Image isn't everything

Jun 6 2008 by Bill Oldfield, The Journal

“PEOPLE eat with their eyes,” argued my colleague some years ago. “Yes,” I replied, “but the eating has to be the priority. Let’s not lose sight of that.”

But he did and, as a chef, concentrated more and more on how the dish looked, to the detriment of its taste, balance and texture.

I’m sure he would have loved the waiting staff to present the food from under silver salvers with a dramatic lift of the domed lids accompanied by a full fanfare and a crash of cymbals.

But to me it seemed like being presented with an overly made-up lady – trying to hide something.

From my own point of view, I’ve often been frustrated by not being trained to present dishes in the way that chefs frequently can and as a result am not particularly expert at making art on a plate.

My food is often as good, if not better, than most chefs that I’ve met because I know what I’m looking for.

After all, eating’s not only a refuelling exercise for me but also my hobby.

It frequently amazes me that so many chefs don’t actually eat what they cook, but that’s another subject.

These days I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by chefs that share my philosophy and can present the food, without it being too much like a tribute to their genius with a paint brush. And I was delighted to read that recently a high-profile chef in Spain has reinforced my personal view.

Three-star Michelin chef Santiago Santamaría recently let rip in the media against his colleagues, accusing them of pretentious cooking that aspired more to art than cooking. Oh yes!

“Cooks should not be preoccupied with creating sculptures or painting pictures with their work. A table is not an art gallery,” he said – but in Spanish. He went on to suggest that they were giving their patrons dishes that they themselves would not eat.

My point precisely. Where have you been all my life, Santiago?

Actually, there’s possibly some commercial in-fighting going on over there as the chef he seems to have in his sights is Ferran Adrià, whose El Bulli restaurant has been voted the world’s best for the past three years. Not a bad accolade actually, so who am I to criticise?

Santamaría’s own restaurant, Can Febes, is ranked 31st on Restaurant Magazine’s list of the world’s top eateries and he may be after moving it up 30 places as well as promoting a new book I understand he’s got coming out. But I think he’s picked a winning point.

The demands of diners seem to be moving more towards the content of their dishes rather than its apparent image.

And they seem more and more concerned about the provenance of the ingredients and how far they’ve travelled.

So I know I’m repeating myself and risk beginning to sound like a broken record, but let’s concentrate on the ingredients and let the food speak for itself. And avoid all the make-up.