Maybe you should play with food - that's the first thought after flipping through the illustrated book "Story on a Plate - The Delicate Art of Plating Dishes". On around 250 pages, international chefs and their presentation plates will be presented. Small works of art, in whose optics so much work was put as in the preparation. The arrangements are often experimental, always impressive and sometimes a bit strange. On cigarettes from white asparagus with filters of dried herbs, for example, you have to come first.
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Impressively present dishes: Meet two golden grasshoppersThe only German contribution to the book comes from Berlin and comes from the cook Dalad Kambhu. In 2017, the 33-year-old opened her restaurant Kin Dee in the capital. In 2019 she was awarded a Michelin star. In Kambhu's shop, there is Thai cuisine, sophisticated, but informal and unconventional. This applies to the food, but also their presentation. "Cooking is an art, but doing the food is an art in itself," says the star chef.
Of course, the taste is first and foremost for them - as with every chef. And like any good cook, Kambhu wants their food to look appealing. Bangkok, where she grew up, was the school of her taste, but it's only after living in New York for a while that she knows that food is something that can be curated and turned into an experience. "It can be fun and clever, and not just sent out to the kitchen for consumption."
How clever is their dish, "Duo Pla": two types of limejuice and chili inlaid fjord trout, decorated with pale blue petals on a turquoise plate with cracked glaze. The structure and color of the porcelain are supposed to simulate water, the food seems to float on it. So Kambhu wants to encourage their guests to eat before thinking about the origin of the fish.
Food for thought in the Kin Dee is also to be understood as food for thought. The menu - there is no menu - is conceived as a journey through Thailand, from the ingredients to the presentation, it is meant to remind of the different corners of the country, breaking with clichés about the country cuisine: "Many see Thai food as something That should be favorable - they do not think of the tradition and knowledge that are in the courts. "
"We do not want to be fussy and decadent"
For Kambhu, much of her job is intuition. Her restaurant concept is based as much on gut feeling as the way she prepares her food. Although it is a starred restaurant, there are no white tablecloths or silverware in the Kin Dee. Instead, the dishes are placed on colorful ceramic plates in the middle of the table and shared in the Thai style. Shared happiness is double happiness.
But it is not possible without inspiration. Kambhu is mostly looking for them in movies and museums - but not on Instagram, where thousands of accounts want to outdo each other with elaborate food stagings. "You should not look at food bloggers, but art," she advises.
Whether cooking is more fun or dressing up? Both. "Cooking is very fulfilling, presenting the food as its best version can be a whole different kind of enjoyment." The fact that this form of satisfaction even works visually on its own is proven by "Story on a Plate". Only eat yourself is even more beautiful.
