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TLE - HE-COOKERY
Quarter 4 – Module 4
Presenting Meat Dishes
TLE – Home Economics – 10
Alternative Delivery Mode
Quarter 4 – Module 4: Presenting Meat Dishes
First Edition, 2020

Introductory Message

The Self-Learning Module (SLM) is prepared so that you, our dear learners, can continue your
studies and learn while at home. Activities, questions, directions, exercises, and discussions
are carefully stated for you to understand each lesson.

Each SLM is composed of different parts. Each part shall guide you step-by-step as you
discover and understand the lesson prepared for you.

Pre-test are provided to measure your prior knowledge on lessons in each SLM. These will tell
you if you need to proceed on completing this module or if you need to ask your facilitator or
your teacher’s assistance for better understanding of the lesson. At the end of each module,
you need to answer the post-test to self-check your learning. Answer keys are provided for
each activity and test. We trust that you will be honest in using these.

Please use this module with care. Do not put unnecessary marks on any part of this SLM.
Use a separate sheet of paper in answering the exercises and tests. Read the instructions
carefully before performing each task.

If you have any questions in using this SLM or any difficulty in answering the tasks in this
module, do not hesitate to consult your teacher or facilitator.

Published by the Department of Education, SDO Aurora

Schools Division Superintendent: Catalina P. Paez PhD, CESO V
Assistant Schools Division Superintendent: Danilo M. Jacoba

Development Team of the Module

Writer: Edlin B. Ladores

Editor: Jonalyn O. Calado
Reviewers: Ma. Roselle S. Fajanilbo
Cherrybel P. Gaspar
Edward Q. Larioza
Illustrator: Wenelyn P. Bautista
Layout Artist: Edlin B. Ladores
Harold T. Tecson
Management Team: Erleo T. Villaros PhD
Esmeralda S. Escobar PhD
Estrella D. Neri
Milagros F. Bautista PhD

Printed in the Philippines by Department of Education – Region III –Schools Division

of Aurora
Office Address: Sitio Hiwalayan, Brgy. Bacong, San Luis, Aurora
Telefax:
E-mail Address: aurora@deped.gov.ph
 What I Need to Know

This module was designed and written for the learners. After going through
this module, the learner is expected to:

1. identify the basic element in plating meat dishes aesthetically;

2. classify the different techniques in plating; and
3. apply the techniques in meat dishes plating.
TLE_HECK9-12PCM-lVh-32

What I Know

Directions: Read the following test items below. Encircle the letter of the correct
answer. Write your answer on your activity note book.

1. Refers to how something feels or its visible surface characteristics, a food might
be described as crispy, creamy, rough or smooth.
A. feeling C. textualized taste
B. mouth feel D. texture
2. What term is used in decorating food to make it more attractive?
A. designing C. movement
B. garnishing D. plating
3. What do you call the arrangement of food on the plate?
A. balance C. plating
B. garnishing D. ravier
4. An uncut portion of the main food item is known as __________________.
A.balance C. movement
B.centerpiece D. plating
5. Why are plating techniques important to learn in a culinary class.
A. We eat with our eyes
B. Plating isn’t important actually
C. Design is necessary always in plating
D. Plating makes the food taste better
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 Lesson
Presenting Meat Dishes
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Feeding standard is the major requirement in feed formulation. This standard
states the amount of nutrients which should be provided in the rations for farm
animals to obtain desirable performance.
The feeding standard or nutrient requirements depends upon body size, level
of production or growth, stress condition, temperature and sex. Thus, no two animals
have exactly the same requirements. The feeding standard must be accompanied and
used with feed composition tables which provide information on nutritive
compositions of feedstuffs.

What’s In

Directions: Match column A to column B. Write only the letter of the correct answer
on your answer sheet.

Column A Column B

___ 1. Balance the

A. Select one ingredient to focus on and use space to
dish
simplify the presentation.

B. Start with drawings and sketches to visualize the plate.

___ 2. Create a
Find inspiration from a picture or object. Assemble a
framework
‘practice’ plate to work on executing your vision.

C. Play with colors, shapes, and textures to ensure diners

___ 3. Keep it simple
are not overwhelmed, the presentation should never
overpower flavor and function.
D. Ensure that there is the right amount of ingredients and
___ 4. Get the right
the plate complements the dish, not too big or too small.
portion size

E. Ensure that the main ingredient stands out

and pay equal attention to the ‘support’. This refers to
___ 5. Highlight the the other elements on the plate such as garnishes,
key ingredient sauces and even the plate itself.

F. Clutter distracts from the main elements of your dish

that might confuse the diners on what to focus on.
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 What’s New

Directions: Identify the following item in table setting. Write your answer on your
activity notebook.

_____________

_____________

_____________

_____________
_____________

What Is It
Presenting Meat Dishes

Plating Tools
Having professional tools is essential for commercial plating. We’ve rounded
up the foundational items you need to create restaurant-quality food presentations.

1.Decorating brushes aid in detailed line work and broad sauce strokes. You can also
use decorating brushes to create a puree or coulis base for meats or vegetables.

2.Garnishing kits come with everything you need to garnish your signature dishes,
including plating wedges, tongs, squeeze bottles, and brushes.

3.Molds keep plates clean and increase visual appeal by cutting ingredients to
specific shapes and sizes. Ring molds help you develop height and structure when
stacking ingredients.

4.Precision tongs help you place garnishes or small, delicate items. Many tongs
feature micro-serrations for improved grip and stability.
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5.Plating wedges come pre-cut with flat, round, or pointed edges and are perfect for
smearing soft ingredients and creating sauce designs.

6.Shavers allow you to top your dishes with shaved or grated chocolate, hard cheese,
or soft vegetables.

7.Plating Spoons in varying sizes are essential to the art of food presentation. Saucier
spoons help you drag sauce across your plate and slotted spoons quickly separate
solids from liquids.

8.Squeeze bottles help you apply sauce and aioli to your finished plate. Many come
with adjustable precision control tips.

The 5 Basic Elements of Plating

1.Create a Framework-Start with drawings and sketches to visualize the plate. Find
inspiration from a picture or object. Assemble a ‘practice’ plate to work on executing
your vision.

2.Keep It Simple-Select one ingredient to focus on and use space to simplify the
presentation. Clutter distracts from the main elements of your dish that might
confuse the diners on what to focus on.

3.Balance the Dish - Play with colors, shapes, and textures to ensure diners are not
overwhelmed, the presentation should never overpower flavor and function.

4.Get the Right Portion Size - Ensure that there is the right amount of ingredients and
the plate complements the dish, not too big or too small. Strike the right proportion
of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables to create a nutritionally balanced meal.

5.Highlight the Key Ingredient - Ensure that the main ingredient stands out and pay
equal attention to the ‘support’. This refers to the other elements on the plate such
as garnishes, sauces and even the plate itself.

Plating and Presentation Tips

The way you present your food is what tempts customers to try a dish. We eat
with our senses: what we see, smell, and feel. And in the age of Instagrammers and
food bloggers, food plating and presentation matters more than ever. The food
presentation can actually make a dish taste better.

The top food presentation and plating techniques

1.Create height on the plate-It’s important that you don’t separate the food trying to
fill the plate—build from the bottom up. Use a little structure, you can always use a
ring mold to start with a base. Simply pack some food in the mold and gently lift it
up. Now you have a base to build on.

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2.Cut meat horizontally-Fanning or shingling out slices of meat to show off its
quality. Slice your meats on a 45-degree bias, and also slice against the grain of the
meat for a more tender cut. Show off that perfect medium-rare steak.
3. Play with textures-Playing with textures, foams, and sauces to make the dish look
more interesting. Foams are usually really helpful in plating and can be really easily
done, playing around with different sauces and textures.
4. Use contrasting colors-The importance of playing with contrasting colors. The more
time you spend on how you present each dish; the more visual interest you can
stimulate in folks. Use bold colors to create appealing visuals. The easiest way to add
color is to start working with more colorful ingredients. Items like carrots, potatoes,
cauliflower, lettuces, beans, and more come in a variety of gorgeous colors. The
difference a purple cauliflower puree makes on a plate is striking.
5. Match food presentation to your restaurant theme-The style of plating should match
the restaurant’s atmosphere. Your guests expect a simple, welcoming presentation
that stresses straightforward flavor cooked with heart and served with a relaxed,
rustic quality. At relatively pricey, hip and high-end restaurants, guests want to see
a degree of artistry and care taken in constructing the dishes. The way you place
your food should directly reflect your restaurant type. That food should have an
element of height or visual texture, the balance of color and thoughtful garnishes—
both carefully placed and intentional in flavor and texture.
6. Choose the right plates-The color of plate matters as the plate serves as the canvas
for your food. Typically, chefs will stay away from blue plates as there isn’t any
naturally blue food and it is thought to be an unappetizing color. If you have
something with a lot of vibrant color, it might stand out better on a white plate. The
importance of choosing the right vessel to present your dish. Choose a dish vessel
that makes it easy for your guest to eat. This is also an opportunity for your chefs to
show their personality in the dishes they create.
7.Serve smaller portion sizes-Serve enough food to satisfy your guests and portion
sizes can vary depending on the type of establishment you’re operating, but smaller
portions are typically easier to style. Stick to no more than six elements on each dish
to prevent them from looking overcrowded.
8. Use edible garnishes and decorations-Garnishes and decorations are a great way
of styling your dish, but there are some guidelines you should follow when using
them. Whatever you use—whether it’s a herb, spice, or a flower—it needs to be edible.
Everything on your plate should be placed with the intention of elevating the dishes
taste first, and the way it looks second.

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9. When in doubt, keep it simple-Emphasize the value of simplicity. Rather than
piling on a zillion garnishes or swirls of sauce, let the quality of the cooking speak
for itself. A properly seared steak with some fresh watercress and perfectly roasted
baby potatoes will look better than the fanciest of plates with subpar cookery. Proper
cooking will give you a lot of contrast within your ingredients with both texture and
color.
10. Express yourself-There’s an art in plating food; it’s where chefs can allow
themselves to be creative and have a high impact on how guests perceive the dishes
they’re eating. Believes that chefs should approach food plating and presentation
just as an artist would approach their next piece.

Plating Techniques
Conceptualize plating as an art form: you are the artist; the plate is your
canvas, and the food is your medium. Master the following plating techniques to
perfect your craft.

1. Plate Presentation Techniques

Selecting the right plate for your meal is the first step in the food presentation
process. Consider the following to choose the ideal plate for your food presentation:

• Plate Size - Your plate should be big enough to make your food stand out and
petite enough to prevent your portions from looking small.
• Light vs Dark Plates - Use light and dark plates to make your meal stand out.
White plates are popular because they offer a neutral background for brightly
colored foods. Dark plates lend beautifully to light-colored dishes, such as a
whitefish or creamy polenta.
• Plate Color - Plate color can stimulate or reduce appetites. Red increases the
appetite, so serving appetizers on red plates keeps customers interested in
ordering large entrees and desserts. Conversely, professional platers typically
consider blue dinnerware unappetizing because there are few naturally
occurring blue foods.
• Restaurant Style - If you operate a fine dining establishment, classic china
dinnerware will pair well with traditional plating styles. A trendy gastropub
should invest in unique plates with unconventional shapes that allow for
maximum plating creativity.

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2. Food Arrangement Techniques

How you arrange your food determines your meal’s aesthetic tone, structural
integrity, and flavor dispersion. Here are a few of the most important food
arrangement techniques:
• The Rule of Thirds - When applied to cooking, the rule of thirds prescribes
placing the focal point of your dish to either the left or right side of the plate,
rather than the center. Use white space by thinking of the rim as your frame
and highlight your plate’s focal point(s).
• View Your Plate as a Clock - As you plate your ingredients, picture the face of a
clock. From the diner’s point of view, your protein should be between 3 and 9,
your starch or carbohydrate from 9 to 12, and your vegetable from 12 to 3.
• Don’t Overcrowd Your Plate - Keep your design simple by focusing on one
ingredient (usually the protein). Having a focal point helps you arrange your
accompanying items to complement your standout item.
• Moist Ingredients First - Plate moist ingredients first and prevent them from
running by placing other foods on top. For example, you can angle sliced meat
against mashed vegetables.
• Create Flavor Bites - Flavor bites are forkfuls of food that combine all the
ingredients in your dish into one bite. Flavor bites are essential to quality plating
as they please both the eyes and the taste buds.
• Mix Textures - Contrasting a smooth vegetable puree with crunchy onion straws
or topping a steak with crumbled blue cheese yields appealing texture
combinations that are classic in high-end cuisine.

3.Visual Plating Techniques

Maximizing the visual elements of your meal is a key plating technique.

While your arrangement develops around your protein, manipulating the colors
and sizes of the other elements on your plate enhances your focal point and
creates a gourmet presentation.

• Serve Odd Quantities: If you’re serving small foods like shrimp, scallops, or bite-
sized appetizers, always give guests odd quantities. For example, serving seven
Brussels sprouts instead of six enhances visual appeal, and diners will feel they’re
getting more food.

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• Color Diversity - Colorful dishes build the expectation of a flavorfully complex
meal before your patrons take their first bite. Add green vegetables or brightly
colored fruits that contrast with your focal point.
• Monochromatic Meals - Plating color-coded items together visually builds the
expectation that the dish only offers one flavor. When the palate receives multiple
textures and flavors instead, it surprises the taste buds, causing them to engage
with the dish more.
• Add Height to Your Plate - Visually stimulate your guests by building height.
While compactly stacking ingredients isn’t as popular as it was 5-10 years ago,
building layers of food for guests to explore offers an exciting experience.
• Create Visual Balance - Balance your plate’s landscape by leaning long, flat items
against taller elements (ex: leaning asparagus spears at a 45-degree angle across
a stack of lamb lollipops).

4. Sauce Plating Techniques

With your principal ingredients plated, you’re ready to top your dish with
delicious sauces that enhance your food presentation. Think of your squeeze
bottle or spoon as a paintbrush, and your sauce as a medium.

• Smeared Sauce - Fill a squeeze bottle with your sauce. Squeeze a thick layer of
sauce in a large, filled-in circle on your plate. Take a spoon or plating wedge and
dip it into the middle of the sauce where it’s thickest. Quickly pull the sauce
across your plate.
• Accent Dots - Fill a squeeze bottle with your desired sauce. Analyze your plate
from the perspective of the rule of thirds, then add accent dots. Use multiple
sauces to create more color contrast.
• Smeared Accent Dots - Alternate between two sauce accent dots in a curved line
along the side of your plate. Then, take a small plating wedge and place it at the
center of the first accent dot in your row. Drag the plating wedge through the
accent dots, creating a multicolored, single-sided edge.
• Swirled Sauce - Fill a squeeze bottle with your desired sauce. Place your plate
atop a cake turntable. Point your squeeze bottle face down at the center of the
plate. Spin your stand while simultaneously squeezing your bottle. Adjust your
wrist to vary your swirled design. You can use multiple sauces to create more
visual contrast.

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 What’s More

A. Directions: Write T if the statement is true and F if incorrect. Write your answer
on your activity notebook.
_________________1. Slice your meats on a 45-degree bias, and also slice against the
grain of the meat for a more tender cut.
_________________2. Foams are not usually really helpful in plating and can be really
easily done, playing around with different sauces and textures.
_________________3. The more time you spend on how you present each dish; the
more visual interest you can stimulate in folks.
_________________4. Proper cooking will give you a lot of contrast within your
ingredients with both texture and color.
_________________5. Presentation is the process of offering foods to diners in a way
that is visually pleasing.
B. Directions: Supply the missing word to make the statement complete. Write
your answer in your activity notebook.
Column A Column B

1. ________ should be big enough to make your food stand

out and petite enough to prevent your portions from
A.China Dinnerware
looking small.

2. ________ are popular because they offer a neutral

B.Dark Plates
background for brightly colored foods.

3. ________ lend beautifully to light-colored dishes, such as C.Red plates

a whitefish or creamy polenta.
4. ________ increases the appetite, so serving appetizers on
D.Plate
this plates keeps customers interested in ordering large
entrees and desserts.
5. Classic ________ will pair well with traditional plating E.White Plates
styles. A trendy gastropub should invest in unique
plates with unconventional shapes that allow for
maximum plating creativity. F.Blue Plates

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C. Directions: Enumerate the five visual plating techniques. Write your answer on
your activity notebook.

1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

What I Have Learned

Directions: Fill in the missing word/s to complete the sentence that summarize out
topic for today. Write your answer on your activity notebook.
The way you (1) your food is what (2) customers to try
a dish. We eat with our senses: (3) , (4) , and________(5)________. And
in the age of Instagrammers and food bloggers,
and________(6)________matters more than ever. The food presentation can actually
make a dish taste better.

What I Can Do

Directions: Choose one from the two illustrations below. Then, Analyze and evaluate
the plating and presentation of your choice by using the rubrics below.

A B

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 Criteria 1 2 3 Score
Proper Evidence of Balance Plating is
Balance balance is attempted balanced with
limited or not but needs even eye
present improvement appealing flow
Shape Variety in Some Incorporates
(proportion) shape very repetition of variety of eye
limited or not shapes but appealing
present variety is shapes
evident
Use of garnish Inappropriate Adequate but Appropriate
selection of not for food items
garnish or outstanding
lack of or too
much
Overall Presentation Presentation Presentation
product needs is acceptable is attractively
presentation improvement and some displayed
and lacks creativity is shows
creativity displayed creativity
Total score

Assessment

Directions. Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write the letter of your answer
on your activity notebook.

1. In platter presentation, the uncut portion of the main food item is

A. centerpiece C. plating
B. garnish D. serving portion
2. It is arranged artistically in proportion to the cut slices.
A. balance C. serving portions
B. garnish D. slices
3. The food should be easy to handle and
A. arrangement C. garnish
B. color D. serve
4. Use attractive platter presentation made of metal, mirrors, plastic or
wood, and __________.
A. china C. pan
B. fiber D. platter
5. The act of serving or arranging portions of the main food item artistically:
A. garnishing C. slicing
B. setting D. presentation

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What I Know What’s In What’s New
1. D 1. B 1. plate
2. B 2. spoon
2. C 3. fork
3. C
4. knife
4. B 3. A
5. coffee mug
5. A
4. D
5. E
What’s More
What I Have Learned Assessment
A.
1. T 1. Present 1. C
2. F 2. Tempts
3. T 2. B
3. What we see
4. T 3. B
4. Smell
5. T
5. Feel 4. A
6. Food Plating 5. C
B.
1. Plate 7. Presentation
2. White Plates What I Can Do
3. Dark Plates
4. Red plates Answers may vary
5. China Dinnerware
C.
1. Serve Odd quantities
2. Color Diversity
3. Monochromatic
4. Add height to your
plate
5. Create Usual Balance
Answer Key
References
Competency Based Learning Modules in Cookery NC II Grade 9-12. Philippines:
Department of Education, n.d.

Curriculum Guide. Cookery 9-12. Philippines: Department of Education, n.d.

K to 12 Basic Education. Technology and Livelihood Education Home Economics,

Cookery Grade 9-12. Philippines: Department of Education, n.d.

Taylor, Susan Johnston, Civil Eats, Fresh Cup, and Pizza Today, 2019.
Accessed 15 February, 2021 https://www.lightspeedhq.com

Training Regulations. Cookery NC II. Philippines: Technical Education Skills and

Development Authority, n.d.

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