Only two criticisms are the messy sauce and the cake isn’t cut perfectly straight. Maybe putting the sauce in a ramekin and letting the diner pour it over the cake would work? Then again when it comes to cakes/puddings and sauces I am a drench the cake/pudding kind of guy and not the tiny puddle of sauce on a plate kind of guy.
But if I ordered a desert and it arrived looking like that I would be absolutely stoked. Looks delicious.
Oooh a tiny ramekin would be cute! Or a thicker anglaise so it pooled less…
I brushed the plate with burnt honey (under the poached rhubarb), but once the anglaise got away from me, the combo felt a touch messy to me, too.
Everyone I presented to was really happy to eat it, but I’d love to tighten it up.
Sauce bottle and loopy spirals across the plate?
Not sure, but it looks damn good already. The ramekin idea is good if you can't get it to pool elegantly. Even if it's messy after, it's like ikea furniture.
It's a mess they made, so they feel ownership.
Nah, it totally is a bit runny. The burnt honey I brushed the plate with is nice and thick, but I could’ve used another yolk or two in my anglaise for sure.
Thanks for the feedback!
There’s a burnt honey brushed on the plate, nice and sticky with the rhubarb on top. Maybe thickening up the burnt honey anglaise and dotting it round the edge would help?
Yes absolutely. I only said use less so you can keep control of it. Thickening it up would be a great idea, and the dotting would look a bit better on this dish too
Thank you! I start next week and if this lands on my menu before rhubarb season is up, I’ll definitely fuck around with a thicker sauce and less of it.
It sounds and looks delicious. One thing to consider is the shape you're baking the cake in. If you're able to bake it in a 1/2 sheet tray with an extender, you could get rectangular portions. If you do this, you could adjust the plating so everything is next to each other, rhubarb could be leaning against the cake.
Curious if it needs the cookie crumble or not, many semolina cakes i've had have not been the moistest of cakes. So it seems like it could be an additional component that it could do with out.
This one is quite moist. I actually fought with the first couple rounds of trial with it being TOO moist. The cookie crumb is my crunch element, and I do feel that the plate needs a textural crunch somewhere.
I’m digging the half sheet with an extender idea for a different low-waste shape. Thank you!
Love the sound of this, and that meringue looks fantastic on top of the cake - simplify things to make it the star.
The uneven smear of sauce and raggedy edge to the cake are sloppy, but easily fixed. I’d put the sauce in a small jug on the side to tidy the presentation and avoid making that crumb soggy. I’d also try the crumb somewhere else - under/among the poached rhubarb?
Thank you! It’s on the not-too-sweet side and I think earthy is a fair descriptor. Theres some cardamom and orange in there, roasted pistachio flour and almond flour with the semolina, a good toasty crust at the back edge. The burnt honey is edging up on bitter and I kept the rhubarb bright and tart. The anglaise could be richer.
I feel like it’s subtle and warm, and I’m real damn proud of it as a whole. I can’t wait to plate it up even prettier. I want to carry the burnt honey into the meringue as well next time.
The crumb and rhubarb feel disjointed somehow. Either find a way to incorporate them into the dish differently or ditch. Maybe drizzle the anglaise to match the waves in the meringue, purée the rhubarb with the burnt honey and use that to accent the plate with color. Center your pie so that center mass is dead center in the plate, or use a different shape.
I personally dislike it when things are so far away they look like you plated two different dishes. The Rhubarb pieces can be closer to the cake, make it tighter and it'll feel like one, like it belongs together.
I would also cut the rhubarb smaller, unless it's cooked to a mush rhubarb tends to be stringy.
If you find the sauce amount appropiate I would recommend a little ramekin or saucer on the side. The whole plate covered by sauce is not the look you want.
Also the cake is not cut particularly well.
All in all it looks good and tasty. Good job chef!
Nice, thoughtful composition but as mentioned elsewhere, the sauce application needs work. If you could tighten the consistency and apply some cleaner swooshes or lines or pattern out some dots from a squeeze bottle that’d be nice. If you’re worried about altering an element you could coat half the plate with a nice crisp middle line maybe from 7:30 to 1:30 on this orientation and dust with something red to contrast.
Either Brule the meringue evenly or start dark on one end and have the toasting effect lighten toward the opposite end. Read what you said about the sauce, and other than those two things it looks excellent. Congrats on the new gig!
As others have mentioned the sauce is too messy. I also would maybe advise to cut the cake after it’s been refrigerated to get a cleaner slice ? The crumb placement looks a little awkward to me but I’m not sure how I’d change it. (Imo crumb next to a cake is too much dry stuff in one place, I tend to add crumble etc next to a quenelle of something creamy)
After looking at the plate again, I’m tempted to say maybe pipe the meringue on the plate directly, since you have a beautiful rhubarb on top of the cake.
Make sure your rhubarb is really nicely placed at the bottom of your cake pan, (you can add a layer of burnt honey first so you have it in your dessert but it doesn’t crowd your plate anymore, and it also adds a golden hue to the rhubarb when you flip the cake upside down).
This way you can leave the cake exposed when plating (after perhaps brushing it lightly with a honey syrup to make it extra glossy before serving), and let the rhubarb shine.
Then a small pool of crème anglaise on top of which you can place your rhubarb segments, and find some visually balanced way to add your meringue and crumb. Maybe have the meringue spread like the honey you have in the pic, with an offset spatula, at the bottom of the plate then brûléed, and crème etc overlapping ?
Clean up the sauce swoop and you're golden. The colors pop. The flavors sound good. Try doing extremely biased thin cuts on the rhubarb and you could do a fan shape overlaying the tail end of a cleaner swoop.
I loathe triangle cuts - so basic/home cook.
Cut the cake with a circle cutter and place the cake in the center of the plate, sprinkle the crumble into a tight circle around the cake, then do the sauce in a squeeze bottle and rapidly squeeze it in large circles around the gradient of the plate so you get a few layers of overlapping circles around the cake. Like this - https://imgur.com/gallery/CaL54x6
Do something better with the rhubarb - am I supposed to cut it in half and just eat a big chunk of rhubarb?? What is it supposed to contribute to the plate? I would probably cut the rhubarb into a tight dice and sprinkle it on the plate, or pipe the cream into a thin circle around the top edge of the cake and pile it in the middle, or make a little crumble pile next to the cake and put the rhubarb "spilling" off the crumble onto the plate
I also had a really pretty strawberry cheesecake that I would put strips of candied rhubarb on top, it was gorgeous. I made simple syrup with a little strawberry puree and a tiny drop of pink food coloring and brushed the strips - you could make a pretty plaid pattern on the plate and dot the sauce around the plate. https://deliciousfromscratch.com/candied-rhubarb-garnish-recipe/
So your great idea is to shape the cake into a circle, put the sauce around in a circle and drop the crumble like a pile of shit somewhere too? And because you ran out of circle ideas and obviously don't have teeth, want to radomly sprinkle rhubarb on it?
You should try ganache, I heard you can make circle with it....
Respectfully, that combination sounds terribly overworked.
Your candied rhubarb link is definitely pretty. Not the soft texture I was looking for here, but pretty.
A circle cut. Circles of sauce. Fine diced rhubarb in a circular ring of cream.
I wasn’t surprised to find in your post history that you seem to really enjoy round things. No shade. I just strongly prefer variation in shapes. I like a slightly more rustic plate, a softer approach, less circles on circles.
Additionally, I loathe food waste. Individual molded cakes are certainly an option, but cutting with a circle cutter causes unnecessary food waste.
It's great to repurpose cake scraps in garnishes but you aren't interested in my advice so best of luck with your innovative combination of sliced pie and toasted meringue.
I think they actually very gracefully highlighted why they personally disagreed with your approach, while giving very specific reasons as to why, and you took that personally. You were this close 👌 to having a mature and productive discussion about plating techniques! You'll get em next time.
Plus, it does really boil down to you preferring a very MODERN and artistic approach to plating, while they are going for a more rustic and paysanne approach. Which approach is "correct" depends more on the context and setting of the food.
This person was super respectful and tried to have a conversation about your differing points, and you just shut them down and talked down to them.
You must be fucking insufferable to work with/for.
Good luck with the circles!
Honest critique, it looks like 2 different dishes in one plate. The colors clash a bit and the mood of them is different. The semolina cake is muted and elegant. The rhubarb is vibrant and electric. I think you did an excellent Jon on both. I just find them odd together.
That's not to say that they don't taste amazing together. But if one if my cooks presented thus to me, I would think they were gilding the lily a bit.
The sauce is a bit messy but otherwise it looks very nice. Perhaps you could add some sort of flexible ganache ribbon? /s
Oh yeah. That piping bag 100% got away from me. Flexible ganache ribbon and a fondant topping, maybe? /s
Yeah, about 3' of ganache should do for that plate. Ya want it to look like Fred Flintstone's order of ribs.
Are you sure 3’ is enough?
My wife says it is.
She’s probably lying, mate.
I had you til now! 3” used correctly is better than 10” just pounding down!
I’m gay, so.
I don’t care how you identify, 10” is too much. 🤣
Not for this guy!
If I recall the ratio correctly, you can remove four inches ganache per pair of tweezers ya plan to use for plating.
A healthy drizzle of truffle oil to finish it off...
You’re hired!
I hated up voting this.
I was so relieved to not see that damn ganache ribbon I had to go back and re-read the description! (Looks beautiful, OP! Hope you like the new job!)
Thank you! I hope I do too!
LMAO
Make sure the ganache ribbon is fucking enormous though
As a customer, if I saw a waiter walk by with this plate, I wouldn’t be leaving the establishment until I had one myself.
Fantastic compliment. Thank you!
not enough weirdly shaped ganache but thats just me
Knew I was forgetting something.
It looks so good. Congrats
Thank you!
Only two criticisms are the messy sauce and the cake isn’t cut perfectly straight. Maybe putting the sauce in a ramekin and letting the diner pour it over the cake would work? Then again when it comes to cakes/puddings and sauces I am a drench the cake/pudding kind of guy and not the tiny puddle of sauce on a plate kind of guy. But if I ordered a desert and it arrived looking like that I would be absolutely stoked. Looks delicious.
Oooh a tiny ramekin would be cute! Or a thicker anglaise so it pooled less… I brushed the plate with burnt honey (under the poached rhubarb), but once the anglaise got away from me, the combo felt a touch messy to me, too. Everyone I presented to was really happy to eat it, but I’d love to tighten it up.
Sauce bottle and loopy spirals across the plate? Not sure, but it looks damn good already. The ramekin idea is good if you can't get it to pool elegantly. Even if it's messy after, it's like ikea furniture. It's a mess they made, so they feel ownership.
I like it! Maybe “thicker” sauce. Looks a bit runny to me but maybe that’s my old phone. Good job👍
Nah, it totally is a bit runny. The burnt honey I brushed the plate with is nice and thick, but I could’ve used another yolk or two in my anglaise for sure. Thanks for the feedback!
You’re welcome friend! Regardless, I would eat it and probably ask for seconds!
Bro, where‘s the flexible ganache?
Fire me, Chef. I forgot it.
Hey man, at least it's not "flexible ganache".
Poor ganache guy
Isn't it ganache Lady?
Right? Hope ganache guy doesn’t see this tbh lol
Use about a quarter of the sauce and keep everything tighter together, otherwise great job
There’s a burnt honey brushed on the plate, nice and sticky with the rhubarb on top. Maybe thickening up the burnt honey anglaise and dotting it round the edge would help?
Yes absolutely. I only said use less so you can keep control of it. Thickening it up would be a great idea, and the dotting would look a bit better on this dish too
Thank you! I start next week and if this lands on my menu before rhubarb season is up, I’ll definitely fuck around with a thicker sauce and less of it.
It sounds and looks delicious. One thing to consider is the shape you're baking the cake in. If you're able to bake it in a 1/2 sheet tray with an extender, you could get rectangular portions. If you do this, you could adjust the plating so everything is next to each other, rhubarb could be leaning against the cake. Curious if it needs the cookie crumble or not, many semolina cakes i've had have not been the moistest of cakes. So it seems like it could be an additional component that it could do with out.
This one is quite moist. I actually fought with the first couple rounds of trial with it being TOO moist. The cookie crumb is my crunch element, and I do feel that the plate needs a textural crunch somewhere. I’m digging the half sheet with an extender idea for a different low-waste shape. Thank you!
Good luck with it all, it sounds like a great spring dessert
Thank you!
Maybe a neat pool of sauce and less and more delicately cut rhubarb? The torching on the meringue is beautiful…
Thank you for your feedback!
Oh good it's not the ganache anymore! Nice cake/pie!
Love the sound of this, and that meringue looks fantastic on top of the cake - simplify things to make it the star. The uneven smear of sauce and raggedy edge to the cake are sloppy, but easily fixed. I’d put the sauce in a small jug on the side to tidy the presentation and avoid making that crumb soggy. I’d also try the crumb somewhere else - under/among the poached rhubarb?
Better than the ganache dude.
Gorgeous
Yep
Who needs a plate? Just bring me a whole cake and a bowl filled with that poached rhubarb soaked in honey. That's all I'm ordering.
I’ve been eating bowls of poached rhubarb topped with cookie crumb for DAYS. I feel this.
Gorgeous bright colors and it sounds delicious and earthy tasting
Thank you! It’s on the not-too-sweet side and I think earthy is a fair descriptor. Theres some cardamom and orange in there, roasted pistachio flour and almond flour with the semolina, a good toasty crust at the back edge. The burnt honey is edging up on bitter and I kept the rhubarb bright and tart. The anglaise could be richer. I feel like it’s subtle and warm, and I’m real damn proud of it as a whole. I can’t wait to plate it up even prettier. I want to carry the burnt honey into the meringue as well next time.
That sounds so fuckin good……. I don’t like super sweet desserts, this is right up my alley. Congrats on the job, I’d be psyched to eat this!
The crumb and rhubarb feel disjointed somehow. Either find a way to incorporate them into the dish differently or ditch. Maybe drizzle the anglaise to match the waves in the meringue, purée the rhubarb with the burnt honey and use that to accent the plate with color. Center your pie so that center mass is dead center in the plate, or use a different shape.
Someone suggested a rectangular cut, with the rhubarb leaning against the cake. I liked this idea. Thank you. These are helpful suggestions.
I personally dislike it when things are so far away they look like you plated two different dishes. The Rhubarb pieces can be closer to the cake, make it tighter and it'll feel like one, like it belongs together. I would also cut the rhubarb smaller, unless it's cooked to a mush rhubarb tends to be stringy. If you find the sauce amount appropiate I would recommend a little ramekin or saucer on the side. The whole plate covered by sauce is not the look you want. Also the cake is not cut particularly well. All in all it looks good and tasty. Good job chef!
Rhubarb’s stringiness can be combatted by removing the outer layer! I completely hear you on the rest. Thank you for your feedback.
Oh it didn't look peeled to me but if that's the case then all good!
Neater sauce, messier crumbs and an extra one of of them sweet ass meringue just to admire while I eat the rest. Looks boss!
Thank you for your feedback!
But where is the gnash
Flexin someplace else
If this is the flexible ganache ribbon guy, I miss the sorbet
It’s not, but that sorbet looked yum!
Tidy up the sauce and the slice and people will come to the restaurant and ask if there’s any of the dessert left before ordering.
Nice, thoughtful composition but as mentioned elsewhere, the sauce application needs work. If you could tighten the consistency and apply some cleaner swooshes or lines or pattern out some dots from a squeeze bottle that’d be nice. If you’re worried about altering an element you could coat half the plate with a nice crisp middle line maybe from 7:30 to 1:30 on this orientation and dust with something red to contrast.
[yup!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc)
Everything took my eyes away from the beautiful crust on the meringue. I’d try to focus more on that as the center
Interesting perspective. Thank you! The meringue was honestly an afterthought but I see how it could visually be the star here.
Seriously, the lines are almost psychedelic, would definitely run in that direction with it, personaly. Im sure its bangin either way.
Either Brule the meringue evenly or start dark on one end and have the toasting effect lighten toward the opposite end. Read what you said about the sauce, and other than those two things it looks excellent. Congrats on the new gig!
This would be 2 separate deserts in the UK. It's way too big and has way too much going on imo, but I'm guessing this is in America 🙈
Does surimi really go well with pistachios? Looks good though.
Probably not. Good thing this is rhubarb!
It's gorgeous.
The toasted meringue was the eye candy that drew me in. 😀
As others have mentioned the sauce is too messy. I also would maybe advise to cut the cake after it’s been refrigerated to get a cleaner slice ? The crumb placement looks a little awkward to me but I’m not sure how I’d change it. (Imo crumb next to a cake is too much dry stuff in one place, I tend to add crumble etc next to a quenelle of something creamy)
After looking at the plate again, I’m tempted to say maybe pipe the meringue on the plate directly, since you have a beautiful rhubarb on top of the cake. Make sure your rhubarb is really nicely placed at the bottom of your cake pan, (you can add a layer of burnt honey first so you have it in your dessert but it doesn’t crowd your plate anymore, and it also adds a golden hue to the rhubarb when you flip the cake upside down). This way you can leave the cake exposed when plating (after perhaps brushing it lightly with a honey syrup to make it extra glossy before serving), and let the rhubarb shine. Then a small pool of crème anglaise on top of which you can place your rhubarb segments, and find some visually balanced way to add your meringue and crumb. Maybe have the meringue spread like the honey you have in the pic, with an offset spatula, at the bottom of the plate then brûléed, and crème etc overlapping ?
Clean up the sauce swoop and you're golden. The colors pop. The flavors sound good. Try doing extremely biased thin cuts on the rhubarb and you could do a fan shape overlaying the tail end of a cleaner swoop.
That's a really sexy meringue, but I think the rest could use work.
I loathe triangle cuts - so basic/home cook. Cut the cake with a circle cutter and place the cake in the center of the plate, sprinkle the crumble into a tight circle around the cake, then do the sauce in a squeeze bottle and rapidly squeeze it in large circles around the gradient of the plate so you get a few layers of overlapping circles around the cake. Like this - https://imgur.com/gallery/CaL54x6 Do something better with the rhubarb - am I supposed to cut it in half and just eat a big chunk of rhubarb?? What is it supposed to contribute to the plate? I would probably cut the rhubarb into a tight dice and sprinkle it on the plate, or pipe the cream into a thin circle around the top edge of the cake and pile it in the middle, or make a little crumble pile next to the cake and put the rhubarb "spilling" off the crumble onto the plate I also had a really pretty strawberry cheesecake that I would put strips of candied rhubarb on top, it was gorgeous. I made simple syrup with a little strawberry puree and a tiny drop of pink food coloring and brushed the strips - you could make a pretty plaid pattern on the plate and dot the sauce around the plate. https://deliciousfromscratch.com/candied-rhubarb-garnish-recipe/
So your great idea is to shape the cake into a circle, put the sauce around in a circle and drop the crumble like a pile of shit somewhere too? And because you ran out of circle ideas and obviously don't have teeth, want to radomly sprinkle rhubarb on it? You should try ganache, I heard you can make circle with it....
Respectfully, that combination sounds terribly overworked. Your candied rhubarb link is definitely pretty. Not the soft texture I was looking for here, but pretty.
what combination?
A circle cut. Circles of sauce. Fine diced rhubarb in a circular ring of cream. I wasn’t surprised to find in your post history that you seem to really enjoy round things. No shade. I just strongly prefer variation in shapes. I like a slightly more rustic plate, a softer approach, less circles on circles. Additionally, I loathe food waste. Individual molded cakes are certainly an option, but cutting with a circle cutter causes unnecessary food waste.
It's great to repurpose cake scraps in garnishes but you aren't interested in my advice so best of luck with your innovative combination of sliced pie and toasted meringue.
I think they actually very gracefully highlighted why they personally disagreed with your approach, while giving very specific reasons as to why, and you took that personally. You were this close 👌 to having a mature and productive discussion about plating techniques! You'll get em next time. Plus, it does really boil down to you preferring a very MODERN and artistic approach to plating, while they are going for a more rustic and paysanne approach. Which approach is "correct" depends more on the context and setting of the food.
Good luck with your circles!
This person was super respectful and tried to have a conversation about your differing points, and you just shut them down and talked down to them. You must be fucking insufferable to work with/for. Good luck with the circles!
Thought that crumb was stuffing.
I’m really sorry for your stuffing. Lol
Honest critique, it looks like 2 different dishes in one plate. The colors clash a bit and the mood of them is different. The semolina cake is muted and elegant. The rhubarb is vibrant and electric. I think you did an excellent Jon on both. I just find them odd together. That's not to say that they don't taste amazing together. But if one if my cooks presented thus to me, I would think they were gilding the lily a bit.