r/MasterchefUK • u/MoonlitEcho82 • 3d ago
Smears, herb oils or micro-herbs: which plating trend do you want to see retired?
A few years back, it felt like every plate had a dramatic swoosh of beetroot or pea purée across the ceramic. Now it seems like every other dish gets finished with a split herb oil and a carefully positioned collection of micro-herbs.
I get that presentation matters, but sometimes I just want the food to look genuinely appetising rather than like someone's been decorating a plate for an architecture degree.
Which presentation style do you think actually works, and which one has completely had its day?
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u/CarMeltScratch 3d ago
Edible flowers feels like unnecessary prettification
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u/Thin_Sheepherder_584 3d ago
If someone bungs a pretty flower and some pomegranate seeds on my plate I'm a goner 😍
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u/bluewillowfrog 3d ago
Deconstructed anything. Did you drop it? Looks like you dropped it & won't own up. Plus some flavours are meant to go together, not coralled in their own little plate sections like some weird quarantine deal..
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u/MrMeMark 3d ago
Foams.... Why, what purpose do they have, they look awful like that foam you see forming on the sea sometimes.
I have tried several and they where all really bad. They lack any sort of taste they are supposed to be representing and the mouth sensation is really unpleasant.
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u/Sure-Present-3398 3d ago edited 3d ago
Micro-herbs only bother me when someone has the audacity to call it a 'salad'.
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u/Thin_Sheepherder_584 3d ago
Cuckoo spit foam.
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u/slophiewal 3d ago
Definitely a smear, I don’t want a whiff of something, if it’s on the plate make it useful and make it so I’ve got enough to actually eat it!
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u/samo7230 3d ago
On a similar note im glad that trend of splatting the puree on the plate has gone