Food Presentation Secrets: Styling Techniques of Professionals Hardcover – Illustrated, February 19, 2010

A very good book with lots of information in it for someone new to food presentation. The book is very concise and at no time does it feel like the author is talking down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone knew and wants to take their presentation game up a notch.

This book has helped me make better looking dishes and plates with my food design. I learned a lot and it's a good book worth every penny for new cooks.

As a person who gets many review copies of food-related books, I actually went out and bought this one after flipping through it at a bookstore. It's a great volume to have if you have no idea how to create little tidbits for food styling, and it will teach you how to create little flourishes like pastry rings, noodles nests, and fruit twists.I love that this book has step-by-step instructions with photos for over 100 techniques, and then a few pages on plating, etc. I wish there'd been more photos of plating, showing different styles and even setups that don't work and why, but what's here is really valuable.Not sure why that other person said the content wasn't good - I suppose if you already knew all of this then it wouldn't be worthwhile to read, but overall, it's a great book for beginning food stylists, home cooks, new chefs and especially, food bloggers who are trying to better their plating and food photography.

Great Book!

I'm a Chef and culinary mentor in NYC, so I bought this book to help with showing students different kinds of plating, I have to admit for the price I expected more, and to be honest, if I saw this book in the store I would have never bought it. Why? Because it feels strongly dated, at an age where everything is wow factor, art work plating, this is more of the first step techniques book....With that said, I first hated this book but then I realized that it was beyond perfect for what I needed it for, for helping students whom I am mentoring learn the basic steps for learning these steps.So in the end, it helped me more than I expected, and it gave me amazing flashbacks of when I first started learning the basics of the steps of plating.This book breaks down many steps of plating, from plating with fruit, to veggies, it teaches you many things that you will love to learn.So if you are first starting out with plating or looking for a book where you not only can learn but also teach these steps, you found it here...However, if you are an expert at plating and looking for a book to enhance your perfection, this isn't the book for you, this book is for beginners or for those after the beginning stage.

There's nothing really wrong with this book except that the author spends too many pages at the beginning of the book writing about table settings, dinnerware selection, color coordination of the dining area and so on. It's really boring if you've been cooking and entertaining for a long time. Then there's a tedious section of all the thousands of tools you need. Finally when the techniques come around the book does a nice job presenting and explaining them. I find I'm using other books a lot more for presentation development than this one, but I haven't given up hope on this one. I just needed the information more quickly, with far less preamble. I almost feel as if the editors or the author felt that without adding some front-end fluff the page count would not be sufficient to justify its price. Too bad, as there are many useful ideas and techniques here.

I really enjoy this book because it teaches how to think more critically about plating, and gives ideas that can be applied across a wide spectrum instead of being specific to one dish. This book doesn't just tell you how to make a Parmesan basket or a candied lemon peel, it helps you think critically about why you should add them to your meal, what kind of compliment/contrast they provide to dish, how to create your the table setting, plate, and lighting choices, and so much more.My favorite thing overall though is an illustrated "table of contents" section towards the beginning so you can thumb through designs and then flip to the page you want once you find something you like. You don't have to read the book cover to cover; jump around to what suits you. There's a nifty time and difficulty identification at the top of each one so you know exactly what you're getting into.Overall, if you want to step your food game up, I highly recommend this book.

My wife is a Marine Corps chef and has been wanting to present better dishes. I am happy to say that this did the trick for her. She's gotten some great ideas from it and finds it pretty easy to follow!