Clearly, styling and presentation of food is a culinary art form that has elevated the chef from being an artisan to an artist. Chef Giuseppe Zanotti of Stax, Hyatt Regency, says, “The first impression is always important. If you’re taken in by the way a woman looks, you want to know more about her. The same goes for well-presented food.”

Zanotti, an expert in food style, takes the appearance of his food rather seriously. His style is typical of nouvelle cuisine, a food movement that originated in France years ago to counter the traditional heavy, sauce based elaborate cooking in the region. “I studied in Paris for two years. Small portions, elaborate garnishing and light food are the hallmark of modern French food culture. I have adapted it to Italian food too,” he explains. This means that nothing in his kitchen goes from pan to plate without the trimmings.

With food, one serves a plateful of culture too. Francisco Balanquit, Sushi Chef at Tiffin, The Oberoi, says the colours that one sees on a sushi platter—red, white, and pink, denote the hues of the rising sun. “Japan is also called Nippon, the land of rising sun, and hence the connection.

Japanese food uses simple colours and there’s a lot of detailing in cutting up fish perfectly. A serving of white rice, red tuna and pink salmon on a black dish is more than enough to make the food look rich. Too many colours look erratic and distract the eye,” he says.

The actual styling of food begins much before it even reaches the flame. Ananda Solomon, Executive Chef, Taj President, spells out some basic rules. “You have to start right. For meat and fish, the cuts have to be perfect. To style food well, you have to be a good butcher first. More so with Indian food; mutton biryani from Hyderabad has to look different from mutton biryani from Kashmir. The style of the cuts, the use of different grains of rice— basically, sound knowledge of authenticity of food comes into play.”

For Indian food, once you get your math right (the ratio of foods to be used with each other) you can move on to making the food look good before it goes on a table. Solomon says, “Indian food has a lot of vegetables, colourful curries and chutneys so external styling does not play the most important role. But we have varying textures in our food.”