Pushing the boundaries of food presentation, or just plain annoying and tasteless? Andrew Webb investigates the trend for serving food on things other than plates.
Chefs have been pushing all sorts of boundaries over recent years. And that extends beyond food to what the food is served on. Tasty or tasteless? You decide.
1. Chopping boards
Even the chains do this nowadays. You'll notice it's always wood chopping boards, for that rustic natural look, never a plastic one. Although after repeated trips through an industrial dishwasher the wood starts to split, and food gunk can build up in the cracks - hmmm. I can understand serving something like a whole chicken on a chopping board, or cheese, as you need a flat space to cut it up on. But do burgers really need to come on boards?
2. Slate
Slate and food have a long history. Traditionally the north-facing larder or pantry would have slate shelves to help keep items like cheese cool. Nothing wrong with that. Then cheese began to appear in restaurants displayed on slate. You can see why, the dark slate contrasting with the mainly off-white cheese. Then other things started to appear on slates, things that weren't even white (like the steak pictured above), things you had to eat. Have you ever heard cutlery scratch repeatidly across slate? Sends the hairs on the back of your neck up and sets your teeth on edge. Plus, with no lip or raised edge, waiting staff find it hard to get their fingers underneath to pick them up. Enough - slate's for displaying cheese and nothing more.
3. Banana leaves
Ahh, bamboo, banana leaves and all that stuff. It's so ethnic, so genuine. I don't want to eat off leaves! I'm not the Hungry Caterpillar. Some say they're environmentally friendly as they're biodegradable, but you've still got to ship them from the Tropics to the UK. Think of it this way, would a chip shop in Saigon import newspaper to serve chips in? And they're a nightmare to carry to the table!
4. Bricks
When Ben Spalding took up the reigns at John Salt, his 'chicken on a brick' dish became the talk of London town. Diners were invited to 'lick the brick' to get the caramel chickeny flavour off it. Here's a photo of food blogger Chris Pople doing just that.
Guardian restaurant critic Marina O'Loughlin wasn't impressed when she reviewed the place in late 2012. A few months later Ben left under somewhat unusual circumstances, and the bricks are now used as ashtrays in the outside smoking area. As for what it all meant, I asked Marina for her thoughts: "He spouted all sorts of rationales for its existence but I'm still firmly of the opinion that it was a giant practical joke on the diners. Kitchen japes of the 'look, we got Giles Coren to lick a house brick' kind of thing."
5. A naked woman
It's hard to think of anything more misogynistic, sexist and degrading than eating sushi off a naked woman, but that's what nyotaimori is. Surely invented for salarymen in Japan, there have been attempts to launch it over here (read this account for a description). If you're interested it costs a mere £250 to lose all your humanity and treat a woman as a plate. Apparently nantaimori is when you eat off a guy (urgh - imagine the body hair!), but the only place this has been done is on Come Dine With Me [video].
When plates aren't needed
Of course sometimes you don't need a plate; fish and chips from a paper cone at the seaside, a sandwich at a picnic, pizza from a soggy cardboard box in front of the telly, but there's a reason why the table, plate, knife and fork have endured over the years. It's because, more often than not, it's the best way to eat.
What's the most unusual thing you've been served food on? Tell us in the Comments below.
Burger photo of ASK Restaurant London - Victoria is courtesy of TripAdvisor.
Nyotaimori images by Kerry Smith via Wikipedia
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