Art of Plating

What makes a plate interesting before the first bite? Explore colour, shape, texture, composition, and transforming simple ingredients.
About this Event

What makes a plate interesting before you've even taken the first bite?

Why does one plate immediately draw you in while another feels flat? What happens when something silky meets something crisp? How can one simple vegetable become several completely different components?

ART OF PLATING is a hands-on workshop about learning to see food differently.

We will explore colour, shape, texture, contrast and composition, while learning practical techniques for transforming simple ingredients into interesting components.

You will make colourful sauces and aromatic oils, create different textures, work with pickles and finishing elements, and explore how cutting, cooking and seasoning the same ingredient differently can completely change its role on a plate.

Then we will bring those elements together.

You will compose, taste, move things around, edit, plate again, and develop your own visual language along the way.

Part of "PLAY WITH FOOD" three-workshop series:

NO RECIPE: Intuitive Cooking

PLAY WITH DOUGH

ART OF PLATING

Join one workshop or explore the full series.

Who is this for?

This workshop is for curious people who already feel comfortable with the basics of cooking and want to explore the creative and visual side of food.

Maybe you can cook something delicious, but you're never quite sure what to do when it reaches the plate.

Maybe you want to understand how restaurants create different textures, sauces and components from seemingly simple ingredients.

Or perhaps you're a chef or food professional who wants dedicated time to experiment with composition and develop your plating skills.

You don't need restaurant experience, but you should be comfortable using basic kitchen equipment and preparing ingredients independently.

How we will play

We'll begin with a little theory around how we see and experience food: colour, visual expectation, texture, contrast and the way composition guides our attention.

Then we'll move into the kitchen.

Working with seasonal, predominantly plant-based ingredients, we'll explore different transformations and build a collection of components to work with: sauces, purées, aromatic oils, crunchy elements, pickles, herbs and garnishes.

We'll also look at how one simple ingredient can become several completely different things through technique.

Then the plates become your playground.

You'll experiment with shape, colour, height, repetition, negative space, focal points and contrast, creating different compositions from the ingredients in front of you.

We'll photograph, taste, discuss, edit and replate.

Same ingredients. Different decisions. Completely different plates.

What you will learn?

We'll explore how to:

• transform one ingredient into several different textures and components
• make colourful sauces, smooth purées and aromatic oils
• create crisp, crunchy, creamy, silky and fresh elements — and understand what creates those textures
• use acidity, pickles, herbs and finishing elements to create contrast
• work with colour, shape, height, repetition and negative space
• use sauces, oils and garnishes with intention
• build a plate around a focal ingredient and supporting components
• plate, evaluate, edit and replate
• turn simple, everyday ingredients into something visually and texturally unexpected

You'll leave with practical techniques and a framework for building a plate, rather than one finished dish to reproduce.

What we will make

There is no single finished dish that everyone will reproduce.

We'll work with a selection of seasonal, predominantly plant-based ingredients, exploring how they can be roasted, charred, puréed, pickled, crisped, sliced, blended and finished in different ways.

You'll also have a collection of prepared components to work with, giving you more time to experiment with plating rather than spending the whole workshop on prep.

Think of it as building your own palette of flavours, colours, shapes and textures and then deciding what to do with it.

We'll taste everything we create together.

What is included

Your ticket includes:

• all ingredients used during the workshop
• four hours of hands-on cooking, experimenting and teaching
• tea, water kefir and a welcome snack
• aprons and kitchen equipment
• prepared ingredients and components for plating experiments
• printed workshop materials
• everything we cook and taste together

About your host

Selcen Eyyubi is a professionally trained chef and culinary experience designer with more than 10 years of experience.

Her work has taken her from Michelin-starred restaurants in Istanbul and Munich, to cooking in the Mexican jungle, designing independent culinary experiences and dinners in Berlin, and retreats around the world.

Her approach to cooking is based less on rigid recipes and more on understanding ingredients, techniques and flavour deeply enough to play with them.

For this workshop, the point isn't to cook like a restaurant chef. It's about taking some of that creative thinking and making it useful in your own kitchen.

https://www.selceneyyubi.com

https://www.instagram.com/selcen_e