I always believe that people eat with their eyes first. So here are some key tips for cooking and presenting that special dish for someone special on Valentines Day or, any other day of the year.

• Use quality ingredients – This is the most important step, because quality is easily seen, just as it can easily be tasted. Fresh, quality ingredients will maintain their visual appeal (color, shape, texture, etc).
• Make sure you use colorful ingredients – When you cook and serve food that has bright contrasting colors on a plate, it’s visually appealing. The dish and various ingredients stand out. It’s just like an artist with a canvas. The sky is the limit when combining various colors of foods for plate presentation. Fruits, vegetables, main dish, sauces. Sides. All of these have the potential to be different colors in your palette.
• Use a variety of textures – Once again, not only can we taste the different textures of various foods, but we can also see the contrast of textures. Think about how the various elements (sauce, sides, main dish) are layered or organized on the plate. Do you stack them? Arrange them side by side?
• Use different shape plates – Professional Chefs always know that one of the key factors to plate presentation is the style of plate the food is on. One of the secrets is to match the food with the style of plate. For example, when doing a chilled asparagus salad, use a narrow rectangle plate to compliment the length of the asparagus vs. a round plate.