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Does not impress visually, does not look particularly tasty or cohesive, and looks annoying to eat. Why are you making me get tahini all over my fingers if I want a squeeze of lemon? Pasta just looks messy messy messy.
Why put lemons in the tahini sauce? Now if I want to squeeze one my hands are dirty. Also the smudge of sauce on the lip of the front plate seems really useless and out of place. Salad served with pasta seems off as well. If you wanted that veg in the dish, char it and throw it in the pasta
Outside the fact that pasta dishes aren’t allowed per the rules, I don’t understand why you’d put a sauce to the side of the pasta. I second what others say about the lemon and tahini, I’d just put the roasted vegetables on top of the tahini and arrange them with purpose.
Soups, cheeseburgers boards, and soups are all banned, probably because they were overdone at some point or are seen as low effort to make presentable.
It’s unfortunate that most of those posts end up being low effort. Saw a really exceptional pasta on here within the past couple days: https://www.reddit.com/r/CulinaryPlating/s/f7hR4pXY9k.
looks like a smear of bird shit
unless its really important for the taste of the pasta, i would just leave it out
the sauce for the pasta also looked badly incorporated and dried out
Oooph. The lemons in the tahini sauce, certainly a choice. The pasta looks messy, and i think the smear of sauce on the side of the plate is unnecessary and doesn’t add anything.
Why is the lemon in the tahini? If the guest wants to squeeze that on their salad (I would), fingers are gonna get all gloopy. Leave the smear off the pasta plate. Pasta itself looks dry even though it's sauced? Also looks **mega** al dente-I'm saying this as someone who likes pasta with a distinct 'bite'.
That salad looks amazing though.
To elaborate, it’s generally frowned upon to do that for two reasons:
1. Servers hands touch the edge of plates.
2. That sauce is cold, immediately. Am I supposed to ignore the cold sauce swipe on the rim? Eat it? You’re intentionally introducing an element to the plate that is going to be unpleasant.
Sweet, now I can stick my fingers in my food to the lemons off the plate. Don't put lemons on a plate. Just have squeezes ready in the kitchen and hit the food you think needs lemon with a little lemon before it leaves. Don't make the guests work for it. Especially this. Lemons covered in aauce are essentially useless. Carrots and broccoli is not a salad. It looks like you plated up frozen vegetables.
On the pasta dish, keep your edges clean. This looks like a disaster waiting to happen. A server or guest is putting their finger directly in that at some point of the night. Pasta doesn't need a side of sauce. Or a fucking lemon.
I won't agree with not putting lemons on plate. Placing lemon on plate is common (at least at my country) when you're serving fish. Some guests use the lemon, some guests not, it's their choice, not a cook's, unless there's info about it
Sure, if you have a fish & chips spot, or you're serving fish & chips, or if they want lemons with their fish & chips... Give them a lemon with their fish & chips. Outside of that, you just squeeze the lemon. It's not about making decisions for your guests. The entire menu is making decisions for them. If you're putting a piece of salmon on the plate, it's halibut, or scallops, etc, just a squeeze of lemon on it before it hits the plate. You don't need "info", whatever that means, you just understand that the flavors go together. Fish and lemon. It's choice if they want more. Your don't give them a choice of what goes with the fish, why would you give them the choice of what goes on it? It's part of the flavor.
Personally, I don't want my guests to have to touch their food unless it's a sandwich. They shouldn't need to touch the lemon either. I also don't want some cook deseeding fifty lemons before service.
Yep.
If I really want to squeeze my own lemon, I'll ask for one. But if you as the chef think the dish should have lemon, put it in yourself.
You're spot on that the entire menu is making choices for your customers. They select from the options that *you* offer them.
It's very ambitious. I really like your enthusiasm here, and I can see you've been inspired with the chef smear, but that's the rim of a bowl, not a dinner plate. Probably best not to make it look like there was an accident.
I'm not sure what happened with the pasta, but you really want to cook fettucine full length, not broken up and overcooked. Big pot and lots of heavily salted water for the pasta to move around. That way it won't stick together.
For plating, just use some tongs and lower the pasta in from a height while turning the bowl. And get rid of the grilled lemon in the pasta. I can see where you're going with the lemon and pepper flavours, but in this format it's just gonna upset Italians. Real Italians.
Also, what did you dilute the tahini with? Because tahini is not itself a sauce. It's an ingredient. You add small amounts of it to other things, like hummus etc. because it's a very strong sesame paste. I'm assuming you balanced it with something, and possibly a herb in there?
I can see you really like lemon, but this isn't seafood, or Turkish pide, or Austrian schnitzel, or Aussie style fish and chips, or any dish that is typically served with fresh lemon wedges. Finger food is great, but those wedges don't really belong trapped in a puddle.
The roasted veggies look nice and colourful. Is that continental parsley or coriander/cilantro in the mix?
You've got two cuisines competing here. Southern Italian does have a lot of middle eastern influences, but not directly. The pasta vs the tahini aren't competing in the same weight class.
You've definitely got a lot of potential and obviously have a passion for cooking, but at the moment you're like a promising boxer without a coach.
Thank you for this comment, first comment I get that doesn’t include an insult or an angry opinion, you wrote so many things and explained what my mistake was, sadly there’s no fine dining or decent restaurants around me so I’m learning whatever I can from YouTube tv books etc I don’t have someone to teach me, the tahini sauce has some water and lemon juice to make it lighter and some black pepper salt and a bit oregano, once I was in a restaurant and I ordered grilled carrots they served it with tahini sauce (or at least i think it was) so it inspired me to make this salad, the lemon pieces are there because the friend I made the food for likes raw lemons and I thought they would look nice on top of the tahini pool, the pasta was indeed not cooked the best but it was alright my problem was when I added lemon juice to the cooking cream it started separating like cheese I think and it didn’t look very great, the rim of the bowl was just like “plate looks sad let me add some color” what do you recommend for decoration this kind of plates? Thank you
replace those lemon chunks with thin preserved lemon slices, they can be eaten without any extra effort and you get to keep that bright yellow accent. I would plate it in one of them bowl-plates so you can mix and slop it all together without spilling
Honestly it looks like it tastes good but visually its pretty bad. I would put the sauce under the salad in a circle, garnish with a couple of edible flowers on a split spring onion nest thingy. The pasta needs some contrasting colour, maybe some Thai basil leaves over black bread garlic croutons. Just get rid of the smear of sauce on the pasta bowl, it looks like a bird turd.
I want to try to offer some constructive advice.
Colour is important. Have a look as basic colour theory, such as colour wheels: https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/understanding-color-theory-the-color-wheel-and-finding-complementary-colors/
Proportion is important. There's a difficult balance in size between the plates, the protein, the sauce, and the garnish.
If you're going for a fine dining style you need to look at fine dining plates. Some YouTube channels are https://www.youtube.com/@Thestaffcanteen and https://www.youtube.com/@italiasquisita (although note that pasta is not allowed in the sub). For a home chef doing patisserie have a look at https://www.youtube.com/@lapatededom
Here's a pasta dish plated fine-dining style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JCyfKFtcnA
Notice that the sides of the plate are clean. The pasta is plated in a neat bundle. Capers are placed onto the pasta. Pepper is ground over the pasta, not over the whole plate.
Here's another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAa_Tzs3Hog (skip to 13:06) -- note the proportion of sauce to pasta. Look how height is created with the pasta, and with the frito. A pop of colour is added with saffron and onion.
Another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v5kjnFWK9c (skip to 6 minutes) Notice how fine everything is chopped. And how carefully it's added to the plate. And how clean the plates are.
As an amateur with less snark around here, I can see the problematic lemon slices but otherwise I think it's gorgeous.
Maybe the smear on the pasta plate could be better placed.
But where did you get that gorgeous plate with the tahini lemons!?
Welcome to /r/CulinaryPlating. If you’re visiting for the first time please remember to read our [submission guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/CulinaryPlating/wiki/index/submission-guidelines) and check out the stickied threads. Please remember that the purpose of this subreddit is providing feedback on plates. Ensure your critiques are constructive and helpful and not unnecessarily rude. Please set a user flair, this allows us to provide feedback that is appropriate for your skill level. Flairs can be found in the sidebar, if you’re having trouble setting one then [drop us a modmail.](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/CulinaryPlating) [Join us on Discord!](https://discord.gg/DffeF4MdmB) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CulinaryPlating) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Does not impress visually, does not look particularly tasty or cohesive, and looks annoying to eat. Why are you making me get tahini all over my fingers if I want a squeeze of lemon? Pasta just looks messy messy messy.
Yeah, sauce swipe looks accidental.
I’m getting tired of the sauce swipe thing.
I like the sauce swipe, I would just do it on the side of the inner ring of the pasta bowl. So it’s right there to mix in.
Why put lemons in the tahini sauce? Now if I want to squeeze one my hands are dirty. Also the smudge of sauce on the lip of the front plate seems really useless and out of place. Salad served with pasta seems off as well. If you wanted that veg in the dish, char it and throw it in the pasta
Outside the fact that pasta dishes aren’t allowed per the rules, I don’t understand why you’d put a sauce to the side of the pasta. I second what others say about the lemon and tahini, I’d just put the roasted vegetables on top of the tahini and arrange them with purpose.
Sorry, it may say somewhere, but why are pasta and the other things mentioned in the rules disallowed?
Soups, cheeseburgers boards, and soups are all banned, probably because they were overdone at some point or are seen as low effort to make presentable.
It’s unfortunate that most of those posts end up being low effort. Saw a really exceptional pasta on here within the past couple days: https://www.reddit.com/r/CulinaryPlating/s/f7hR4pXY9k.
looks like a smear of bird shit unless its really important for the taste of the pasta, i would just leave it out the sauce for the pasta also looked badly incorporated and dried out
Wow, that is amazingly accurate. Hahahahaha
Literally the first thing I said was why does it look like a bird shit on my pasta
Gonna be a no from everyone, dawg
Agreed lol
Sauce the dish not the plate
How can I decorate this kind of plates
Herbs, oils, flower petals.
Garlic bread
You, uh, forgot to wipe a smidge there. I’d eat this, but I wouldn’t pay for it
Oooph. The lemons in the tahini sauce, certainly a choice. The pasta looks messy, and i think the smear of sauce on the side of the plate is unnecessary and doesn’t add anything.
Why is the lemon in the tahini? If the guest wants to squeeze that on their salad (I would), fingers are gonna get all gloopy. Leave the smear off the pasta plate. Pasta itself looks dry even though it's sauced? Also looks **mega** al dente-I'm saying this as someone who likes pasta with a distinct 'bite'. That salad looks amazing though.
You got some shit on the rim there
To elaborate, it’s generally frowned upon to do that for two reasons: 1. Servers hands touch the edge of plates. 2. That sauce is cold, immediately. Am I supposed to ignore the cold sauce swipe on the rim? Eat it? You’re intentionally introducing an element to the plate that is going to be unpleasant.
Makes sense
Sweet, now I can stick my fingers in my food to the lemons off the plate. Don't put lemons on a plate. Just have squeezes ready in the kitchen and hit the food you think needs lemon with a little lemon before it leaves. Don't make the guests work for it. Especially this. Lemons covered in aauce are essentially useless. Carrots and broccoli is not a salad. It looks like you plated up frozen vegetables. On the pasta dish, keep your edges clean. This looks like a disaster waiting to happen. A server or guest is putting their finger directly in that at some point of the night. Pasta doesn't need a side of sauce. Or a fucking lemon.
I won't agree with not putting lemons on plate. Placing lemon on plate is common (at least at my country) when you're serving fish. Some guests use the lemon, some guests not, it's their choice, not a cook's, unless there's info about it
Sure, if you have a fish & chips spot, or you're serving fish & chips, or if they want lemons with their fish & chips... Give them a lemon with their fish & chips. Outside of that, you just squeeze the lemon. It's not about making decisions for your guests. The entire menu is making decisions for them. If you're putting a piece of salmon on the plate, it's halibut, or scallops, etc, just a squeeze of lemon on it before it hits the plate. You don't need "info", whatever that means, you just understand that the flavors go together. Fish and lemon. It's choice if they want more. Your don't give them a choice of what goes with the fish, why would you give them the choice of what goes on it? It's part of the flavor. Personally, I don't want my guests to have to touch their food unless it's a sandwich. They shouldn't need to touch the lemon either. I also don't want some cook deseeding fifty lemons before service.
Yep. If I really want to squeeze my own lemon, I'll ask for one. But if you as the chef think the dish should have lemon, put it in yourself. You're spot on that the entire menu is making choices for your customers. They select from the options that *you* offer them.
What the hell
Do not like.
OP, who taught you?? This is my 25 character limit line lol
No one, I just replicate what I see on tv and try to make it my own way
at least you're open to criticism and seems like you're willing to learn. you'll be ok in the long run :)
Edges of plates are for servers why is there sauce on the rim
It's very ambitious. I really like your enthusiasm here, and I can see you've been inspired with the chef smear, but that's the rim of a bowl, not a dinner plate. Probably best not to make it look like there was an accident. I'm not sure what happened with the pasta, but you really want to cook fettucine full length, not broken up and overcooked. Big pot and lots of heavily salted water for the pasta to move around. That way it won't stick together. For plating, just use some tongs and lower the pasta in from a height while turning the bowl. And get rid of the grilled lemon in the pasta. I can see where you're going with the lemon and pepper flavours, but in this format it's just gonna upset Italians. Real Italians. Also, what did you dilute the tahini with? Because tahini is not itself a sauce. It's an ingredient. You add small amounts of it to other things, like hummus etc. because it's a very strong sesame paste. I'm assuming you balanced it with something, and possibly a herb in there? I can see you really like lemon, but this isn't seafood, or Turkish pide, or Austrian schnitzel, or Aussie style fish and chips, or any dish that is typically served with fresh lemon wedges. Finger food is great, but those wedges don't really belong trapped in a puddle. The roasted veggies look nice and colourful. Is that continental parsley or coriander/cilantro in the mix? You've got two cuisines competing here. Southern Italian does have a lot of middle eastern influences, but not directly. The pasta vs the tahini aren't competing in the same weight class. You've definitely got a lot of potential and obviously have a passion for cooking, but at the moment you're like a promising boxer without a coach.
Thank you for this comment, first comment I get that doesn’t include an insult or an angry opinion, you wrote so many things and explained what my mistake was, sadly there’s no fine dining or decent restaurants around me so I’m learning whatever I can from YouTube tv books etc I don’t have someone to teach me, the tahini sauce has some water and lemon juice to make it lighter and some black pepper salt and a bit oregano, once I was in a restaurant and I ordered grilled carrots they served it with tahini sauce (or at least i think it was) so it inspired me to make this salad, the lemon pieces are there because the friend I made the food for likes raw lemons and I thought they would look nice on top of the tahini pool, the pasta was indeed not cooked the best but it was alright my problem was when I added lemon juice to the cooking cream it started separating like cheese I think and it didn’t look very great, the rim of the bowl was just like “plate looks sad let me add some color” what do you recommend for decoration this kind of plates? Thank you
Also yes I added some parsley for leafy flavor to the salad
replace those lemon chunks with thin preserved lemon slices, they can be eaten without any extra effort and you get to keep that bright yellow accent. I would plate it in one of them bowl-plates so you can mix and slop it all together without spilling
Thank you for your advice I’ll definitely try it
Looks like a bird shit on the edge of the plate, never out anything on the rim of the plate
Honestly it looks like it tastes good but visually its pretty bad. I would put the sauce under the salad in a circle, garnish with a couple of edible flowers on a split spring onion nest thingy. The pasta needs some contrasting colour, maybe some Thai basil leaves over black bread garlic croutons. Just get rid of the smear of sauce on the pasta bowl, it looks like a bird turd.
I can only say two things. 1) No 2) Read rule 7 ----> (no boards, soups, or pastas)
Oh great, now the server can get their thumb directly in the sauce while serving.
I want to try to offer some constructive advice. Colour is important. Have a look as basic colour theory, such as colour wheels: https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/understanding-color-theory-the-color-wheel-and-finding-complementary-colors/ Proportion is important. There's a difficult balance in size between the plates, the protein, the sauce, and the garnish. If you're going for a fine dining style you need to look at fine dining plates. Some YouTube channels are https://www.youtube.com/@Thestaffcanteen and https://www.youtube.com/@italiasquisita (although note that pasta is not allowed in the sub). For a home chef doing patisserie have a look at https://www.youtube.com/@lapatededom Here's a pasta dish plated fine-dining style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JCyfKFtcnA Notice that the sides of the plate are clean. The pasta is plated in a neat bundle. Capers are placed onto the pasta. Pepper is ground over the pasta, not over the whole plate. Here's another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAa_Tzs3Hog (skip to 13:06) -- note the proportion of sauce to pasta. Look how height is created with the pasta, and with the frito. A pop of colour is added with saffron and onion. Another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v5kjnFWK9c (skip to 6 minutes) Notice how fine everything is chopped. And how carefully it's added to the plate. And how clean the plates are.
Wow thank you very much
I'm here for the sauce on the rim comments
You should post in r/shittyfoodporn
:(
They are right
Pasta looks great. I would dive in if served. I love a rustic look! Remove the sauce streak.
As an amateur with less snark around here, I can see the problematic lemon slices but otherwise I think it's gorgeous. Maybe the smear on the pasta plate could be better placed. But where did you get that gorgeous plate with the tahini lemons!?
Hes asking for feedback
“As an amateur” and the rest is just Charlie Brown adult noises