This is a feast made for your eyes, your camera and then your palate.

Known for her food and prop styling, Okcu creates eye-catching spreads for a variety of events, from interactive dinners and edible installations to everyday meals.

“I am trying to elevate the meaning of food from being a basic necessity to an art form and practice,” she says.

With fine dining, supper clubs and other curated dining experiences on the rise, it would appear that an increasing number of people are seeing the value of beautiful meals.

Maria Nguyen, the founder of media platform The Art of Plating, has witnessed a growing interest in food plating over the past decade.

Based between Los Angeles and New York, Nguyen was running a creative brand agency when she fell in love with cooking and food plating, leading her to establish The Art of Plating nearly 10 years ago.

“What stood out to me was how beautiful the dishes in those cookbooks were and I found myself drawn to learn more about the inspiration, techniques and processes behind them,” she says.

“After searching everywhere and realising there was no website, magazine or book covering the topic of plating, I decided to start The Art of Plating to fill that gap.”

Nguyen began her media platform on Instagram but it quickly grew into something much bigger. Over time, she launched the brand’s website, an online magazine with chef interviews and features, and has produced podcasts and YouTube videos as well as hosting events.

Now The Art of Plating has more than a million followers across its channels.

“Back in the 2010s, it was the first big culinary community on Instagram where you could see what a talented chef in Japan or Spain was doing instantaneously and showcasing food and chefs through a different lens,” Nguyen says.

“It became a well of inspiration with a community of chefs and food lovers around the world who appreciated beautiful food, and plating thereafter became a phenomenon.”

Today, Nguyen works on The Art of Plating full time, an interest that began as mere curiosity having blossomed into a career and a full-blown appreciation for food as an art form.

“On the surface, it’s about a beautifully plated dish, but if you dig deeper there are so many other people involved in the final outcome of that dish outside the chef – the farmer or producer who grew the ingredients, the ceramicist who created the plate, or the photo­grapher who took the photo we admire,” she says.

“There really are so many stories to tell and food in general can be a great starting point to have interesting conversations.”

As with other artistic endeavours, there is a sense of freedom, creativity and self-expression when it comes to food styling.

The fundamentals of plating include not plating food on the rim of the plate or bowl, wiping the plate clean of smudges or splashes and having a contrast of height in the dish.

“You develop your style depending on how well you understand the products and how you match the products together,” says Okcu.

She adds that food styling is an artistic muscle that can be developed over time, especially if you begin to view it as an art form.

“The more time you spend in art galleries and with books and artists, the more your vision will develop. You can’t learn [food styling] but you can develop your talent,” she says.

Aside from being visually appealing, food styling is also a technical tool that chefs can use to guide the dining experience, says Nguyen.

“For example, do you want your guests to pick up the food with their fingers or use their silverware? Perhaps you want to surprise them with something sweet, hidden under another layer that they weren’t expecting.”

Done correctly, food presentation can elevate a meal but, at the end of the day, good cooking is what matters most. Styling is simply the cherry on top.

“The best hot dishes are the ones with as few components as possible. All the colourful microgreens, flowers, herb oils, purées and tuiles cannot save a poorly cooked piece of meat that is served at an undesirable temperature,” says Cheung.

Sometimes, it’s the dishes that seem unassuming that blow you away.

“Some of the best fine-dining dishes I’ve had were dishes that appeared as effortless as what people make at home, yet they have been carefully prepared with so much labour and thought that I was completely deceived,” says Cheung.

“Knowledgeable diners and chefs tend to admire creations that do not focus on the presentation or styling of the dish.”

However, while not all dishes need to be dressed to the nines to reveal their beauty, Nguyen believes that some degree of styling is always welcome, whether it is to enhance one’s dining experience or simply to add beauty in our everyday lives.

“Creating beauty in our daily lives is something easily and often overlooked in our fast-paced world, but it can make a huge difference in one’s day. When you see something beautiful that moves you, it can bring an overwhelming sense of gratitude and meaning to life,” Nguyen says.

And that’s a message to chefs and home chefs reading this now. Next time you’re cooking an intricate meal for seven, or just a late-night bowl of ramen for yourself, chop up some spring onion, whip out the sesame seeds and get creative.