Pickled heirloom vegetables, poached rock lobster, and Columbine flower by @chanteldartnall 

At this time of year, with Easter upon us, this kind of artistry with plates is on the minds of sophisticated chefs and foodies. The rest of us may prefer just normal, groaning tables surrounded by family and tradition, but there are plenty of guides on what to do if we want to up our game. Artists, all of them. (See an earlier plating post here.)

Finger-licking clams steamed in cider then finished with heaps of herbs, mustard and citrus. @allianceofchefs

Beetroot gravadlax. Chefs Greatest Plates

B.C. Side Stripe Prawn Crudo, with dill buttermilk, pear, green apple, kohlrabi & jalapeño oil. @biera_yeg

Hamachi: Chef Yuri Wattimena style, with Kimchi, Chives, and Radish in a rainbow of colours. @saquaseafood

Hmm. A personal note here. I am five images into this post on food plating, and I just realized every one I picked is about fish. That stopped me, Good Friday is the day I only associate with fish (not church). My paternal grandmother insisted I attend her Catholic service every other Sunday, hoping that I alone of her six grandchildren might stay for life in the “one true church.” I did not. And although I love fish, I think the reason these images attracted me today was that childhood association of fish on Good Friday. Go figure.

Mixed berries, vanilla @chefstyle

Blood orange fig & cardomen cremeux, torched meringue, ginger orange ice cream, dehydrated blood orange. Chocolate soil. @creativefood4thought

Vegetable Dumplings – Tahini Sauce – Chili Oil – Soy cured egg yolk @soophserveert

Shrimp filled ravioli, Gluten free prawns. @mrfoo.dlover

Glass artist Janet Panabaker creates trompe-l’oeil mixed-media sculptural still lifes, like Party Plate, found in her Donut Misunderstand Me series. She’s one of more than 300 artists included in this year’s Toronto Outdoor Art Fair.

“When I finished painting the enamel decorations on these little cookies, I was transported back to the sheer bliss of a childhood Christmas morning, and the discovery of a box of Peek Frean “Playbox” under my stocking,” Panabaker says on her website.

Janet Panabaker has studied at the University of Waterloo, Sheridan College, Corning Museum, Queen’s University, and University of Toronto, with award-winning work in private and government collections.

See more on her website, here.

All the Food posts on Canadian Art Junkie, here.

Image top of post: Party Plate, Janet Panabaker, 2018, kiln-formed and cold-worked glass, glass stringer and frit, glass enamels, epoxy resin, found vintage milk glass cake plate.

What artistry, with plates. Exquisite plating technique is not something most of us will concentrate upon. But there are many on Instagram and elsewhere whose duty it is to show us how.  Artisans, every one of them.

(Scroll to the bottom for the Easter cake)

Hashtags to explore: #plating #artofplating #theartofplating #platingfood #platingskills

You may already have heard of Lauren Ko, the maker of pies that are works of art.  But if you have not, she is a current sensation, on Instagram, on TV, in podcasts and live on the web. She’s a master of pie art, and her creations are exquisite geometric and symmetrical works. But there’s a science to all this, too, even though Ko never sacrifices creativity in her designs (see the video at the end of this post).

Visit Lauren Ko’s Instagram (@lokokitchen) here.  There’s also more on her website, here.