Pastry chef, caterer and purveyor of fine foods Ericka Stouffers has some surefire tips for elevating your tables and plates. Photo: Mountain Road Merchants.
As a qualified chef, caterer and purveyor of fine foods through her business Mountain Road Merchants, Ericka Stouffers has been professionally plating up food for the better part of two decades.
An authority on food aesthetics known for her beautiful grazing boxes, platters of perfection and diverse event catering, you can take her word for it: even when curbing the spending on this year’s Christmas lunch, you “absolutely can” eat beautifully – and you should.
“I am a firm believer of the adage: you eat first with your eyes,” she says.
Armed with a few tried and true techniques and principles, Ericka says there are surefire ways of upping the ante and crafting a more beautiful and convivial atmosphere at the dining table.
When it comes to that cherished party stalwart – the cheese platter – the advice is to “build vertically”.
“With your cheese selection, less is best. Instead of going for several different types, pick one of two pieces, and build some height out of them. A camembert is flat but a cheddar can be cut to tower. A whole wheel of brie looks more appealing than four or five small slithers of different things,” she says.
“You want to try and introduce a few pops of colour, different shapes and textures as well, but there are tried and true classic pairings with most cheeses. Brie pairs beautifully with honeycomb and dried apple, quince paste goes well with a blue or cheddar, and a nice mound of grapes is not just delicious with everything, it brings in more verticality, colour, shape and texture.”
Add verticality to your cheese platters, along with different textures, shapes and colours. Photo: Mountain Road Merchants.
Diversity in colours, shapes and textures is also the key defining feature of an aesthetically pleasing grazing platter. Unlike the cheese platter, however, more can most certainly be more.
But for a grazing platter, the mechanics of how your guests will enjoy the food plays an equally important role in the arrangement.
Ericka advises splitting up the portions of each kind of food and arranging them into several smaller groups spread across the length of the table.
“Think about how people graze – it’s not a buffet, they don’t line up, they gather around it, and you don’t want them to have to reach across each other to access a variety of things, because variety is the beauty of grazing,” she says.
“Feel free to cascade your fruit and for smaller items, I am a big fan of the scatter technique. It means guests can find little surprises in unexpected places on the board.”
Similar techniques can be applied to the lunch table.
Whether it’s a Christmas ham, a roast beef or a couple of kilos of prawns, split your portions into multiple bowls (the number depending on the size of the table and number of diners) and spread them across the table.
The same goes for salads, bread rolls, potato bakes and any other side dishes.
“If you have your dishes in one bowl in the middle of the table, not only does that make things tricky practically speaking for serving, but it’s not as beautiful as if you spread it out and fill the table with the different textures and colours of the dishes,” Ericka says.
“It also means no one side of the table is getting more of a dish.”
Edible florals are not just for fancy restaurants and cafes – and you can find them in your herb garden. Photo: Mountain Road Merchants.
Ericka is also a proponent of magic elixirs – those small touches that can elevate a dish both in aesthetics and flavour.
“I add citrus to just about everything I make – it can help achieve a balance between the hot, sweet, sour and salty flavour profiles and can help cut through the fattiness of some dishes like pork or lamb,” she says.
“I make a dukkah at the shop that I can sprinkle onto just about anything. It can really lift a simple plate of steamed green beans or broccolini.
“And don’t underestimate the role of the humble salad – specifically, the dressing. You can have the simplest salad of plain green leaves, but a good vinaigrette can make it one of the most enjoyable things on your table.
“Don’t be afraid of edible flowers – they’re not just for fancy cafes and restaurants. That’s not to say you need to invest in edible violets. If you have a herb garden, the flowers on any of them are edible. Rosemary, basil, rocket flowers – not only do they bring beauty to your dish, but also a beautiful flavour burst.”
Mountain Road Merchants is located at Piccadilly Centre, Shop 45, 431 Crown Street, Wollongong and caters for everything from picnics in the park to boys’ or ladies’ weekends, or simply family gatherings at home or in your Airbnb, showcasing fine artisanal products sourced locally and Australia-wide.
Original Article published by Dione David on Region Illawarra.
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