The Art of Plating

 Besides flavor of the meal, Japanese cuisine is very diligent and thoughtful when it comes to plating. They think about the balance, seasonality, space, arrangement, and the china when creating and plating a dish. With Japanese culture the belief in auspicious timing and symbols is incorporated within many things such as in food. 
With balance the importance of five senses and five colors ( red, blue, yellow, whites and black) is key in Japan as well as texture. Not just in Japanese cuisine but in all the appeal of odd numbers on a plate is preferred. With seasonality, the dish and the plating is thought through as to what represents the season and what ingredients are seasonal.  With winter we have cool colors like blue and brown, for autumn pink, orange, red, and gold and for spring we see colors like pink and white. In Japanese cuisine, there is a need for empty space (ma) when plating as it allows it to follow the minimalist of Japan. This empty space allows you to be intrigued it what is plated more.  The art of arrangement is another concept for plating in Japanese cuisine. There are rules when it comes to arrangement called moritsuke and with this there are different plating categories.  

-List of different types of arrangement obtained from class Powerpoint # 4- 

- Hiramori is the arrangement of food on a flat plane. Similar sizes and colors of food are placed together, in a slanted direction. 

- Tenmori is the final touch (using the kanji for ‘heaven’), which provides balance in flavor and appearance.

-Yama no katachi is a mounded, mountain-like arrangement; For sugimori, food is in a conical shape that resembles a cedar (sugi) tree.

- Kasane-mori is vertically layered arrangement

-Nagashi-mori is a mountain arrangement in a sunken vessel.

- Yosemori comprises two or three contrasting ingredients gathered centrally.

- Chirashimori is a ‘scattered’ arrangement and thought to be the most difficult as it relies on the ability of chef to balance aesthetics of random arrangements. 

-Sansui-mori is a landscape arrangement and may include metaphorical elements such as fanned slices of fish to indicate

 waves. 

-Sugata-mori is a ‘figurative’ arrangement, which is where a fish or other ingredient is placed in the shape of the original entity.

 The plates themselves are also thought out carefully, in a Japanese restaurant you will often see different sets of plating per season per dish that are different colors, sizes and colors.  

In this plating we see the components of different colors orange, green and white. The plate arrangement is a forrest in the background with the seafood as the people along the path. The plate was also thought through as the color white contrasts the items and the water droplets go with the idea of seafood being from water. 

Within class we utilized this component intensely, we own a wide variety of china. Even though chef is the one to choose the plating I can see the reasoning behind those plates and arrangement used. We often use the idea of a mountain in the back and then the trees and the people in the front. For example, we use it often with our clear broth soups, the clam, shrimp dumpling and normal miso soup. 

Work Cited 

“The Art of Japanese Plating: Dining: Metropolis Japan Japan.” Metropolis Japan, 20 Aug. 2018, metropolisjapan.com/art-japanese-plating/.

Powerpoint Day 4, Advanced Cuisine March 13, 2022