I am working on my plating and I made this the other day. Really proud of how it turned out! Tasted amazing and is one of the best looking dishes I ever made.
Tips and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.
Ps: don't mind the overcooked duck. I took it off the stove, put it in the oven to finish it off and forgot to look at the time so I just guesstimated and was off by one or two minutes.
by Dapper_Confection_69
13 Comments
I’m by no means a professional, but if someone put that down in front of me…well, it wouldn’t be on the plate long.
Dayum nice plate OP!
Looks really nice! Only thing I’d suggest is adding a little garnish of parsley, basil, shisho, or similar for color.
Id leave the reduction off the edge of the plate. Looks nice otherwise.
Your duck is badly overcooked, and it should be criminalized to take the skin off of a a duck breast. risotto is way too tight, and the bottled balsamic glaze is not doing you any favors.
The dots of glaze on the rim are not nice.
Risotto needs more liquid to it. It looks way too dry. Where I learned risotto they described it bridging the gap between a soup and a plate of rice, leaning toward the soup. When I taught it I would say you need to see the creamy broth between the grains. It needs to flowwwwww.
The portion size is odd too. It is a lot of both. I’d take away half the duck and make it a risotto dish, or 2/3 the risotto and make it a duck dish.
The glaze on the duck looks kinda clumsy, don’t think you wanna macerate the duck in it (the risotto should act kind of like a sauce itself) and not only is the duck overcooked but you want to showcase some nice crispy rendered skin, so flip it over. Definitely would serve like half the amount of duck here as well. And yes, you should be adding way more butter to this risotto to make it creamier and looser. Not a fan of the balsamic dots on the outside of the plate, maybe dot tiny bits in the risotto while plating. This dish is begging for some chives
The points everyone else has raised are fair ; the meat looks overcooked, the risotto is too dry and the balsamic glaze is just generally not going to do anyone a favor when added straight to the plate as a garnish.
However this is all from a professional POV… we all have some level of experience and are hard on ourselves (and others by extension) because we always want to do better.
Keeping in mind this is a sub dedicated to professional-level culinary plating, the idea is each poster wants every piece of info we can give them, even if it can add up to a lot.
From a home cook perspective, this looks like something I’d love to have a friend serve me:) you mention this is your first time making risotto, and there are definitely many ways to make a shitty risotto — yours just looks like it lacks some liquid, nothing too bad at all imo!
Kudos for trying out new things. You learn by doing, getting feedback and doing again. I wish you well in your next attempt!
This is almost certainly a pork tenderloin on rice pilaf. I think maybe you got confused when typing.
Yeah good attempt I guess , risotto is not for the faint hearted ! A lot of rules and quite rightly as when they are followed it becomes a thing of beauty . Allow yourself time and add liquids, hot , slowly to it .
I have more fundamental issues about the composition of the dish. I guess I just don’t love big hunks of protein on top of a risotto like that. To me, if you serve a big portion of risotto like that, that’s your dish. Anything on top is just a garnish. If I really wanted risotto and duck, I’d probably do bit-size cubes of really crispy-skinned, perfectly pink duck placed around the risotto (with maybe some extra mushrooms as an additional garnish).
Ok, so risotto doesn’t need a protein on top. You aren’t cooking rice. If you want your duck risotto, make a duck confit and toss it in at the very end. When you’re making risotto, the risotto should be the show, not some overcooked duck draped over it.
The duck and the risotto should be served as separate courses, or at the very least on separate plates.
I have read all the comments and I can say as a professional.
The risotto:
– is not made to have stuffs on top that aren’t stir with it
– doesnt looks dry, looks like is missing the fat part like butter or others.
– the mushrooms arent visible is nice to keep some of them to garnish and decor
– have u did the broth with the mushrooms? How?
The duck:
– shouldnt be there, need to be in a separate dish
– reasonably cooked all depend from the quality of the meat. If you dont know who is breeding them, I wouldn’t it more raw than this.
– it miss a bit of verve, spice/herbs ?
The sauce :
– need to match the duck taste
– not much sense to put it with the risotto
– could be done a reduction of the duck cooking juice?