After waiting a mere few minutes for your food to finish cooking, you pull your steaming plate of mouth watering food out of the Brava. Now what?

One of the most important elements of being a culinary master is plating. In a restaurant, the way a meal is presented can immediately affect the experience that the customer has. While the stakes are not as high in your kitchen at home, here at Brava we want to give you all of the skills to master your kitchen. Whether you are having guests over or just treating yourself, taking a few extra minutes to plate your meal can give you the opportunity to flex your culinary muscles at home!

Tips on plating your Brava meals:

• Pick out the right plate(s)
  • Choosing a plate or platter of the correct size is the base of creating a picture perfect dish. Make sure the plate is large enough for the ingredients you have cooked, so no item is hanging off the edge and the ingredients are not crowded.
  • Take a look at the color palette. If you are plating a colorful combination of ingredients (ie. Brava Steak Salad), try picking out a more subdued plate in order to let the food pop.
• Highlight the main ingredient
  • Start by placing the main ingredient of the dish on the plate and building from there.
  • You can either place it in the middle or off to one side.
• Keep an eye on proportions
  • Because you want to highlight the main ingredient, place the sides or veggies along one side of the protein or main ingredient.
  • It is okay to have leftover sides or veggies! It is better to have leftovers than crowd the dish.
• Garnish
  • Hold on to some dressing, if using, to drizzle over the final dish.
  • If you used any herbs, save some to garnish the dish.
  • Make sure the garnish is edible as is and fits in with the flavors dish.
• Have fun!
  • Try different combinations and see what works and does not work for you.
  • At the end of the day, your dish will be absolutely delicious, which is the most important thing!