My old sous chef told me to stop overthinking the garnish

Worked with this guy Marco at a spot in Portland back in 2019. He kept saying nobody cares about the microgreens if the actual protein is dry. Took me like 6 months to really get it. Now I focus on getting the cook right first and then add maybe one simple thing on top. Anyone else waste time on plating details that nobody notices?

2 comments

2 Comments

garcia.miles10d ago

Ha! Your friend's meatballs are basically my entire first year on the line. I'd spend 20 minutes shaving radish roses while my salmon sat under the heat lamp turning into a rubber flip-flop... then wonder why the ticket came back. Marco called it "window dressing a dumpster." Learned that lesson the hard way after a table sent back a beautiful plate because the pork was somehow both dry AND raw.

adams8210d ago

Dude that's so true! My friend spent like a week decorating her apartment for a party once and then forgot to plug in the crockpot so the meatballs were cold. Nobody noticed her fancy napkin folds because we were all just standing around hungry. It's like putting a fancy spoiler on a car with a dying engine. The main thing has to work first before you worry about the little details.