Just make sure it tastes good
I went to a wedding last weekend at the Cescaphe Ballroom http://www.cescapheballroom.com/ and the one thing that I really noticed about this place was the amount of time they seemed to spend on how the food “looked.” Don’t get me wrong, the food wasn’t that bad and I understand that you want to make sure the food looks appetizing, but I think they went a little overboard with the presentation. During the cocktail hour, we were actually given cocktail glasses instead of plates to put our appetizers in. I’m assuming they did this because it was called “cocktail” hour, but did you ever try to fill up a cocktail glass with shrimp and crabcakes? It’s not too fun. For dinner they gave me a little bit of a break by serving my filet on a plate. Again though I think they went a little too far with the presentation. Although I ate everything on my plate, I’m really not sure if I was supposed to. They had these green sprouts sprinkled on top of my filet that tasted like minty plasitc, so I think I should have just put them to the side, but if you’re not supposed to eat it then why would they put it on my plate? Also, they wrapped some type of vegetable around the filet (I’m going to say it was a cucumber, but I’m not positive about that) and then put it on top of my mashed potatos. The filet was pretty good, but I just didn’t like that I had to eat it while it was covered in vegetables. I never once ate a piece of steak and said to myself, “This is good, but I think it could use a little cucmber,” so I’m really not sure why they did that. Like I said, overall the food wasn’t that bad, but one piece of advice I would give them is to relax a little bit on worrying about how the food looks and just make sure it tastes good.
Tags: design, food, presentation, wedding
April 29th, 2008 at 12:17 am
I agree, and this actually reminds of the time that I flew business class from Europe back to the U.S. (I think Delta upgraded me accidentally). The majority of the flight was spent on trying to make the food and the presentation of the food look nice. Instead of the usual plastic plates and cups, they had regular plates and glasses. As an appetizer I received a plate with a variety of little bites, which I’m still not sure what they were.
The fact of the matter was that the food still tasted the same as regular economy class food, but they tried to make it “taste” better by giving it a different look and feel.
I think the design and look of particular products can only have the desired effect if the quality actually resonates this design. In both these cases the “looks” of the food didn’t have the desired “luxury” effect, because the quality wasn’t necessarily at that level.