10 hostess hacks to make your food look better than it is

I’m not a cook. I do, however, love to entertain. Because having guests to my home typically involves feeding them, I try to compensate for my lack of culinary skills with stylish presentation. A little sleight of hand never hurt anyone.

With a few hostess hacks, I can elevate the most humdrum potato salad from the grocery store deli, chicken wings and a plastic tub of watermelon chunks into a sublime picnic. More on that in a minute.

Chef David Tiner, director of the Louisiana Culinary Institute in Baton Rouge, is not surprised. “We eat with our eyes first,” he said. “Then we eat with our nose. I’m a big believer that if looks good and smells good, I’m going to like it.”

Presentation may not be everything, but it’s at least two thirds.

“As long as the food is out of the box and on your serving pieces, guests won’t care where it came from,” said Sharon Brenner, a caterer in Winter Park, Fla. “Everything tastes better in a pretty bowl.”

Whether you are a culinary institute graduate, or you buy take out, here are 10 more ways Tiner and Brenner say that home hosts can make their food look better than it is:

1. Use platter power: Anything that comes in a to-go container will instantly look better on a platter. Pick one that’s the right size. Too small and the food is hard to serve. Too big makes guests think you don’t have enough.

2. Elevate: Height is important when presenting food. Rather than serve everything at counter level, use risers and cake stands. You can even set dishes on a wooden wine crate. A tall decorative vase filled with flowers, branches or fresh lemons can also break up the landscape.

3. Use the unexpected: You don’t need silver platters and fine china to serve your fare. Shop your cupboards for trays and breadboards that can double as platters. Repurpose commonplace containers. Use a piece of crockery or a galvanized bucket lined with a napkin for flatware. Brenner likes to put breadsticks, long crackers or pretzel rods in wine glasses.

4. Compose your colors: When selecting serving dishes, make sure the colors work with the food. “No one wants to see salmon on an orange platter,” Tiner said. But it would work well on a cedar plank. Even better, set the salmon on a bed of steamed spinach, Brenner said. Though she likes to mix wood, glass and ceramic serving pieces, her go to is plain white dishes. “They’re inexpensive, go with everything and let the food be the focal point.”

5. Layer don’t divide: If foods are meant to go together, like turkey and stuffing, or meatloaf and mashed potatoes, stack them so guests help themselves to both in one scoop.

6. Drizzle don’t drown: When a dish has gravy or sauce to go with it, use it as an accent. Artfully drizzle it over the dish; don’t drench it. Serve the rest on the side, so guests can add more.

7. Garnish with intention: Adding a garnish, like a lemon slice or an herb sprig, separates the amateur from the pro. It’s like putting the right throw pillow on the sofa. But the secret is the garnish must be an ingredient that is or could be in the dish, Tiner said. For example, don’t put a rosemary sprig by the lemon squares. Rosemary stands up well next to red meat or certain chicken dishes. And lemon squares would look nice surrounding a mound of fresh whole lemons.