The art of plating...

So we started off Term 4 learning about the art of plating.  How to use the space well, but not overcrowd your dessert.  How to compliment your dessert with different textures, flavors, and garnishes.  How to decorate your dessert but not hide it with the decorations.  It was a lot of fun, though a lot more pressure on the plates.  We got marked off for various things, but it was definitely a way to get us more conscious about little things that we were not concentrating on quite as much!  

I forgot to take pictures of a few of my desserts - like the souffles - but here are pictures of the ones I remembered to get!  Some are pre-Chef tasting and some are post-Chef tasting, so that is why sometimes there is a bite or two in them.  :)

This is my Creme Caramel aka Flan.  I have never been a big fan of flan, and still am not.  The taste is quite yummy - then again I love most things caramel - but I just don't like the texture of it at all!  Too slimy for me, eew!  I decorated this plate with a caramel twist with whipped cream, blueberries, tiny caramel garnish dots, and kept the original caramel sauce from the flan.

This is the Panna Cotta.  Another slimy-ish dish, but a little better than the flan, but still not a favorite for me.  This plate has chocolate and raspberry sauces with a tempered chocolate garnish.

Our Fruit Mousse had a passion fruit mousse with a raspberry fruit glacage (we also made a guava glacage too).  We got feedback (not just from Chef) that the flavors were quite tart together, but personally I did really enjoy the tartness, but I can definitely see that it wouldn't be for everyone.  This plate has creme anglaise sauce with a little raspberry sauce in the dots, and a small rosette of whipped cream and a mint leaf.

This is my Chocolate Honey Mousse in a Chocolate Cage.  The cage was the main decoration that needed to be used for this plate - though I could have made a chocolate cup instead.  The plate has a chocolate cage, chocolate sauce, honey, and a mint leaf.

This is my Chocolate Marquis.  I loved this one, it was so yummy!  This plate has caramel sauce, whipped cream, a tempered chocolate garnish, and a bit of caramel batter on top.

We then got to make ice cream and we made a little vanilla, a little mocha (more coffee than chocolate), and pecan ice creams.  This is the pecan ice cream, which was incredibly yummy!  I plate it with a tempered chocolate garnish, strawberry slices, and some chocolate dots.

Our sorbet was a White Peach flavor and also super duper yummy!  I am sometimes not into some fruit flavored items, but this sorbet was really good.  It is plated by stacking three scoops of sorbet with a tuile piece pressed into the side, some raspberry sauce with a triangle of mango in it.

And those were the easier desserts to plate!