Beautiful presentation of dishes at home: photos with recipes

Any woman from birth is drawn to beauty in order to give it to others. Cooking is a kind of art, and most girls learn it quickly. But if you don’t just serve a deliciously prepared dish, but serve it unusually decorated, thereby lifting your mood, you need to work a little. All it takes is a little time and patience. A master class on decorating dishes with your own hands will show that such decor is an interesting and exciting thing.

To get started, you don’t have to run to the store for special curly knives and tools. It is enough to have a vegetable cutter and a pair of sharp knives on hand: large and small. You can do amazing things with them.

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So, first you need to create a sample menu and think about the serving. Now try to visualize the already set table. Where will you have appetizers and salads? How is the hot dish served: in the center of the table or on plates?

Everything is needed in order to decide which dish would benefit from a beautiful design. After all, if you take on everything, the table will simply be full of colors. Therefore, make accents.

If you decide to make jewelry all the time, you will need special tools. Visit the store and buy what you need:

• special shredders for vegetables and fruits;
• sharp knives;
• figured cuttings;
• notches.

You can start with something simple and gradually add to your collection of kitchen utensils.

In the photo above, the beautiful presentation of the dishes is made of raw vegetables that can be eaten, but some are not recommended. Therefore, if you use this technique, you must warn your guests so that there are no incidents.

You will find some methods in this article.

A few recommendations for decorating holiday table dishes with your own hands

Almost any cuts, salads or hot dishes can be decorated beautifully and unusually . Everything here depends only on time and desire. After all, you must admit that sitting down at a table with food haphazardly laid out on plates is not as pleasant as admiring dishes that resemble a masterpiece of artistic skill. Most guests, appreciating your efforts, will probably say that it’s a shame to even spoil such beauty.

Continuing the topic, let's figure out what dishes you can prepare for Valentine's Day with your own hands. After reading our article, you will be able to create your own scenario for celebrating a party in Hawaiian style.

Here are some simple recommendations to help you decorate dishes for the holiday table:

1. Don't overdo it with beauty . If you are expecting a small number of guests, you should put one or two unusually decorated dishes on the table. The rest of the cuts, salads and other dishes should be left in their natural form. Not only will this not make your table look too colorful, but it will also save you some time.
2. Plan in advance where appetizers, cold cuts and main courses will be placed on your table . This will help you understand which dishes should be decorated in an unusual and beautiful way.
3. If you often set holiday tables, make sure your kitchen has a set of tools for decorating dishes . We are talking about sharp knives of various shapes, notches and figured cuttings. Today you can also buy special graters that chop vegetables and fruits, giving them an unusual curly shape.
4. For decoration, foods that cannot be eaten raw are often used - beets, potatoes and other vegetables. Warn guests that these masterpieces serve only an aesthetic function and are not worth trying . This will save the people you invite from awkward and funny situations.
5. It is not necessary to look for examples of decorating dishes for the holiday table on the Internet or specialized publications. Trust your imagination . Surely you will come up with your own idea of ​​how to decorate the table beautifully and unusually, and amaze all the guests with your culinary delights.

What products can be used to decorate dishes?

The choice of products that the housewife is going to use to decorate the dishes of the festive table depends primarily on her preferences and, of course, financial capabilities. In principle, you can make a real masterpiece using vegetables and fruits, herbs or seafood . For example, to decorate a salad dish with artificial flowers, you can use tomatoes, radishes, onions and olives. Flower stems and leaves can be made from green onions, parsley or dill. In addition, flower buds can also be made from medium-sized shrimp or chips.

To make dishes brighter, you can use orange or lemon zest. Red or black caviar will also help provide some contrast.

When decorating dishes, it is also permissible to use natural food colors . This can be a strong infusion of tea or coffee, cranberry or beet juice. Don’t forget also that different decorations are ideal for each event.

Salads

Any salad that you usually prepare can be served in an unusual way. For example, make an unusual figure out of it. Add decorations of herbs and vegetables on top. There are many options. You can just look at the pictures and apply it to your recipe.

Try laying out the “Herring under a Fur Coat” salad in the shape of a snake, making a crown out of boiled protein, and using the yolk to draw stripes. “Winter” can also be served in the same form, using thinly sliced ​​pickled cucumber as the scale.

Beautiful decoration of festive dishes will attract attention and give positive emotions to guests. New Year's events and March 8th will be a great way to reveal your talents. There is room for your imagination to run wild here. Make a Christmas tree out of lettuce. In it, dill will help replace spruce branches, and berries will replace toys.

Use simple decorations. For example, you can make flowers on top. Here are simple ways:

1. Take oval tomatoes and cut them into four parts. After scooping out the pulp with a teaspoon, fill it with grated cheese and garlic filling. Lay it out sideways. The stem can be replaced with your favorite greens.
2. Chamomiles are easily made from boiled eggs. To do this, cut the white into strips (these will be petals) and arrange them around the grated yolk.

Know that an ordinary salad turns into a masterpiece if you use your imagination.

Pepper flowers

A step-by-step photo will help you better understand the technique.

Washed hot pepper pods are cut lengthwise from tip to tail. Carefully, so as not to spoil the seeds, cut out the stalk.

The pod is shaped like a calla lily petal. A stalk with seeds is inserted into a small hole on the spread.

Petals can be made from greens or cut from cucumber.

Salad recipe with crab sticks

We’ll make a simple-looking salad, but we’ll create a beautiful presentation of the dish, as in the photo.

For this we need:

• 2 packs of crab sticks;
• 2 medium potato tubers;
• 1 long cucumber;
• 3 boiled eggs;
• mayonnaise dressing;
• 0.4 kg of hard cheese;
• a little butter
• dill.

First, we make beautiful baskets in which we will place our snack for each guest separately. To do this, lightly grease a flat plate with butter. Using a coarse grater, grate the cheese evenly onto it so that holes remain. Place in the microwave for 20-25 seconds to melt the cheese.

Then you need to let it cool a little to make it easier to remove. We pry it from either side and remove it like a pancake. We put it on the glass, giving it the desired shape. Set aside to cool completely.

Let's start preparing and beautifully decorating the dish. Boil potatoes and eggs, cut into small cubes. Cucumber and crab sticks should be in the form of strips. Mix all the ingredients, add salt and mayonnaise. Place into baskets and garnish with dill sprigs.

It is better to season and fill the cheese bowl just before serving, before the salad has released its juice.

Options for decorating dishes for the New Year's table

New Year is everyone’s favorite holiday, which reminds both adults and children that miracles are possible. On this day, you should approach the preparation of the festive table with special attention. It is very important that the treats that you prepare for your family and friends are decorated in the spirit of celebration. They must contain the symbols of the holiday . Here are a few ideas to help you decorate your New Year's salads beautifully:

Herringbone salad

You can decorate any dish in this way. To do this, you will need a large flat plate on which you will place the prepared salad in the shape of a Christmas tree from a bowl. Branches can be made from dill. In order for the spruce to look elegant and beautiful, take care of its decoration. A star can be made from a piece of raw carrot using a special shape or a regular sharp knife. Decorate the branches of the festive tree with improvised balls of olives, cranberries, peas and corn.

Salad "Snowman"

To prepare this salad, you will definitely need light-colored ingredients. You can, for example, mix grated eggs, melted cheese and crab sticks, add a clove of garlic, mayonnaise, roll into balls of different sizes and roll them in grated egg white. You can collect several snowmen on one plate. Using dill branches, you can make brooms with them, and use halves of egg whites with the top cut off (to make a cone) as buckets, after soaking them in a solution of strong tea.

The tip of a raw or boiled carrot is suitable for the snowman’s nose, and his eyes and mouth can be made from pieces of olives.

Salad “When the clock strikes twelve”

This design method is suitable for any salad, the products in which are laid in neat layers. The top of the dish should be evenly coated with mayonnaise. You need to make an improvised dial in a circle around the edge of the plate. To do this, you can lightly drown halves of olives in mayonnaise and write numbers from one to twelve on each using cheese sauce and a pastry bag with a thin nozzle. Arrows, also cut and folded from olives, should be placed in the center of the composition. Let your hands show a few minutes to twelve, as if notifying guests that the New Year is about to come into its own.

Snacks and cold cuts

It is better to leave these plates without decorations. Beautiful presentation of dishes is a priority here.

Various sandwiches can be used as snacks. There is no limit to imagination here. For example, place slices of various vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers), seafood (for example, sprats) or meat pates on toast greased with mayonnaise. You can make a variety of canapés by placing them in rows on a wide plate.

Tomatoes or eggs stuffed with grated cheese and garlic look great on the table. They make excellent figures of mushrooms, snowmen, chickens, piglets, etc. Roll the pancakes with some soft filling and cut into rolls (by the way, cucumbers also look good in this form).

Don't ignore the plates of cold cuts. They usually come in fruit, vegetable, cheese, meat, fish and assorted varieties. But this does not mean that all this is worth exhibiting. It is enough to serve the fruit in a vase. Just don't throw them in randomly. If the holiday is in the summer, then make a basket of watermelon, fold the slices inside without the crust.

It is easy to arrange a vegetable plate beautifully, since both tomatoes and cucumbers themselves are used for decoration. Please note that if they are in abundance on other dishes, then they should not be displayed separately.

Cheese slices are easy to make. Select several varieties, thinly cut into equal pieces and lay out in rows or a semicircle, with braids of cheese and some greens on top.

Meat sausage is made in almost the same way, but you should take into account that boiled sausage will take away the smell of smoked meat. Therefore, when laying out, take the spicy types first. Some varieties can be beautifully rolled. You can put a gravy boat in the middle.

It's more difficult with fish. Each type has a unique taste and smell (you cannot combine, for example, salted salmon and herring on the same plate).

Quite often, a combined selection of sausages and cheese is placed on one plate.

Appetizing snacks

Decorating tables with dishes of various types speaks of the hostess’s skill in the culinary arts. Usually there are a lot of different alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on the table. They come with a lot of different snacks.

So-called “snowballs” have become especially popular recently. Preparing them is not difficult and does not take much time. The main ingredients are chicken fillet (boiled), cottage cheese and feta cheese. All ingredients are taken in approximately 200 grams. Add the indicated ingredients to the cream (4 tablespoons), a little walnut (chopped), finely chopped pepper (bell pepper) and 3 cloves of garlic. Everything is thoroughly mixed. Balls the size of a large cherry are formed from the resulting mass. The final touch will be decorating the dish. To do this, the balls are rolled either in herbs (small dill works well), or in paprika, or in sesame seeds. A variety of “snowballs” will delight guests.

There is also a snack called “royal”. It is very easy to prepare. First the eggs are boiled. The lid is carefully cut off and the yolk is removed. You need to try not to break the egg itself. Next, the yolks are rubbed and mixed with mayonnaise, paprika and mustard. You can use your favorite seasonings and herbs. The resulting mixture is used to fill the whites. Sprats with caviar are placed on top. To decorate the dish with your own hands, use greens, sesame seeds and cherry tomato slices.

When preparing various dishes, you need to take into account the fact that some guests may not be suitable for this or that treat. The reason for this may be allergies, age, certain life positions. For example, on a table at which only vegetarians sit, it is undesirable to place meat dishes. Or a Muslim should not offer pork. Otherwise, instead of a good time, you can only get a spoiled mood.

"Welcome plate"

Do everything as in the photo. Beautiful presentation of the dish (cold cuts) will help your table look solemn.

We will need:

• salami;
• bacon;
• sausage bread;
• 2 bunches of parsley;
• Cherry tomatoes;
• large red tomatoes;
• cheese.

We cut all the products thinly and start laying them out on a large flat plate.

For convenience, cheese will go first. We use it to divide the dishes into sectors. Their quantity depends on how many types of meat you will use.

Each cell should be filled with one variety. For beauty, you can, for example, coat pieces of boiled sausage with a paste of cheese and mayonnaise and roll them into tubes. Make flowers from some variety, fastening the middle. To do this, fold the circle in half, make small cuts on the fold, roll it up and secure it along the edge with a skewer.

Place leaves of curly parsley in the middle and chopped tomato on top. Instead of tomatoes, you can put stuffed small peppers or put a gravy boat. Place cherry tomatoes, pierced with skewers, on a plate.

Hot

The beautiful design of hot dishes deserves special attention. It all depends on how they are served. There are two options: separately in the center of the table or separately on plates.

If you use the first method, then always take into account not only the beauty of the presentation, but also that it is convenient for guests to take a portion for themselves. To do this, it’s better to divide the whole fish into pieces or cut the meatloaf, and then start decorating. Of course, if it's chicken, it's better to leave it whole and break off pieces with your hands.

Everyone has seen that large hot dishes are often accompanied by baked vegetables and fruits, pickled mushrooms, which not only give a unique taste, but also add color. Lemon slices are also used, inserted, for example, into pike cuts. Often the recipes themselves provide for a beautiful presentation of the dish.

Fresh herbs are also a fairly popular option when decorating. Just keep in mind that high temperatures quickly wither it. Therefore, place it entirely along the edge just before serving.

Surround the dish with different sauces in the same bowl. This will highlight the main dish on the table.

Even when serving a simple puree soup, get creative. For example, pour a little ketchup into the light one, and sour cream and mayonnaise into the dark one, and make some kind of streaks with a stick. Stick a sprig of dill into the middle. That's it, it turned out to be a festive first course. Even just a fried egg fried in a slice of pepper cut crosswise or a sausage rolled into a heart will lift your spirits.

When you decide to put everyone on a plate, you can’t ignore anyone. And it’s easier to use beautiful presentation of meat dishes. In this case, the option is often used when meat or fish is laid out on lettuce leaves. They are also topped with bright sauces in an original way. Make a small mound of finely chopped pieces, because a little chaos on a plate looks more original.

For decorations, it is better to use baked, boiled or fried vegetables, green peas, corn, and mushrooms. Don't forget about vitamins in the form of sliced ​​tomatoes and cucumbers.

Next we will give another recipe. The beautiful design of the dish is also described there.

Correct design

When preparing a festive table, you should take into account the basic requirements.

1. Arrange tables correctly. That is, they should stand so that everyone can sit comfortably and comfortably. Typically, for large celebrations, tables are placed in a U-shape or T-shape. Or two tables are placed together, at which 8-12 people will sit. At large celebrations there are always presenters. It is important that everyone sitting can see and hear them.
2. Dishes should be placed so that everyone can reach each of them. Therefore, the same dish is placed in several places.
3. The dishes must be identical and clean. People should not have plates of different colors. It will look ugly and unethical. This can only be allowed if very close people have gathered.
4. If all the basic requirements are taken into account, you can start decorating the dishes. This is done to make them look beautiful and appetizing. Every housewife has her own way of decorating the table. If it is a themed party, then you can decorate the dishes in a certain style.

Crown of entrecotes and braid of meat

The first option for serving hot food is in the center of the table. If you do everything correctly, it will turn out original, and most importantly, delicious.

To do this you will need a large piece of pork with slightly slick ribs. At the market or on your own, immediately remove the ridge so that you can make a circle.

The number of ingredients will not be indicated, since it all depends on the number of guests you are expecting. Prepare:

• soy sauce;
• salt, seasonings;
• rice;
• greenery;
• potato;
• Cherry tomatoes.

Now let's look at the beautiful design of the dish (recipe). The photo you see below will help you assemble the structure correctly.

So, marinate the meat in soy sauce with spices, you can add garlic. Since this is a large piece, it is best to leave it in the refrigerator overnight. Then we wrap the piece in foil and put it in the oven. Leave on medium heat for 1-1.5 hours. At this time, boil the rice. Fry the potatoes and wash the tomatoes.

We take out the pork and use a very sharp knife to cut it (not all the way so it doesn’t fall apart) into pieces between the bones. We arrange it in the form of a circle with the edges up. To prevent everything from falling, secure the edges with toothpicks and place boiled rice in the middle. Pour the rendered fat from the meat over it.

Place tomatoes and potatoes around the edges. The complex side dish is made at the guest's choice. You can pour sauce over it and garnish with herbs.

Try the following beautiful decoration for a hot dish. A photo here is not even needed for explanation, because everything is done very simply.

Calculation of ingredients for 6-7 persons:

• tenderloin of your favorite meat – 1 kg;
• potatoes - 12 medium tubers;
• lettuce leaves;
• soy sauce;
• Provencal herbs.

Preparing the pulp. To do this, cut it into portions and, having beaten it a little with a hammer, send it to marinate with soy sauce for 45 minutes in a cold place. Then cut the meat lengthwise into 3 parts, but not all the way. Braid the hair and secure the ends with toothpicks. Pepper and sprinkle with seasoning. Place on a baking sheet, cover with foil and place in the oven.

Cut out mushrooms from the potatoes and cook until half cooked. 40 minutes after the meat starts frying, remove the “lid” from the sheet to add “mushrooms”. Leave in the roasting pan until golden brown.

At this time, prepare plates for serving. Place lettuce leaves on each one. They have our braids and “mushrooms” on them. You can pour any sauce for meat or add pickled red onions.

Serving food on one plate

Here you immediately need to consider how you are going to organize this. There are popular ways:

1. If you decide to use the example of restaurants and make a beautiful presentation of the dish, then you need to visually divide the plate like a dial. So, at “11 o’clock” they always put side dishes (potatoes, pasta, rice, buckwheat), at “2 o’clock” - salad or chopped vegetables. The main meat or fish dish will go at 6 o'clock.
2. The Japanese love to share dishes even on the same plate. Bowls with different types of food and sauces are displayed on the main one. This allows you to feel the taste of each and the different combination of products.
3. Even fast food companies try to make everything more original and can, for example, display French fries in stacks.

Even a simple breakfast, made with imagination, will evoke positive emotions in your family.

Cooking for children

It is difficult to seat small family members and guests at the table, much less to force them to eat unwanted but healthy porridge. Therefore, you should pay special attention to the beautiful design of children's dishes.

So let's start with the appetizers. Here it is better to use figures of popular “cartoons” or animals. Try to surprise the children as much as possible. Here are examples:

1. Prepare the Olivier salad and place it on a fish-shaped plate. Make the scales from thinly sliced ​​pickled cucumbers, and the head from boiled protein. Green onions will go on the tail. Canned peas will make eyes.
2. Sandwiches in the shape of a cell phone are also suitable for a children's table. To do this, cut the bread into small rectangles. The cheese will become a display. Place a piece of sausage and green peas on top. This will be the keyboard.
3. Cut a fresh long cucumber and small tomatoes (appropriate in size). Pour sour cream onto the bottom of the plate, alternately place vegetables in the form of a snake. Make weed from spring onions.
4. Bake pancakes. Lubricate them with a mixture of grated cheese and sour cream. Roll and cut into small sausages. Having placed it on a plate, tell your child that these are children's rolls.

If there are first courses, it is better to cook a puree soup, on which it is easy to draw various faces. The advantage will be that the children will not choose fried onions they don’t like from the broth. For example, pour the finished dish into a plate. Take ketchup and draw a mouth, nose and eyebrows. Boiled yolk will make eyes; add fresh dill to replace the antennae.

When creating a menu for the little ones, you should take into account that they cannot use sharp objects. Therefore, if there is meat, it will be chopped or minced. If it is fish, then without bones. You can build, for example, bears, make eyes from boiled yolks, and have a blanket of mashed potatoes on the plate.

You can make a turtle. To do this, carefully place an oval of buckwheat porridge in the middle of the plate. The legs can be sausages cut in half. The egg will make a head. The child will become more interested, and he will eat everything with pleasure.

Beautifully decorating dishes for your child’s birthday takes even more time than for any other holiday. It is necessary to carefully consider the menu not only of salads and hot dishes. Even for adults, the main thing on this day will be cake. Of course, you can order it from a professional. But try to do it yourself:

1. For a simple option, buy any cake and make additional fruit decorations and write the inscription with melted chocolate.
2. Buy ready-made cakes and make the cream yourself. To do this, whip chilled heavy cream with a small amount of sugar, mix the butter with a mixer until fluffy and mix with condensed milk. By fastening each layer, assemble the cake. It will be enough to put some berry on top, pour it with glaze, wait until it hardens, and make an inscription with white chocolate.
3. If you decide to take the whole process into your own hands, then it is better to do this in the evening so that you have time to set the entire table. Select a photo with the recipe in advance. The beautiful decoration of dishes can be repeated or developed as desired.

Also, fruit jelly, yoghurt, and ice cream in ice cream bowls are often served for dessert. Imagine how beautifully you can decorate or design it all.

Fruits, vegetables, desserts

Special attention is paid to decorating dishes made from vegetables or fruits. They are a must on any table. Fruits on the table bring exotic freshness. It is very important to cut them correctly. Apples cut into baskets look unusual, inside which you can put various types of berries, grapes, and nuts.

Recently, some people have become interested in this type of needlework, such as carving. With the help of certain tools, interesting flowers, bouquets of flowers, and cut-out figures are cut from fruits and vegetables. For example, you can make a dolphin from a banana.

You can make canapés from fruits and vegetables. You just need to choose the right combination of flavors. An interesting taste is obtained by combining canned pineapple with banana. You can make adorable hedgehogs from pears. To do this, attach a black currant to the sharp nose, and insert toothpicks on the back, on which to prick grapes.

Vegetables can also make a creative dish. You can cut flowers from carrots by first preparing the petals with a sharp knife.

Flowers made from tomatoes are very beautiful. The most important thing is to choose hard varieties. But sweet bell peppers are simply ideal for making large flowers. There is such a simple recipe for breakfast (not necessarily for the holiday table) when flowers are made from pepper. Then they are placed in a frying pan and an egg is poured inside. Everything is fried until the eggs are ready. This recipe is suitable for decorating children's dishes. It's no secret that many children are capricious, not wanting to eat. Young children will definitely like these recipes.

For the holiday table, you can cut cucumbers in the shape of a fan or feathers. You can cut it into a thin long strip and twist it into a spiral, or in the form of petals or a cone. If you place beautifully chopped vegetables on lettuce leaves, this will also increase your appetite and delight your guests.

Decorating dishes with your own hands (photos are presented in the article) is a unique, labor-intensive, but fascinating process. Everyone has their own taste and their own version.

Desserts, like fruits and vegetables, are a must on the table. This is a cake, and sweets, and pastries. Of course, you can buy them in the store. But you can cook it yourself. Decorating homemade dishes (photos are presented in the article) is more trusted than store-bought ones. After all, then fruits and berries from your garden will be used. When making creams for the cake, use your own milk and sour cream. The products will be healthier and tastier.

Light desserts are a must. For example, milk jelly (panna cotta). Gelatin, milk and sugar are used to prepare it. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed. The resulting jelly is decorated with berries.