I’m just a home cook, but I would love feedback! Openly aware I should have sliced the pork chop thicker in both dimensions to give it more heft and presence, but I usually keep my meat portions a bit lighter so defaulted to personal preference. Flavors were solid and well balanced (added yuzu to the jus to cut the sweet and the figs were on the tart side), but it also feels not quite there with the plating.
BushyEyes on
I really had no idea there was even a pork chop on the plate. Conceptually everything sounds delicious but give us a chop! I would love to see how you plate this with a full bone-in pork chop, well seared, with your elements around. That would be a more rustic approach.
Alternatively, if you’re trying to do a more high end feel, I think you need more than two pieces and it needs to not be cut into a French fry shape. It just doesn’t feel right.
Personally, I think the flavor profile and elements would do well with a rustic plating.
ExploreDora on
Perhaps describing it as, pork tenderloins, rather than chops? It’s very visually appealing
AlienRemi on
Good direction but you’re missing on a few points.
1. With a pork chop sliced like this you can always save the bone portion and present by placing upright. This especially works if your chop is frenched. Your chop needs a much harder sear and a slightly pinker middle.
2. When everything stands alone like in your presentation here, it all needs to be perfect. Most of your dots are sloppy, the Figs seem mushed. Looks like your puree could use some butter blended into it at the end.
3. Your sauce is very thin, a deeper and richer color would be more appetizing. An easy way to accomplish this is by reducing red wine and adding it in.
4. It’s relatively flat in dimension, cutting the beets in a way that lets them resemble their shape would help with this, a melon baller could also be your friend here (although a little dated)
If you nail all your elements then you won’t need to rely quite as heavily on the nasturtium to make your dish pretty. Definitely a good start tho
kitylou on
Looks great. Love the nasturtium. You could try the puree with the meat on top then scatter the beets and figs
bucketofnope42 on
This is not a pork chop. This is a beet salad garnished with pork slices.
UnderLook150 on
Looks very nice and the flavour profile sounds solid.
But why is the meat so pale, and the center of the pork orange?
dual-ity on
If my understand of this piece is correct, I believe pork belly may serve you better. While it is not present in soul food, Mexican elements are critical to Southern identity and a pork belly/chicharrones would ground you to the concept of the southern pork chop while giving you room to play with Tejano and Mexican elements. I think you’ve received the message in regard to your chops loud and clear, but even so it cannot be stressed enough. I am a human being which finds love in everything. As a Texan, this causes me a form of discomfort which I didn’t know existed. Which isn’t a bad thing! Limit testing wouldn’t be called so if we didn’t feel out the boundaries which are critical to the identity of a particular dish. Art, inclusive of gastronomy, seeks to inspire thought and conversation, which this plate definitely does. It helped me to consider what defines soul food. Your experiment is particularly exciting and challenging because soul food may very well be on the opposite end of the spectrum from modern gastronomy. Soul food does not care what a plate looks like, and, to be frank, may often be ugly as hell. True soul food simply seeks to bring peace. When you take a bite, warmth seeps throughout your body and everything becomes quiet. All that remains with you is that warm glow, and the feeling, wherever you may be, that you are home. It is the very definition of comfort food. It also tends to feel like so much food that even if you eat until your belly is about to burst, you have enough for a whole nother meal (which will generally have to be the next day 😄) The reality of how much food doesn’t matter as much, as long as the food is powerful enough to convey the senses which I have conveyed. I hope my input may be of some use. Thank you for your dish, op, I look forward to what you have yet to create. Good work!
Curious_medium on
Yeah, give that to someone expecting a chop …lol. See what happens. If you’re charging a high price point for a chop – you need to deliver an awesome chop cut of meat cooked to perfection. This looks more like pork loin fry which is fine, just make sure you call it that, and not a chop.
0111010101 on
I see people knocking this, but this is exactly what I needed to see. I had an interesting kind of attraction/revulsion to those beautiful organic dishes in *Hannibal*. Like murder, that plating style is both supremely alluring to me and goes against my every instinct. I think it might have something to do with autism, TBH, the way I used to separate all of the food on my plate and group the components together so they don’t touch, which makes me a lot like Will Graham, I guess. The way you have the components all separated out and not touching here, though, feels very safe to me. It’s beautiful, but also reassuring. I think this is a great first step.
10 Comments
I’m just a home cook, but I would love feedback! Openly aware I should have sliced the pork chop thicker in both dimensions to give it more heft and presence, but I usually keep my meat portions a bit lighter so defaulted to personal preference. Flavors were solid and well balanced (added yuzu to the jus to cut the sweet and the figs were on the tart side), but it also feels not quite there with the plating.
I really had no idea there was even a pork chop on the plate. Conceptually everything sounds delicious but give us a chop! I would love to see how you plate this with a full bone-in pork chop, well seared, with your elements around. That would be a more rustic approach.
Alternatively, if you’re trying to do a more high end feel, I think you need more than two pieces and it needs to not be cut into a French fry shape. It just doesn’t feel right.
Personally, I think the flavor profile and elements would do well with a rustic plating.
Perhaps describing it as, pork tenderloins, rather than chops? It’s very visually appealing
Good direction but you’re missing on a few points.
1. With a pork chop sliced like this you can always save the bone portion and present by placing upright. This especially works if your chop is frenched. Your chop needs a much harder sear and a slightly pinker middle.
2. When everything stands alone like in your presentation here, it all needs to be perfect. Most of your dots are sloppy, the Figs seem mushed. Looks like your puree could use some butter blended into it at the end.
3. Your sauce is very thin, a deeper and richer color would be more appetizing. An easy way to accomplish this is by reducing red wine and adding it in.
4. It’s relatively flat in dimension, cutting the beets in a way that lets them resemble their shape would help with this, a melon baller could also be your friend here (although a little dated)
If you nail all your elements then you won’t need to rely quite as heavily on the nasturtium to make your dish pretty. Definitely a good start tho
Looks great. Love the nasturtium. You could try the puree with the meat on top then scatter the beets and figs
This is not a pork chop. This is a beet salad garnished with pork slices.
Looks very nice and the flavour profile sounds solid.
But why is the meat so pale, and the center of the pork orange?
If my understand of this piece is correct, I believe pork belly may serve you better. While it is not present in soul food, Mexican elements are critical to Southern identity and a pork belly/chicharrones would ground you to the concept of the southern pork chop while giving you room to play with Tejano and Mexican elements. I think you’ve received the message in regard to your chops loud and clear, but even so it cannot be stressed enough. I am a human being which finds love in everything. As a Texan, this causes me a form of discomfort which I didn’t know existed. Which isn’t a bad thing! Limit testing wouldn’t be called so if we didn’t feel out the boundaries which are critical to the identity of a particular dish. Art, inclusive of gastronomy, seeks to inspire thought and conversation, which this plate definitely does. It helped me to consider what defines soul food. Your experiment is particularly exciting and challenging because soul food may very well be on the opposite end of the spectrum from modern gastronomy. Soul food does not care what a plate looks like, and, to be frank, may often be ugly as hell. True soul food simply seeks to bring peace. When you take a bite, warmth seeps throughout your body and everything becomes quiet. All that remains with you is that warm glow, and the feeling, wherever you may be, that you are home. It is the very definition of comfort food. It also tends to feel like so much food that even if you eat until your belly is about to burst, you have enough for a whole nother meal (which will generally have to be the next day 😄) The reality of how much food doesn’t matter as much, as long as the food is powerful enough to convey the senses which I have conveyed. I hope my input may be of some use. Thank you for your dish, op, I look forward to what you have yet to create. Good work!
Yeah, give that to someone expecting a chop …lol. See what happens. If you’re charging a high price point for a chop – you need to deliver an awesome chop cut of meat cooked to perfection. This looks more like pork loin fry which is fine, just make sure you call it that, and not a chop.
I see people knocking this, but this is exactly what I needed to see. I had an interesting kind of attraction/revulsion to those beautiful organic dishes in *Hannibal*. Like murder, that plating style is both supremely alluring to me and goes against my every instinct. I think it might have something to do with autism, TBH, the way I used to separate all of the food on my plate and group the components together so they don’t touch, which makes me a lot like Will Graham, I guess. The way you have the components all separated out and not touching here, though, feels very safe to me. It’s beautiful, but also reassuring. I think this is a great first step.