Bad food plating is rife in restaurants all around the world, at least on the evidence of the hugely popular We Want Plates, a “Global crusade against serving food on bits of wood and roof slates, chips in mugs and drinks in jam jars.” It collects some of the worst plating ideas ever and shares them for our mirth. At the time of writing, it has close to a million social media followers, many of whom are happy to share visual evidence of the plating woe they’ve experienced.
Mostly it’s a lack of common sense that irks – think sauced dishes served on flat slates so that the liquid runs off the side – or infuriatingly quirky plating props such as miniature shopping trolleys or old industrial piping.
We’ve all been there, when a plate of food’s arrived and we’ve asked ourselves: “What the...?” So, we encourage you to share your plating disasters with We Want Plates too. Sometimes, creativity and thinking outside of the box in the kitchen can go too far, and the result is bad plating like this:
