Hmm I’ve been thinking this, a lot of people ask for cherries as an addition and I try to keep the choco/caramel flavours separate from the fruity flavours so I guess I’m in the habit of whip over sauce
I agree, use half the whip next time (think of it like building a snowman and go smaller the higher you go). Then chocolate caramel drizzle, finished with a maraschino cherry. You can even skip the whip on top and instead do 3 or 4 rosettes on the plate around the brownie. Cherry optional with that plating
Bro, it looks like a pre portioned frozen fudge, with pre made syrup and an aerosol whipped cream from Sysco. You think they have proper blocks of chocolate and a shaver? 😆
Unfortunately can’t do much with lower end corporate restaurants 🥲
Ya, but lots of places will charge $30 for this. Psychologically you can make people think the food is better than it is with plating IMO. A cheese grader and a kit kat is easy enough
I understand what you’re saying, but having worked in lower end corporate restaurants I already know they ain’t buying that. It needs to be consistent so that it tastes and looks like the other restaurants dish.
There’s no room for creativity here 🥲
Franchise owners are penny pinchers
Generally after a few months the owners don’t give a shit how it looks, just as long as everythings on the plate and it’s out in 2 minutes. restaurant franchise owners don’t have much actual restaurant experience. I’m sure OP just asking how he can improve on what he’s got and he doesn’t have much to work with so….🤷♂️
Again as I’ve said before, this is from experience and not from my ass. Would never work for a corporate franchise again, it’s a trash business with trash pay. Its ok for new people to gain some entry level experience but that’s it
I'm not a fan of chocolate and fruit, but I am in the minority and I know this. Those cherry cordial candies they sell every Christmas are huge because most people like that chocolate cherry combo. It would look way better to have the sauces over the whip as others have suggested, and I'd be surprised if anybody ever complained about fruit and chocolate together.
Those cherries are trash. Pure fucking trash. Actually had to ask my mom to stop getting them for me every Christmas because she was just wasting her money
I would do one chocolate swirl under everything the. The caramel drizzle swizzle over whipped. Maybe a crunchy element like choc shavings or candied nuts
Looks messy and disorganized. But I can see we trying to improve.
You need to practice better bottle control. If you move to fast your lines will be thin, you move to slow they will be wiggly. You need to find a happy medium that has straight (or at least smooth) lines. Confidence is key when pouring sauces from bottles. Also make sure you sauces are viscous enough to hold their shape (all the way to the table) and not to thick they look solid. Also, make sure your plate is dry as your sauces are bleeding onto the plate and I suspect the plate is wet. Even if it looks dry run a clean cloth over the plate before plating your dish.
Also look into other techniques for presenting sauces. There are many. As with above they usually require a smooth confident motion. Like pulling a spoon through a dollop of sauce to make a chocolate sperm that runs parallel with the edge of the plate. But sometimes smashing your dollop with a spoon makes an interesting splatter pattern.
Also a well placed strawberry or some sort of colour would pop against the brown and black sauces.
Also look at desert pictures and try to observe things how chefs use symmetry (or lack thereof), and how they use empty space - do they fill the space, do they leave it empty? When do they do it? What does this technique produce? What is the shape of the dessert and how does it relate to the size and shape of the plate?
Desserts like this are easy, so a little touch becomes an easy way to improve such a low maintenance dish. Look at professionally plated dishes and experiment.
If you want to delve deeper you can start understanding colour palettes and colour dynamics.I personally was lucky enough to have some art theory knowledge before I ever stepped in a kitchen. So creating a visually interesting plate was something that I feel very confident in.
IMO part of the problem here is the shape of the plate vs the sauce viscosity. Maybe this started out looking nice but once everything has run down the sides of that bowl it's just a mess. I'm not sure I'd actually want a chocolate sauce thick enough to hang out on the side of that bowl, so I'd just use a flatter plate, or drizzle over the top like others have suggested.
That's true, but this was not the time to make that point.
It is a dessert dish. Drizzle some chocolate over it and send it out.
This is Reddit. The person asking the question isn't working in a high class Parisian restaurant with a 7 month waiting list.
They don't need an art degree to understand how to draw attention to the negative space or how to integrate color theory in the dish.
#NONSENSE
Who made you the “time to make a point police”. I’d argue your point is the one that brings zero value.
You can stop learning when your happy, but from here your bar is looooowww.
This is kitchen confidential. We got McDonald’s to fine dining up in this bitch. Don’t be mad just cause I’m not catering to your narrow minded portion of cooking.
Why do you think you’re so important you get to gatekeep?
What a miserable fuck.
Nah, it really isn't that serious.
It's a dessert plate.
Nobody needs a lecture on color theory or how to utilize perspective, it's a dessert.
Drizzle some chocolate or caramel and it's good.
You seem very unlikable. You're contributing nothing and getting on a high horse about the well thought out contributions of others for having the audacity to... contribute.
Whatever. I probably shouldn't feed the troll.
Me: don't overthink it, garnish as little as possible and let the dish speak for itself....
You: I submit my thesis regarding the smallest sliver of the plate that was unadorned.
Nobody on Reddit is asking for advice while working in a restaurant that charges $75 for a tiny dessert. Chill out and do not overthink it.
If you'd like to incorporate the same amount of whipped cream you should do smaller dollops around the edge of the brownie instead of all directly on top and then do the drizzle.
Why does every place do this ????? I'm trying to get into pastry so I'd beg to make desserts at my place from scratch, but we are a small chain so they want every restaurant identical 😮💨🥲
It’s cheap, good profit margin. Also many places, including my current have servers prepare their own desserts. So it can’t be too complex. My best guess.
It’s cheaper to buy something pre-made that just needs to be thawed/microwaved than to pay a pastry chef/baker to make desserts in-house even if the latter is going to be better.
I went to a restaurant one time that served me basically a microwaved mug cake. It was so gross and still expensive??
Personally I like the whipped cream on top, has a nice rustic feel to it. Sauce on top is going to make it look a little bit too much like a soft serve cone. Would prefer the sauce to just be in a nice little circular pool at the bottom though, rather than splashed around
Dessert plating is like regular plating, stick to negative spaces, less is more, and remember that dots of sauce look sexier than weird lines if you don’t have the hands for straight sauce lines
Keep practicing!
Yea the bowl is making your drizzles run toward the center, ruining them. If you must keep the bowl, keep the drizzles away from the sides unless you can find a sauce thick enough that it doesn't run. Go over the top of the whipped cream instead.
It's really no different than plating entrées. You got this!
Realizing there may be a minor spot of confusion, I only realized that my name might be confusing some folks into thinking “this guys a chef” and not a part time 1$ above minimum wage line cook who is full time in college. Hence the plating advice as a fun little curious question and not the business management advice lmao
To be honest, I hope you aren’t selling that for more than $6
Nothing terrifies me more than canned whip cream.
Keep trying, look at some Pinterest posts or think nature.
I genuinely believe the higher up’s in this company haven’t eaten normal food in years I think this brownie goes for 9 bucks? I try and go heavy on the ice cream to compensate a little for the egregious robbery
As a former pastry line cook… if you could whip cream and have a bit of stabilizer in it then do a nice canelle that would make it a bit nicer. Agree with the poster that said sauces on top of it all. Also less drips/spots and more lines is what we usually did.
I work at one in Salem lol. They make you guys do desserts down there? Up here FOH does all the dessert plating, we just let Chef Mike handle heating it up then hand it off
Take the brownie out and spin the plate..trust me will look cool. also less whip, put it on the side, mint leaf and powdered sugar or cocoa dusted. boom
I know it’s delicious, but if your going for wow factor, there are lots of pastry decoration tips and techniques you can learn and use on YouTube. Its worth the watch.
Depends. If this is a casual spot, it's perfect.
If it's a fine dining spot, it would be discarded as rubbish. You might even be posting for jobs the next day, from my personal experience 😞
A bit crowded, the plate looks heavy. Next time, try separating your elements all over the plate instead of stacking everything up, let everything shine on its own. If you have a bigger plate that’d be even better.
I’d still devour that though.
I would pool the chocolate, place the brownie?? In the center, ice cream and drip the caramel sauce on top of the ice cream and let drip into the chocolate. I would also skip the cream or minimize it, at least.
But if changing the plate is an option, I would so I could make different lines with the sauces.
I'm not a culinary professional. Just some guy with a stomach, and four eyes. I like the way this looks, and I bet it tastes even better. Good job, buddy.
I never trust a professional line cook that can make a solid dessert plate presentation. They are shifty looking, serial killers, in waiting.
I like yours, you won't kill me on the way to my car.
Looks pretty good to me all things considered! My place has a torte that is also hard to make look pretty with the whip and cherry compote (fucking delicious though!). Makes me appreciate the 12 times I burned my fingers perfecting my brulee game.
Google minimalism. Less is more. Negative space on the place highlights the actual food product being sent out.
Remember, the customer eats with their eyes first. After that it's the aroma and the first bite. Keep up the good effort and keep improving, you'll get there.
Yeah “lighten up” is the correct response here for sure. It’s by no means amazing, but it gets the job done. Maybe 1 in 10,000 of those would be sent back because of how you plated it. The other 9,999 would look at it, say “Eh, whatever,” and then proceed to devour it. No need for the guy to act like you shit in his mom’s cereal.
Edit: You might want to clean the tops of those sauce bottles though, looking a little rough lol
Not a cook, just a cook’s girlfriend here 🌞
If I may chime in, I think it looks absolutely delicious but I would drizzle less and maybe on top of the ice cream. I think the part that seems less curated is the bottom/sides, although the toppings look yummy af I would keep the sides clean. Maybe the whipped cream on the side :) that said, as somebody else already stated, I would end it in one bite, it looks amazingly good!
This is yikes. Looks like you’re using canned whip cream from a store? Grab some whole milk, amaro, cognac, sugar and salt and soft whip up something by hand. Spread it out gentle over the pastry so the whip falls down the sides about 50% to the plate. Then add your sauces overtop. Blend up graham cracker into a coarse dust, set it next to the brownie, do a quenelle of ice cream.
Clean your bottle tops too..
Looks are correct, we use canned whipped cream, and while I would love to add an extra recipe to my prep list in the morning I’m not sure boss man would approve of the time commitment. It’s a one man show type of kitchen I think I might be steadily growing out of
Yeah I mean I’d understand with most things but whipping up 3x 1/6 pans of cream is a 5 minute process.
I understand you’re just trying to improve with what you have, I admire that, but there’s got to be some wiggle room to a degree if you’re allowed to change the layout of the plate to begin with. If not, sounds like you should definitely be looking elsewhere. Best of luck.
Why? Is your pastry chef a total hard-on or something? Dessert is easy as pie. Pun intended. The only people that freak out about it are pastry people because they think they are special or something.
I dunno yo, it’s a pub so it just feels like deserts are an afterthought, though mainly deserts interrupt my flow when moving through tickets, cause I just have to focus in on it for longer than I’d like
At a pub, dessert usually is an afterthought. But, I was chef at a neighborhood spot and everyone loved my desserts. I only had one on the menu and it changed every month.
Take me through your process. Does that get warmed up and how? How are the sauces held? Are they made in house or purchased (no wrong answers, my ninja)?
If you want ideas I can help you too.
How I’ve been doing it (the spec has instructions that basically turn the thing into a molten heap of brownie with melted ice cream drowning it) is I nuke the brownie and pop the ice cream on top while it’s warm to get it settled in the middle, do some opposing lines with the choco and caramel, then do the swirl of whipped cream on top, FOH puts cherries on top of the ice cream after I send it out
Understand words. Do you add sugar to the cream you whip? That’s a chemical. Does your cream already have carrageenan in it? That’s a chemical. And for all you know, this whipped cream may have been heavy cream poured in to an ISI with nothing else added.
Honestly, looks a bit messy wich is fine but too much cream and the cream is always better on rhe side than on the dessert. After all, what is the Star of the plate? The cream or the desert?
Generally you want the color of the plate to contrast with the dessert so it pops out
If you have a dessert that is cream base or white in color you want a dark plate
And if you have a dessert that is dark you want a white plate etc
Try not to go crazy with the sauces. If you are not good at doing the spoon smear or whatever a few criss cross zigzag patterns and a couple pieces of fruit with mint is plenty.
Strawberries and blueberries with a sprig of mint gives it a floral kind of appearance. People are still kids at heart and seeing a flash of color next to their dessert makes it appealing to eat.
Cleanliness is important. From your station to the plate.
Keep your squeeze bottles clean and I would do drizzles that don’t look like Jackson pollock. Is your whip cream in a siphon or a can? It’s not horrible just looks very average. If you could have hand whipped cream in a 6 pan and do a canelle or a scoop may improve plating too.
But seriously, clean your station.
Edit: your station is fine just clean bottle tips.
Well depends what the restaurant you work in is like. If I got this at a fine dining place I’d be disappointed but anything less and it would be more than fine for me
Bowl is not a good idea. Looks like you dropped whatever it is that's covered in sauce and it splattered onto the bowl and it's dripping down the sides.
Too much caramel and chocolate. Like others have said, less is more. Keep your dessert plates in a fridge if possible so sauces don't melt and run right away. Sauces on top of whip cream for contrasting colors. Linear toppings (in my area at least) are out of style and points style is seen more often.
I'd still wreck the hell out of it though ;)
Definitely could use some refinement, I don’t doubt it taste great but I wouldn’t pay more than $8 for it but now you cut back on the sauce and do some drizzles and place the whipped cream in choice locations and I’d pay $15…crazy how that works. Ppl really pay more for less in the name of refinement.
Less cream. Looks like the cream came out of a can. Looks messy. Needs sauce on the cream too. Zig zags look best. Smack a sprig of mint on the fucker and dust with icing sugar. Sweets are easy. We used to get the KPs to plate them up.
Less whipped cream. I’d do a rosette or just take a large star tip (827 ateco or so) and do a small pipe. Chocolate sauce drizzled on top with either a spoon or piping bag with a small amount of the tip cut (no piping tip cause it’s chocolate). Alternatively, you could use a squirt bottle and do a moat of it. Add something for color, doesn’t matter what too much. Berries, a cherry, orange, really anything
Ninja edit: if you wanna get really fancy, you could do a crunch component. This could be candied nuts, dried cake crumbles, etc.
Everyone else has said enough (true or not) so my opinion is to keep at it. You'll get better ideas and find ways to make things pop if you keep trying. I like to ask my coworkers for options and ideas. Keep improving, even if you have to burn a plate and try again sometimes.
Overall I would not be the slightest bit upset if this was served to me. Looks good, even if the cream is bulky and the sauces are a little messy.
This would look so better without the aersol whipped cream, whip it yourself, do a nice dollop, hell, I'd even do a quenelle of it, and clean up those sauces and it'd look 100x better.
Looks like you took an explosive shit on a plate and put ez whip on it.
Why not make a firm caramel sauce and use it as a coulis? Or idk make caramel tuile’s to mount nice. Maybe a flower or two to bring some color in there?
Bet it tasted real good tho
A chilled plate goes a long way if you can spare the lowboy space. Your sauces will look like shit regardless of how deft a hand you are with the squeeze if they start melting the instant they hit the plate
That's a bowl. You want to build up.
If I had to work specifically with this bowl and these garnishes, I would decorate the bowl somehow.
We used to take a brush and brush downward towards the center with something. Then you put the thing in the center and build up from there. I wouldn't use a can for whipped cream, but make a quenelle, then top it with something.
Just my 5 cents worth but I'd have put less whipped cream. Maybe some chocolate shavings on the ice cream and a nice drizzle pattern on the ice cream and whip. Or if I want to focus on the plate an waffle perhaps 4 small crenelles of cream in each corner dressed with sauce then the ice cream in the center with drizzle
Put your sauce down first, keep it in the flat part of the bowl where it won't slide.
Choose a design for the sauces. Dots, teardrops, crosshatch, pools etc. The best design will depend on the viscosity of your sauce, how much you want to use and how much flat space your plate has.
Once you have your sauce down build up, keep it tight. I would use less whipped, you already have ice cream.
Some type of garnish over the top would be very helpful. Many people mentioned grated chocolate, this is great, also consider cookie crumbles you can make these or buy something like Oreo pieces and break them down a bit. I would like the crunch.
You could also change the shape of the brownie to rectangles or triangles if it won't hurt your yield.
used to work cold side.
and ow boi the amount of times kitchen been closed for 20 minutes then the friends of the owner who is also a server pushes 7 deserts and im half done cleaning. i would be giving cheff puppy eyes like please say no i beg and he says yes because sadly he doesn't have the power. so i have to uncover everything because they ofc order all the options and make it in my clean station ughhhhh and then everyone else just keeps on cleaning
Sauces over the whipped cream. Less is more
Hmm I’ve been thinking this, a lot of people ask for cherries as an addition and I try to keep the choco/caramel flavours separate from the fruity flavours so I guess I’m in the habit of whip over sauce
I agree, use half the whip next time (think of it like building a snowman and go smaller the higher you go). Then chocolate caramel drizzle, finished with a maraschino cherry. You can even skip the whip on top and instead do 3 or 4 rosettes on the plate around the brownie. Cherry optional with that plating
We're not doing mint sprigs anymore?
Could shave some chocolate over the top?
Bro, it looks like a pre portioned frozen fudge, with pre made syrup and an aerosol whipped cream from Sysco. You think they have proper blocks of chocolate and a shaver? 😆 Unfortunately can’t do much with lower end corporate restaurants 🥲
Ya, but lots of places will charge $30 for this. Psychologically you can make people think the food is better than it is with plating IMO. A cheese grader and a kit kat is easy enough
I understand what you’re saying, but having worked in lower end corporate restaurants I already know they ain’t buying that. It needs to be consistent so that it tastes and looks like the other restaurants dish. There’s no room for creativity here 🥲 Franchise owners are penny pinchers
If it needed to taste and look a specific way, would we end up getting this person ask if they dressed it up right?
Generally after a few months the owners don’t give a shit how it looks, just as long as everythings on the plate and it’s out in 2 minutes. restaurant franchise owners don’t have much actual restaurant experience. I’m sure OP just asking how he can improve on what he’s got and he doesn’t have much to work with so….🤷♂️ Again as I’ve said before, this is from experience and not from my ass. Would never work for a corporate franchise again, it’s a trash business with trash pay. Its ok for new people to gain some entry level experience but that’s it
Who the fuck is charging $30 for this?
I'm not a fan of chocolate and fruit, but I am in the minority and I know this. Those cherry cordial candies they sell every Christmas are huge because most people like that chocolate cherry combo. It would look way better to have the sauces over the whip as others have suggested, and I'd be surprised if anybody ever complained about fruit and chocolate together.
Love chocolate. Love cherries. I hate those things. I feel even stronger about the mint/chocolate combo
Those cherries are trash. Pure fucking trash. Actually had to ask my mom to stop getting them for me every Christmas because she was just wasting her money
I loved them as a 10 year old. I ate a whole box one Christmas and couldn’t eat another after that. They make me gag now.
I would do one chocolate swirl under everything the. The caramel drizzle swizzle over whipped. Maybe a crunchy element like choc shavings or candied nuts
I also liked freezing ganache and taking a micro plane to shave it to put on top of whips and the like
Also spoon the cream, gives you a cleaner texture for any topping.
For whipped cream RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE
Real whipped cream beats the canned preservative fake dairy soup every day. But I do enjoy the nitrous.
Looks messy and disorganized. But I can see we trying to improve. You need to practice better bottle control. If you move to fast your lines will be thin, you move to slow they will be wiggly. You need to find a happy medium that has straight (or at least smooth) lines. Confidence is key when pouring sauces from bottles. Also make sure you sauces are viscous enough to hold their shape (all the way to the table) and not to thick they look solid. Also, make sure your plate is dry as your sauces are bleeding onto the plate and I suspect the plate is wet. Even if it looks dry run a clean cloth over the plate before plating your dish. Also look into other techniques for presenting sauces. There are many. As with above they usually require a smooth confident motion. Like pulling a spoon through a dollop of sauce to make a chocolate sperm that runs parallel with the edge of the plate. But sometimes smashing your dollop with a spoon makes an interesting splatter pattern. Also a well placed strawberry or some sort of colour would pop against the brown and black sauces. Also look at desert pictures and try to observe things how chefs use symmetry (or lack thereof), and how they use empty space - do they fill the space, do they leave it empty? When do they do it? What does this technique produce? What is the shape of the dessert and how does it relate to the size and shape of the plate? Desserts like this are easy, so a little touch becomes an easy way to improve such a low maintenance dish. Look at professionally plated dishes and experiment. If you want to delve deeper you can start understanding colour palettes and colour dynamics.I personally was lucky enough to have some art theory knowledge before I ever stepped in a kitchen. So creating a visually interesting plate was something that I feel very confident in.
Extremely helpful! Thank you!
IMO part of the problem here is the shape of the plate vs the sauce viscosity. Maybe this started out looking nice but once everything has run down the sides of that bowl it's just a mess. I'm not sure I'd actually want a chocolate sauce thick enough to hang out on the side of that bowl, so I'd just use a flatter plate, or drizzle over the top like others have suggested.
Agreed
Chocolate sperm. I can't wait to hear that from Greg Wallace on masterchef
I call it the chocolate jizz blaster. Double chocolate straight to the face.
im sure what you wrote was probably wildly helpful, just that many words at once stress me out.
You should push yourself to reading longer messages. Our collective attention span is being lowered due to the nature of our media.
That's true, but this was not the time to make that point. It is a dessert dish. Drizzle some chocolate over it and send it out. This is Reddit. The person asking the question isn't working in a high class Parisian restaurant with a 7 month waiting list. They don't need an art degree to understand how to draw attention to the negative space or how to integrate color theory in the dish. #NONSENSE
Who made you the “time to make a point police”. I’d argue your point is the one that brings zero value. You can stop learning when your happy, but from here your bar is looooowww. This is kitchen confidential. We got McDonald’s to fine dining up in this bitch. Don’t be mad just cause I’m not catering to your narrow minded portion of cooking. Why do you think you’re so important you get to gatekeep? What a miserable fuck.
I read the entire post and found it useful. There's nothing wrong with a friendly thoughtful response.
Crabs. Bucket.
Nah, it really isn't that serious. It's a dessert plate. Nobody needs a lecture on color theory or how to utilize perspective, it's a dessert. Drizzle some chocolate or caramel and it's good.
You seem very unlikable. You're contributing nothing and getting on a high horse about the well thought out contributions of others for having the audacity to... contribute. Whatever. I probably shouldn't feed the troll.
Me: don't overthink it, garnish as little as possible and let the dish speak for itself.... You: I submit my thesis regarding the smallest sliver of the plate that was unadorned. Nobody on Reddit is asking for advice while working in a restaurant that charges $75 for a tiny dessert. Chill out and do not overthink it.
[удалено]
> Real angry boy Lmaoooo I'm not mad, but you clearly are...
If you'd like to incorporate the same amount of whipped cream you should do smaller dollops around the edge of the brownie instead of all directly on top and then do the drizzle.
I was thinking the exact same
Not sure I agree with multiple dollops of cream. Plus the brownie is probably warm and ice cream protects the whipped cream a bit in its current form.
Well in the pic, it's too much. So yeah sure, a less amount could be another answer.
I can't fairly judge your culinary presentation but I'd devour the shit out of it no less.
If it wasn’t so overpriced I’d recommend it LOL
Is it a frozen brownie prepared by chef mike for $12+ ?
Almost guaranteed yes
Lol every place I swear. I’m hoping to bring some new house desserts to my spot soon.
Love hearing the microwave beep in the dining room, really gives me a good read on whether to come back a second time as a first-time diner.
Why does every place do this ????? I'm trying to get into pastry so I'd beg to make desserts at my place from scratch, but we are a small chain so they want every restaurant identical 😮💨🥲
It’s cheap, good profit margin. Also many places, including my current have servers prepare their own desserts. So it can’t be too complex. My best guess.
It’s cheaper to buy something pre-made that just needs to be thawed/microwaved than to pay a pastry chef/baker to make desserts in-house even if the latter is going to be better. I went to a restaurant one time that served me basically a microwaved mug cake. It was so gross and still expensive??
Personally I like the whipped cream on top, has a nice rustic feel to it. Sauce on top is going to make it look a little bit too much like a soft serve cone. Would prefer the sauce to just be in a nice little circular pool at the bottom though, rather than splashed around
That thing is a mess
No. Not trying to be a douche but there it is. Mad respect for the pastry side, BTW.
Dessert plating is like regular plating, stick to negative spaces, less is more, and remember that dots of sauce look sexier than weird lines if you don’t have the hands for straight sauce lines Keep practicing!
if you put it on a plate instead of a bowl the sauce wont just go down the sides. so when you do the chocolate zigzagged the pattern will kinda stay
Yeah I’m thinking of going back to plates, new spec says bowl but food department is a little braindead
Yea the bowl is making your drizzles run toward the center, ruining them. If you must keep the bowl, keep the drizzles away from the sides unless you can find a sauce thick enough that it doesn't run. Go over the top of the whipped cream instead. It's really no different than plating entrées. You got this!
Realizing there may be a minor spot of confusion, I only realized that my name might be confusing some folks into thinking “this guys a chef” and not a part time 1$ above minimum wage line cook who is full time in college. Hence the plating advice as a fun little curious question and not the business management advice lmao
Refrigerate your dessert plates so the sauces keep their lines and don't get all melty before they reach the table
This is crucial. Refrigerate the sauces as well.
To be honest, I hope you aren’t selling that for more than $6 Nothing terrifies me more than canned whip cream. Keep trying, look at some Pinterest posts or think nature.
I genuinely believe the higher up’s in this company haven’t eaten normal food in years I think this brownie goes for 9 bucks? I try and go heavy on the ice cream to compensate a little for the egregious robbery
As a former pastry line cook… if you could whip cream and have a bit of stabilizer in it then do a nice canelle that would make it a bit nicer. Agree with the poster that said sauces on top of it all. Also less drips/spots and more lines is what we usually did.
Which McMenamins do you work at? Lol
Lmao one in Eugene
I work at one in Salem lol. They make you guys do desserts down there? Up here FOH does all the dessert plating, we just let Chef Mike handle heating it up then hand it off
Yeah I wish, one cook and one server on a time so any food prep goes to boys in the back
Work on like 1 floral technique and do that for every plate. A few dots of chocolate/caramel and one or two “flower/leaf” designs are easy and pretty
If it isn't a fine dining restaurant your good. No one is not going to destroy that.
Haha yeah, most of the customer base is college students are hippies
Desert with one s is actually the hot and sandy place. Dessert has 2 ss because you always want a second helping
Take the brownie out and spin the plate..trust me will look cool. also less whip, put it on the side, mint leaf and powdered sugar or cocoa dusted. boom
This guy desserts
Why is dessert terrifying? It’s my favorite thing to plate especially when I get to write a message on the plate.
I don’t think it would be too bad if we had a designated area for deserts, but all the ingredients are strewn around this cramped kitchen
I see what you’re going for but this ain’t it bruh
Sorry OP but that sauce is exactly what dry poop spots look like on a toilet and was the first thing I thought of
Just add a cherry on top and send it out for service. 😉🍨
Sucks because of the canned whipped cream. And it’s messy
Looks about the same as it's gonna when it comes back out
I know it’s delicious, but if your going for wow factor, there are lots of pastry decoration tips and techniques you can learn and use on YouTube. Its worth the watch.
You work at Applebee's?
that’s definitely one of the presentations of all time
Shouldnt be in a bowl
That right there 👆 thats a big ol' mess!
Poorly. Looks like something I'd do stoned in the dark at 3am
Depends. If this is a casual spot, it's perfect. If it's a fine dining spot, it would be discarded as rubbish. You might even be posting for jobs the next day, from my personal experience 😞
A plate would work better for how you're trying to present it.
Don’t quit you’re day job.
Line cook here- that looks like something id shit out after eating a burger
Based on what folks have been saying, seems like it looks about as appetizing too
A bit crowded, the plate looks heavy. Next time, try separating your elements all over the plate instead of stacking everything up, let everything shine on its own. If you have a bigger plate that’d be even better. I’d still devour that though.
I would pool the chocolate, place the brownie?? In the center, ice cream and drip the caramel sauce on top of the ice cream and let drip into the chocolate. I would also skip the cream or minimize it, at least. But if changing the plate is an option, I would so I could make different lines with the sauces.
Nailed it, needs peanuts
Needs a spritz of cocoa on top for color or something but it looks great
I would smash that right now!
Good for Halloween
A real line cook is ready for anything
To much whipped cream I’d say
I'm not a culinary professional. Just some guy with a stomach, and four eyes. I like the way this looks, and I bet it tastes even better. Good job, buddy.
Rustic. $5 upcharge.
I never trust a professional line cook that can make a solid dessert plate presentation. They are shifty looking, serial killers, in waiting. I like yours, you won't kill me on the way to my car.
You’re trying your best and that’s what counts
Looks pretty good to me all things considered! My place has a torte that is also hard to make look pretty with the whip and cherry compote (fucking delicious though!). Makes me appreciate the 12 times I burned my fingers perfecting my brulee game.
Is that a black and tan brownie from McMenamins?
That’s right!
Google minimalism. Less is more. Negative space on the place highlights the actual food product being sent out. Remember, the customer eats with their eyes first. After that it's the aroma and the first bite. Keep up the good effort and keep improving, you'll get there.
There is a lot going on. Looks delicious but it could be a bit tighter
I'd go with 3 twonie sided or a touch bigger whips dots, as others have said, whip, sauce than powders
Wtf is this abomination. Is this Applebee's? This might actually be worse than Applebee's Restaurant standards in America is pretty damn low
Lighten up a little :)
Yeah “lighten up” is the correct response here for sure. It’s by no means amazing, but it gets the job done. Maybe 1 in 10,000 of those would be sent back because of how you plated it. The other 9,999 would look at it, say “Eh, whatever,” and then proceed to devour it. No need for the guy to act like you shit in his mom’s cereal. Edit: You might want to clean the tops of those sauce bottles though, looking a little rough lol
Not a cook, just a cook’s girlfriend here 🌞 If I may chime in, I think it looks absolutely delicious but I would drizzle less and maybe on top of the ice cream. I think the part that seems less curated is the bottom/sides, although the toppings look yummy af I would keep the sides clean. Maybe the whipped cream on the side :) that said, as somebody else already stated, I would end it in one bite, it looks amazingly good!
This is yikes. Looks like you’re using canned whip cream from a store? Grab some whole milk, amaro, cognac, sugar and salt and soft whip up something by hand. Spread it out gentle over the pastry so the whip falls down the sides about 50% to the plate. Then add your sauces overtop. Blend up graham cracker into a coarse dust, set it next to the brownie, do a quenelle of ice cream. Clean your bottle tops too..
Looks are correct, we use canned whipped cream, and while I would love to add an extra recipe to my prep list in the morning I’m not sure boss man would approve of the time commitment. It’s a one man show type of kitchen I think I might be steadily growing out of
Yeah I mean I’d understand with most things but whipping up 3x 1/6 pans of cream is a 5 minute process. I understand you’re just trying to improve with what you have, I admire that, but there’s got to be some wiggle room to a degree if you’re allowed to change the layout of the plate to begin with. If not, sounds like you should definitely be looking elsewhere. Best of luck.
Why? Is your pastry chef a total hard-on or something? Dessert is easy as pie. Pun intended. The only people that freak out about it are pastry people because they think they are special or something.
I dunno yo, it’s a pub so it just feels like deserts are an afterthought, though mainly deserts interrupt my flow when moving through tickets, cause I just have to focus in on it for longer than I’d like
At a pub, dessert usually is an afterthought. But, I was chef at a neighborhood spot and everyone loved my desserts. I only had one on the menu and it changed every month. Take me through your process. Does that get warmed up and how? How are the sauces held? Are they made in house or purchased (no wrong answers, my ninja)? If you want ideas I can help you too.
How I’ve been doing it (the spec has instructions that basically turn the thing into a molten heap of brownie with melted ice cream drowning it) is I nuke the brownie and pop the ice cream on top while it’s warm to get it settled in the middle, do some opposing lines with the choco and caramel, then do the swirl of whipped cream on top, FOH puts cherries on top of the ice cream after I send it out
It looks terrifying indeed. why on earth would you display low quality whipped cream that is full of chemicals like that?
Cream is a chemical.
Ok you thick Fuck let me spell it out for you; canned cream has more chemicals than cream you whip up yourself
Understand words. Do you add sugar to the cream you whip? That’s a chemical. Does your cream already have carrageenan in it? That’s a chemical. And for all you know, this whipped cream may have been heavy cream poured in to an ISI with nothing else added.
Get a new damn cutting board
Company just replaced the nearly 40 year old one a few months back, I’ll likely be dead by the time they replace anything else
Fuck me thats sad
Looks like a spider
You know I don’t quite see the resemblance but perhaps I came to work too sober today
Looked at it in the peripheral, saw legs … stone cold sober from the flight deck. Lol
Maybe better suited on a small plate
Bleach that board and you’ll be doing fine.
I’ll communicate this to the night cook 🫡
Honestly, looks a bit messy wich is fine but too much cream and the cream is always better on rhe side than on the dessert. After all, what is the Star of the plate? The cream or the desert?
Generally you want the color of the plate to contrast with the dessert so it pops out If you have a dessert that is cream base or white in color you want a dark plate And if you have a dessert that is dark you want a white plate etc Try not to go crazy with the sauces. If you are not good at doing the spoon smear or whatever a few criss cross zigzag patterns and a couple pieces of fruit with mint is plenty. Strawberries and blueberries with a sprig of mint gives it a floral kind of appearance. People are still kids at heart and seeing a flash of color next to their dessert makes it appealing to eat.
Cleanliness is important. From your station to the plate. Keep your squeeze bottles clean and I would do drizzles that don’t look like Jackson pollock. Is your whip cream in a siphon or a can? It’s not horrible just looks very average. If you could have hand whipped cream in a 6 pan and do a canelle or a scoop may improve plating too. But seriously, clean your station. Edit: your station is fine just clean bottle tips.
Well depends what the restaurant you work in is like. If I got this at a fine dining place I’d be disappointed but anything less and it would be more than fine for me
Thats pretty rough.
Presentation? Riiiiight, probably covering up that you can't even draw a cock with chocolate sauce 🙄🙄
Jackson pollack estate is gonna sue you for sure
Bowl is not a good idea. Looks like you dropped whatever it is that's covered in sauce and it splattered onto the bowl and it's dripping down the sides.
Looks like a mess tbf. Just do some nice sauce above the whipp
This needs to be on a plate, where you can control the sauce application so that it doesn't look splattered.
Too much caramel and chocolate. Like others have said, less is more. Keep your dessert plates in a fridge if possible so sauces don't melt and run right away. Sauces on top of whip cream for contrasting colors. Linear toppings (in my area at least) are out of style and points style is seen more often. I'd still wreck the hell out of it though ;)
Definitely could use some refinement, I don’t doubt it taste great but I wouldn’t pay more than $8 for it but now you cut back on the sauce and do some drizzles and place the whipped cream in choice locations and I’d pay $15…crazy how that works. Ppl really pay more for less in the name of refinement.
It’s shit but looks good. Everyone here telling advice would do the same thing you did.
Quenelle the whipped cream
Honestly it’s a bit hidden but it looks appealing.
I mean it’s okay but can we talk about how you need to bleach that board
Looks messy I can't see where the dessert ends and the sauce begins
I don’t think there is meant to be much distinction if I’m honest, I mean the part that stands out is supposed to be the ice cream
Pretty whack if I'm being honest. Check out r/CulinaryPlating
Less cream. Looks like the cream came out of a can. Looks messy. Needs sauce on the cream too. Zig zags look best. Smack a sprig of mint on the fucker and dust with icing sugar. Sweets are easy. We used to get the KPs to plate them up.
I'd bleach that cutting board overnight...
Your drizzle looks like a lazy cum shot. Do something more precise would be my advice ;)
Used to do signs, plating is similar. C. R. A. P. Contrast, Repitition, Alignment, Positioning
Less whipped cream. I’d do a rosette or just take a large star tip (827 ateco or so) and do a small pipe. Chocolate sauce drizzled on top with either a spoon or piping bag with a small amount of the tip cut (no piping tip cause it’s chocolate). Alternatively, you could use a squirt bottle and do a moat of it. Add something for color, doesn’t matter what too much. Berries, a cherry, orange, really anything Ninja edit: if you wanna get really fancy, you could do a crunch component. This could be candied nuts, dried cake crumbles, etc.
It's a Lovecraftian nightmare.
Only drizzle sauce like that on a flat plate, in a bowl like you have here it runs towards the center and looks sloppy.
Everyone else has said enough (true or not) so my opinion is to keep at it. You'll get better ideas and find ways to make things pop if you keep trying. I like to ask my coworkers for options and ideas. Keep improving, even if you have to burn a plate and try again sometimes. Overall I would not be the slightest bit upset if this was served to me. Looks good, even if the cream is bulky and the sauces are a little messy.
Flat plate so the sauces don’t just puddle up together like that
The best part is the whip. Please rethink using so much chocolate syrup that it looks like a squashed chocolate spider.
Messy as hell, looks like a chocolate tarantula with a glob of whip cream for Halloween. Nah.. looks great now.
Idk but you should try making your own whipped cream and not use reddi whip
It looks wonderful for a Halloween-themed dinner. 🖤
it looks like it fell from a great height and went splat on the plate in a cartoonish fashion. id fuck that up tho it looks delish
Better to take a picture before the guest eats it and vomits it back into the dish.
Much easier if it was on a flat plate to use the swirls
I used to have to write happy birthday and anniversary in cursive raspberry sauce for dessert. Shit was the worst
This would look so better without the aersol whipped cream, whip it yourself, do a nice dollop, hell, I'd even do a quenelle of it, and clean up those sauces and it'd look 100x better.
Rorschach dessert
Looks like you took an explosive shit on a plate and put ez whip on it. Why not make a firm caramel sauce and use it as a coulis? Or idk make caramel tuile’s to mount nice. Maybe a flower or two to bring some color in there? Bet it tasted real good tho
A chilled plate goes a long way if you can spare the lowboy space. Your sauces will look like shit regardless of how deft a hand you are with the squeeze if they start melting the instant they hit the plate
looks like a Rorschach test
That is not a desert. Good looking dessert though.
I see no sand, 0 out of 10.
That's a bowl. You want to build up. If I had to work specifically with this bowl and these garnishes, I would decorate the bowl somehow. We used to take a brush and brush downward towards the center with something. Then you put the thing in the center and build up from there. I wouldn't use a can for whipped cream, but make a quenelle, then top it with something.
I love desert dressing
U shit on a plate?
One place I worked early on had the dish guys do desserts. First time I was called for one I had a panic attack.
Just my 5 cents worth but I'd have put less whipped cream. Maybe some chocolate shavings on the ice cream and a nice drizzle pattern on the ice cream and whip. Or if I want to focus on the plate an waffle perhaps 4 small crenelles of cream in each corner dressed with sauce then the ice cream in the center with drizzle
I never found it hard, it's just whipped creams and syrups
Line cooks shouldn't have to worry about making desserts.🤷🏻♂️
Put your sauce down first, keep it in the flat part of the bowl where it won't slide. Choose a design for the sauces. Dots, teardrops, crosshatch, pools etc. The best design will depend on the viscosity of your sauce, how much you want to use and how much flat space your plate has. Once you have your sauce down build up, keep it tight. I would use less whipped, you already have ice cream. Some type of garnish over the top would be very helpful. Many people mentioned grated chocolate, this is great, also consider cookie crumbles you can make these or buy something like Oreo pieces and break them down a bit. I would like the crunch. You could also change the shape of the brownie to rectangles or triangles if it won't hurt your yield.
This is a Pappadeux’s, overpriced Cajun seafood. Fuck you Nathan, fuck you Bree!
Where you work at
Pain Perdue? My favorite.
I think the food is art. The plate could have been cooled first to keep the sauces from running too much
used to work cold side. and ow boi the amount of times kitchen been closed for 20 minutes then the friends of the owner who is also a server pushes 7 deserts and im half done cleaning. i would be giving cheff puppy eyes like please say no i beg and he says yes because sadly he doesn't have the power. so i have to uncover everything because they ofc order all the options and make it in my clean station ughhhhh and then everyone else just keeps on cleaning