Food Styling Series – Part 1

Since my work as a Home-chef mainly involves delivering the food, I try in my own small way to perk up the presentation within the limits of packaging and delivery. But whenever there is a party at home, I get a chance to showcase my food presentation skills.

Last weekend we had a ladies meet at my home followed by dinner. Theme for the party was ” Our Inspirations, but not from anyone we have met.”

I have two passions, Engineering and Cooking. Hence I thought of setting up some books on the food service table as a backdrop to showcase those who have inspired me to stay passionate in these two fields inspite of never meeting them personally .

1. Sheryl Sandberg , Aparna Jain and StrenghtFinder writer Tom Rath for the guidance through their books to experience a good engineering and management career.

2. Kamalabai Ogale (Every Maharashtrian girl learns cooking from her book Ruchira) and Julia Child (am a fan of her cookery shows and kitchen) for Cooking

Since I love flowers on the service table, I placed my favorite flowers “Nishigandha” (tuberose – One can find this in Mexico too) in two wine bottles I had hand-painted last year.

I didn’t want the menu to be too much complicated, did not want to keep typical Skewers or appetizers and wanted to cover Maharashtrian food along with my favorite rice preparation but with different presentation style.

Menu was finalized to below :

1. Maharashtrian Chutney Onion Dips with Bread Sticks :

For this, I used my homemade Chutneys mixed with Cold pressed groundnut oil and finely chopped onion. I wanted to use Bhakri (millet preparation) cut into triangles instead of Bread sticks but cancelled due to time shortage. This one is now going to be a regular at my food table for any parties.

a. Sesame & Peanut Chutney

b. Flaxseeds & Niger Seeds Chutney &

c. Curry Leaves Chutney

2. Mini Batata Wada Canapes :

One of my favorite pick and eat food. Batata wada defines a Mumbaikar. I wanted to cover the taste but give a different presentation. The canapes were prepared using bread baked in a cupcake tray. The canapes were topped with batata wada and green chutney with some sprinkled coconut garlic dry chutney

3. Masala Papad Cones :

A twist to the usual fried big masala papad. This one was prepared by cutting the papad in half, roasting it and then quickly converting it into a cone. Filled with an diced onion, chilly, tomato salsa topped with sev just before serving.

4. Pani Puri with Sweet potato :

Usually pani puri has boiled potato, white peas as the filling. I replaced the potato with the sweet and chunky sweet potato topped with tamarind , mint chutneys and sev to give it a rustic earthy taste.

5. Bisibelebaath :

This is one of my all time comfort rice preparation. It’s spicy, tangy soft rice loaded vegetables, peanuts and cashews. Instead of serving it in plates, I used coconut shells to serve the rice. Needless to say, we had it straight out of the coconut shell.

6. Gaajar Halwa with Malai Sandwich:

The bright red carrots during winter somehow are meant only for Gaajar Halwa preparation. Loved the combination of Gaajar Halwa topped with Sweet milk from Malai Sandwich and then the sandwich itself to break the sweetness. The fragrance of Cardamon, the crunch of pistachios, almonds , roasted raisins and the color of Saffron tops the experience all the more.

Final Table Spread:

You don’t always require high end cutlery, beautiful service plates, complicated menu which half of your guests do not understand, beautiful decorations or even a stunning tablecloth to make your food service table look appealing.

You can always reuse stuff you thought was to throw away (old wine bottles/ coconut shells in this case), serve your traditional food in non-traditional ways (chutney dips in ice-cream glasses), shape the food to look appetizing (cones) and twist some ingredients in the original recipe (pani puri).

Till Next Time, Bon Appetite,

Love and Luc,

Apps