Chef's ideas for a fruit and veggie tray presentation?

Question

What are some really nice ways to present fresh fruit and veggies? Something beyond the basic chopped fruits and veggies thrown onto lettuce leaves on a tray. Something special - what ideas would you have?

Answer 1

You can get a styrofoam ball, cut it in half, cover it with saranwrap onto a plate. Put the cut up pieces of fruit onto skewers and stick them into the foam. Look up edible bouquets to get an idea of how they look. We saw one done with toothpicks and all strawberries that was really pretty and very easy to do. Just make sure you actually put the saran wrap around the plate and ball together so that you have a sturdy base. You could also do the same thing with vegetables.

Answer 2

For a vegetable platter what I've done is use a very large (about 18 inch diameter) round platter and put a bowl of dip in the center. It's worth investing a nice platter and bowl for this purpose if you do a lot of entertaining. You can use them for other things as well. The bowl and platter don't have to be a matched set and is probably more visually interesting if it isn't. I take a pound or two of asparagus and trim off about an inch from the bottom and peel the bottom of the stalk a little. Then boil in hot salty water for around one minute or until crisp tender. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water to stop the cooking. Divide the asparagus into two bunches and put them on opposite sides of the tray with the stems sides toward the dip bowl. Curve the tips a bit sot they are on the platter and make kind of a swoosh shape. Then use red or yellow bell peppers cut into strips, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, broccoli or any other bright, colorful vegetables. Arrange them so that each vegetable has the same vegetable directly opposite it on the tray, but it not right next to a similarly colored vegetable. It may sound like just another vegetable platter, but it is really pretty. Presentation probably matters more in this type of dish rather than what you actually put on the dish, but the asparagus helps set up the arrangement and is a bit different from the usual vegetables on a platter - probably because it can be expensive. Spring is the season for asparagus though, so you should be able to get it at a good price right now. I usually use a spinach dip for the dip, but you can use anything you like really. I do the same type of presentation for the fruit platter, but I try to get some of the less common or more favored fruits such as mangos, perfectly ripe strawberries, kiwis, and FRESH (not canned) pineapple. Cantaloupe is also nice for the color.

Answer 3

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RE:
Chef's ideas for a fruit and veggie tray presentation?
What are some really nice ways to present fresh fruit and veggies? Something beyond the basic chopped fruits and veggies thrown onto lettuce leaves on a tray. Something special - what ideas would you have?

Answer 4

you can make a basket out of a watermelon, or other melon, and use a melon baller to make balls to serve in the scooped out basket. Another way is to cube the fruits, and thread them on wooden skewers to make fruit kebabs, served with a yogurt dipping sauce. If you make small pics- like a piece or two of fruit on a toothpic, you can poke them into an orange or grapefruit for service. Same goes for veggies, served with a dip. Veggie fondue makes an impressive display. You can get inexpensive pots at most thrift stores, and they usually come with compartment platters that hold the pot and the veggies. You could do a hot cheese sauce to dip various veggies in, or a cold dip. Good luck, hope this helps. Email if you need more details

Answer 5

you can empty a watermelon and use it as tray fill it with fruit,or if you turn it up side down you can put fruit or veggie on long toothpick the one for barbecue and use the watermelon as base and put them all around,and use hard cabbage leaf instead then the lettuce or use a garden pot possible long or the round one is OK, buy the special foam wrap it in alumni foil put it insid the pot and with barbecue stick fill them with fruit and veggie and if you really want impress your guest, do the small toothpick , using the pot put a whole orange on a wood stick and fill it with the fruit toothpick . I hope this is enough....

Answer 6

A nice touch for a vegi tray is to hollow out a purple cabbage (so the sides are about two inches thick) and use this as the bowl for the dip! Include cubes of different cheeses with the vegetables.

Answer 7

like both, fruits: berries, oatmeal, pears, peaches, dragonfruit, pomegranate.... Vegetables: CUCUMBERS, bok choy, green beans, broccoli,.... We guess the two are great.