Lessons > The Basics of Plating

Your culinary journey starts here

★★★★★ (120)

30,842 Students
All Levels

Lesson Overview

Professional chefs have the ability to bring a dish quickly together and plate it beautifully without hesitation. They do this with confidence and great consistency because they plan it out beforehand and continually practice.

Excellent, consistent, and quick plating takes just a bit of foreth…

Click to expand...

Lesson Objectives

At the end of this lesson you'll be able to:
  • identify the anatomy of a plate
  • describe why white, round plates are the most common for plating
  • understand how the color, texture, shape and size of each ingredient affects a plate design
  • describe why a rough drawing of a plated dish prior to cooking is beneficial for the plating process
  • identify the three main plating sections of a round plate
  • know how to set up your workstation in order to efficiently plate
  • place three main components into the appropriate sections on a plate
  • understand how to sauce food properly
  • know how to add garnish and finish a plate
  • identify common mistakes made during plating
  • inspect a plate prior to serving
  • hold, transfer and properly serve a plate to a diner

Course Syllabus

START: Watch Lesson Platform Tour
1. Introduction: The Basics of Plating
Not Started
2. Complete Your Self Assessment
Not Started
3. The Anatomy of a Plate
Not Started
4. Choosing Plates | Colors & Sizes
Not Started
5. Choosing Plates | Shapes & Textures
Not Started
6. Plate Designing | What Goes Where?
Not Started
7. Preparing to Plate
Not Started
8. General Plating Guidelines
Not Started
9. Activity | Plating
Not Started
10. Practice Activities & Recipes
Not Started
11. Lesson Quiz
Not Started

Practice Recipes

A few of the practice recipes you'll learn in this lesson.

What People Are Saying

Katherine H "Fantastic! There was so much more to know about plating than I ever realized. I feel privileged!" Katherine H. ★★★★★
Diana W "I'm very impressed with the quality of the lesson" Diana W. ★★★★★
"Fantastic! There was so much more to know about plating than I ever realized. I feel privileged!" ★★★★★
"I'm very impressed with the quality of the lesson" ★★★★★
"Terrifically helpful! Never thought about many of these issues before." ★★★★★
"This was a very awesome class! It made so many things clear for me in regards to platting. I was struggling with my platting techniques during my monthly dinner parties, but now I truly feel empowered. Thanks Rouxbe for adding this class! :)" ★★★★★
"I loved the lesson on plating! The fundamentals taught in this lesson made the topic so much easier to understand and gave me a great foundation. Now I feel like I can begin to experiment more successfully with how I present the food I cook." ★★★★★
"This lesson was really helpful as it taught me the fundamental "rules" of plating. Now I feel like I can better deconstruct a plated dinner and understand exactly what happened to get it looking so attractive." ★★★★★
"An awesome lesson in learning how to plate!" ★★★★★
"it needs more info to make it matter. ex. if i wanna plate pasta ?"
"Good information even for experienced cooks" ★★★★★
"This basic plating lesson is a great help! Thanks a lot!" ★★★★
"Wonderful and Brilliant - all the basics are covered here for effective, efficient and fabulous plating!" ★★★★★
"Very useful information" ★★★★
"I had no idea of the basics...so it was very helpful." ★★★★
"I really enjoyed this lesson. I've always served dinner family style so this was a big lesson for me. The only issue I had with the lesson was there was no plant based meal option in task 10. I made up my own using garlic mashed potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, walnut and white bean meatloaf and onion gravy with a garnish of chopped scallions. I followed all the plating rules and my husband said it was beautiful." ★★★★★
"Oh wow, I will never look at food the same way again." ★★★★★
"Excellent as always! I think my main problem in the past has been putting too much food on the plate and probably a bigger variety of vegetables. Must admit I like it better that way to eat but it does look much better when done the way that you teach. I will remember this when I am serving guests in future!" ★★★★★
"All the practice could finish with plating. But its still good." ★★★★
"awesome class, really fun and interesting! Thanks, Viviane" ★★★★★
"I had absolutely no idea how to plate when I started this lesson. After completion, I feel well equipped with the knowledge I need and incredibly confident. I can't wait to wow my guests at my next dinner party!" ★★★★★
"really good videos and help alot to increase the view of a plate" ★★★★★
"It would be nice if you include ideas and advice in case of using plates that are not classic round ones, such as square, rectangular or plates for dishes with more liquid. Thanks!" ★★★★★
"Excellent but are the answers available so I can see where I went wrong" ★★★★★
"I really liked the course, I just wish there were more of it! It would be awesome to have plating tips for different types of dishes: stews, pasta, tacos, bakes (ex. lasagna) and desserts. As someone who did the plant based course and no longer cooks animal proteins I would like to learn to plate all of these different types of foods. The plating techniques I learned here are great, but realistically will be of limited use for me. Please think about it!" ★★★★
"love love love this lesson" ★★★★★
"Before taking this course, I had no knowledge of plating. This was extremely helpful." ★★★★★
"Very helpful and clear!" ★★★★★
"Great lesson. Easy stuff to learn and useful!" ★★★★★
"Worth every second!" ★★★★★
"This lesson caused me to be more creative. I know the correct placement of starch, vegetables, and protein. There were good recipes available." ★★★★★
"this lesson is amazing i love it" ★★★★★
"It was very fun to learn." ★★★★
"Very helpful" ★★★★★
"This was very good actually excellent, very enjoyable." ★★★★★
"Videos helped alot and voice instruction was detailed and not difficult to follow" ★★★★
"This topic helped me understand more about plating, how to handle, what are the best options for me when I am cooking in the kitchen, and time management." ★★★★★
"Very helpful, still could have included some ideas to some other strategies for plating, i heard a lot that center plating is something that is getting old, and negative space, and plate around are running tendencies" ★★★★
"helpful" ★★★
"Great course for beginners" ★★★★★
"Through this lesson I have learned the basics of plating." ★★★★
Show More
21 Videos | 11 Tasks
Task 1: Introduction: The Basics of Plating
Task 2: Complete Your Self Assessment
Task 3: The Anatomy of a Plate
Task 4: Choosing Plates | Colors & Sizes
Task 5: Choosing Plates | Shapes & Textures
Task 6: Plate Designing | What Goes Where?
Task 7: Preparing to Plate
Task 8: General Plating Guidelines

Your Culinary Journey Starts Here!

Access to traditional and next-gen culinary foundations & techniques
Check out lessons, courses and tips
Trial Rouxbe for free, no credit card needed
Read and agree to our terms of use