Working the Plate: The Art of Food Presentation

I bought this for my husband who loves it. It's a wonderful resource and visually appealing. I'm a little turned off by the fact that the seller bought it from Goodwill for $3.99 and marked it up to over $8 but that's just a morality issue with the seller not the book.

As, I take another step toward becoming a "backdoor" chef, I wanted to learn to plate food as the professional chefs do. I started with this book, and found it to be informative. Good Pictures aided me as I browsed through the pages. I think this book is a wonderful product, but at my level of learning it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. It is no doubt, useful in my advanced learning, but I will pursue another book to teach me the basic info I need. I recommend this book to anybody that has experience in plating food.

This book has opened my eyes on some great ideals and will help me through some plating issues while I am in school and for many plates to come. Plus my family really enjoys the fancy plating instead of the normal drop your food in the plate and go. Recommend this book to any culinary student or individual who just wants to dress up thier plates for dinner or any meal for that matter.

This is a very nice book for beginners or a cook looking to become more of a chef. The recipes are workable. There are certain patterns that repeat (e.g. use of molds, sauces, etc). Knife skills are assumed. Layering and building are touched on. Keep a plate clean, no messy garnishes along the rims. This book will firm up what you don't know, but if you are working chef this won't/shouldn't be new. However, presentation at the next step is found in many places: Art Culinaire magazine is a start. Then the books of El Bulli, Michel Bras, Heston Blumenthal, Food Network, then HSN, QVC food presentations. Inspiration and cutting edge are found in nontraditional places and brought mainstream.

A great additiom to any chef or cooks collection of books. It is very well presented in a good clear type-face with excellent photographs. The step by step plating assembly photos' are also very pleasing. This book alng with Rori Trovato's 'Dishing with Style' and Rick Tramonto's 'amuse bouche' should provide enough inspiration for any chef/cook to present the perfect dinner party.

Very informative. Great recipes. Great pictures. Enjoyed the way they show different ways of looking at plate presentations.