Restaurant plating, like any other aesthetic, goes through its own trends and eras. Remember when so many fine dining restaurants turned food into circular towers? Or when so many chefs took a page from Paul Bocuse and used layers of mandolined vegetables to mimic scales on pieces of cooked fish? And I’m sure some of you, while eating out, have literally had food shoveled at you.
It’s no surprise, then, that in this hotbed of ceramic arts, many local upscale restaurants, like Californios and Nightbird, place particular focus on sourcing plates that you can’t find anywhere else.
