a freelance journalist, stylist and writer based in London, England.

    (20100825)

    Product Details

    • Hardcover: 176 pages
    • Publisher: Firefly Books; Spi edition (February 19, 2010)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 1554074916
    • ISBN-13: 978-1554074914
    • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches
    • Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
    • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
    • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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    More About the Author

    › Visit Amazon's Cara Hobday Page
    Cara Hobday
    Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

    Customer Reviews

    Most Helpful Customer Reviews
    39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
    Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
    My husband is a chef and I bought this for his use and for me to learn more about food presentation. The book's techniques for decoration and the illustrations are very good and helpful. They provide a lot of information and helped me imagine more and better ways to present the food. I would have rated this book higher but the recipes that are provided are wrong in many cases .

    We first noticed a problem when we were making the fruit in jelly dessert on page 101. My husband said it looked like it called for too much gelatin for the amount of liquid. He did some calculations on the quantities and was sure this was the case. We went ahead and followed the recipe to the letter and the jelly turned out extremely hard. Even cutting the amount of gelatin to half was still too much.

    We then made the tuile paste from page 162. When we baked it it turned into a runny, unusable mess. My husband then started going through several of the recipes and noticed more errors. For example, on page 164 the red bell pepper sauce recomends running it through a sieve withou mentioning the need to puree the ingredients first.

    I am lucky to have a professional chef in the house otherwise I would have been very frustrated trying to make the recipes and having them turn out "wrong" when in reality it is the book that has the errors.

    The book is still very useful but if you are not very experienced in the kitchen the errors may prove difficult to identify and overcome.
    Was this review helpful to you?
    24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
    Great for the amateur April 29, 2010
    Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
    I'm an amateur "chef"...meaning that I'm not trained but I definitely take cooking seriously. I picked this up with the idea that it'd do what it says it'll do: give amateurs creative ideas for plating. And well, it does just that. The step-by-step directions are a cinch to follow, and the photography of the procedures is excellent. I also have the impression that the ingredients being shown are not the ONLY ingredients that would work well with the detailed techniques. They state this is the case, and I believe them. The only reason I'm not giving this book a 5-star review is because it doesn't blow me away. It's great for what it is, but I don't believe it's the only book I'll ever need on plating.
    Comment | 
    Was this review helpful to you?
    21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
    By SJS
    Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
    As a person who gets many review copies of food-related books, I actually went out and bought this one after flipping through it at a bookstore. It's a great volume to have if you have no idea how to create little tidbits for food styling, and it will teach you how to create little flourishes like pastry rings, noodles nests, and fruit twists.

    I love that this book has step-by-step instructions with photos for over 100 techniques, and then a few pages on plating, etc. I wish there'd been more photos of plating, showing different styles and even setups that don't work and why, but what's here is really valuable.

    Not sure why that other person said the content wasn't good - I suppose if you already knew all of this then it wouldn't be worthwhile to read, but overall, it's a great book for beginning food stylists, home cooks, new chefs and especially, food bloggers who are trying to better their plating and food photography.
    Comment | 
    Was this review helpful to you?
    Most Recent Customer Reviews
    EXCELLENT PHOTOS OF FOOD PRESENTATION SECRETS!
    I cannot wait to try these techniques. I am super excited. Photos are wonderful! Highly recommended for those foodies out there such as myself. Read more
    Published 5 months ago by J. Hammer
    Fun food techniques
    Food Presentation Secrets collects lots of kitchen techniques that aren't secret but do add visual interest to your cooking. Read more
    Published 5 months ago by ThirstyBrooks
    THE BEST BOOK EVER!
    This is a FABULOUS book - tons of pictures and step-by-step instructions - a must for every kitchen! Read more
    Published 6 months ago by B. Smith
    Food Presentation...
    Many new and exciting ideas for all types of foods and deserts... It will take your food to the next level...
    Published 7 months ago by Chef Cupcake
    Great Book if your a chef
    I actually read this book in the library and decided to buy it.Great book great techniques, They use alot of French techniques that we use at the le cordon bleau.
    Published 8 months ago by Joseph Wright
    I was hoping for more
    I was surprised the book was fairly small; maybe 8" square. This was curious since I figured much of the content was the pictures of the work. Read more
    Published 15 months ago by Joesph A. Fearday
    Out dated and boring
    This had tricks for carving a tomatoe or radish - all tricks that are easily available online. Not that anyone would use a radish to garnish a plate anymore. Read more
    Published 16 months ago by T. Haiderali
    Not a comprehensive work but still very good
    I should begin by saying that I will probably never try a lot of the techniques in this book; many are more labor intensive than I would wish and a few require equipment (such as a... Read more
    Published 16 months ago by C. J. Thompson
    come on
    This book cost a fortune and at best it is for the novice. For what it delivers it should be 1/2 the price. Read more
    Published 23 months ago by Ms. E. Marie
    Poor content
    I got very disappointed when I received the book: the content is very poor, everything looks the same and there's nothing really exciting like "I'm gonna try this right now"... Read more
    Published 23 months ago by Graziella M. Siega
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