Do Play With Your Food: Just Be Smart About It
As a New York event planner, you’re always looking for creative new ways to wow your event guests. Consider playing with your food - in a brilliant new way.
If you are reading about molecular gastronomy techniques, then you may be dreaming of a food and beverage-centered occasion.
Foam curry, smoking beer, and disappearing transparent ravioli.
What party-goer wouldn’t talk about these for years?
Food science isn’t just for large-scale processing anymore. Emulsification, gelification, spherification, and other techniques are readily adapted to creative food for the small-scale or one-time event, too.
Molecular gastronomy blends technical expertise with the social and artistic elements of food preparation and consumption. Coined by a Hungarian physicist and a French chemist, the phrase honors new cuisine without dismissing ageless practices and discoveries.
We humans have been playing with our food for millennia. And it might just be the key to your next dazzling New York event experience!
Event Menus: Making Molecular Magic
There’s nothing wrong with offering event goers a stab at a fountain of chocolate fondue or their fill of a build-your-own-sundae dessert bar. In fact, the current wisdom for the creative food event celebrates interactive food stations just like these favorites. Molecular gastronomy simply takes things a step further, making memories bigger and better.
At a time when many people are looking for the next new thing – when the average person finds their attention competing for every minute of every day – molecular gastronomy can make for a powerful statement for the event goer.
Words and phrases such as “innovation,” “delight,” and “mouth-watering” top the list of the best menus; molecular gastronomy miracles are no exception. The uniqueness of meal and appetizer presentations, flavor profiles, textures, and more help create a shared social experience that benefits any event. You don’t need to sacrifice quality for theater. You can have both.
Considered safe by restaurant industry leaders, molecular gastronomy tools are widely available to chefs and home cooks alike. Naturally occurring gelatins and agar agar get the industry’s gold star as additives that lend themselves to creative food presentations, and even artificial or less benign additives such as nitrogen, gums, and salts can be consumed in moderation.
Equally Attractive Alternatives
If molecular gastronomy sounds too over the top for you, remembering that we “eat with our eyes first” will help you to get creative in other ways.
The simple act of tending to how you plate your food is a tried and true technique for a first impression you can be proud of every time.
Landscape Plating
Landscape plating gets its name from landscape gardeners who know that going long and low shows off the ingredients of any garden, and the same proves to be true about food stuffs. A good fit for natural and artistic dishes, landscape plating is known to enhance both flavor and texture and to suit any course, including dessert.
Freeform Plating vs. Classical Plating
The classical plate conceptualizes a plate like a clock, arranging food types at twelve, three, six, and nine. The classical plate is the most traditional of all plating approaches. Just the opposite, freeform plating allows lots of room in which to be creative and to try your hand at smearing, scattering, and stacking to craft a unique look. Classical or more avant-garde, you’ll find your niche.
Bathing Like a Boss
Plating with broth or sauce adds a completely different look to a table, garnering a sophisticated vibe every time. Meats, vegetables, and pasta all get a boost from an attractive pool of something savory. How you broth or sauce is limited only by your imagination. This kind of catering artistic design always delights guests.
Go Organic with the Materials
Finally, when it comes to plating, it can be the very material of the plate itself that charges your dish. Natural meal service materials such as wood or stone can lend a signature rustic feel to your event.
Height and layers, suitable tools, and the perfect tableware. Think in terms of a cohesive experience for your guests for the win. By thinking through the details and tailoring your food and its presentation to your particular event, you’re sure to create the event you want to put your name on every time.
And what about garnishes and edible decorations? Every element should contribute to the story you’re trying to tell. A dining experience is exactly that – a story for an evening or an afternoon, with you as the author.
Find Creative Inspiration for All Your Events at The Event Planner Expo 2024
Event Planner Expo 2024 can help you from the first word of your story to the last, and with every plot twist in between. Get your tickets here and don’t miss the premier conference for the events and hospitality industry, right here in New York City. See you there!
