GARNISHING BASICS
blade long enough to slice through the lemon without
using a sawing motion. You will want to cut the hero
slices closer to the end of the lemon where the fruit has
some slope for some natural contour. Taking slices from
this area will create a lemon wheel with a rim of rind
color on one side. Th at is the side of the slice you’ll want
to expose to the camera.
Zesting the exterior of a fruit or vegetable before slicing
will give another option for presentation of garnishes.
Cucumbers, radishes, zucchini, and other soft-skinned
squash varieties are interesting when zest is artfully
removed. When the vegetable is sliced, the edges of each
slice have a delicate scallop pattern created by the zester
tool. After zesting and slicing any vegetables or fruit,
immerse them immediately into an ice water bath until
they are built into the hero plate or until they are cooked,
if appropriate to your plans.
Th e zest of citrus fruits is also a garnish appropriate
for several applications. For example, lemon zest was used
as a garnish on the lemon cake in the dessert chapter
(Chapter 10). For the lemon cake garnish, I used only
short, curly pieces of lemon zest. Th ese zest curls were
made immediately before fi nal capture. I placed them on
the cake using tweezers. In general, zest is very sensitive
and will not hold long without discoloring and wilting.
However, it will hold for a short time in a bath of ice
water.