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Dish Photo Guide Builder for Restaurants
The owner asked this:«I hung the written plating sheets at the pass and two weeks later nobody was looking at them. The only photos I have are the ones a photographer took for the menu two years ago, studio-lit and on crockery I have already replaced. I want sheets a cook will actually use, for my three fastest-moving dishes.»
① The capture sheet: what makes the photo repeatable
With the restaurant's phone, on the steel bench, in the light the kitchen has. None of this is optional: change one row and next month's photo cannot be compared with today's.
| Dish | Angle | Height above the bench | Distance | Background | Light | Crockery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | 45° | 35 cm | 50 cm | Steel bench, no cloth | Kitchen LED, no flash | 32 cm oval platter |
| Trucha al ajillo | Overhead, 90° | 60 cm | — | Steel bench | Kitchen LED, no flash | 31 cm flat plate |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | 20°, almost at rim level | 15 cm | 40 cm | Steel bench | Kitchen LED, no flash | 1.2 l clay pot |
Two tape marks on the bench —one for the plate, one for the feet of whoever shoots— and the whole session fits in 3 min per dish.
SUPUESTO: the 45° at 35 cm come from no rule of food photography: they come from trying four combinations in this kitchen and keeping the only one where the bean pot does not hide the ground beef. If Sazón de Origen's pass had a heat lamp overhead, the shadow would change and it would all have to be retested before writing the sheet. And the sancocho is shot almost at rim level for a reason that is not aesthetic: at 45° you cannot see where the broth reaches, which is precisely the signal being taught.
② The three shots, and why the perfect plate teaches half
Nine sheets, not three. The correct one says what to aim at; the other two say what the error looks like, which is what a cook needs at 12:40.
| Dish | Shot | What it shows | Caption | Where it hangs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | Correct | The spec build | Beef 120 g, nº12 ladle levelled. Beans level with the pot. | Fry station |
| Bandeja de la casa | Short | Missing beef | Platter shows between beef and rice: beef is short. | Fry station |
| Bandeja de la casa | Over | Excess beef | If the beef touches the rice, it went over. Send it back. | Fry station |
| Trucha al ajillo | Correct | Skin visible, sauce under | Fillet 220 g, skin up, sauce underneath, clean rim. | Grill station |
| Trucha al ajillo | Short | Fillet under spec | Clean rim wider than usual: fillet is short, weigh it. | Grill station |
| Trucha al ajillo | Over | Sauce misplaced | Sauce on top: the skin is hidden. Rebuild the plate. | Grill station |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | Correct | Broth level and meats | Broth 2 cm from the rim, meats visible from above. | Pot station |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | Short | Meats hidden | Meats under the cassava: reads as sancocho with no meat. | Pot station |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | Over | Broth to the edge | Broth to the edge: it spills over the 25 min trip. | Pot station |
"If the beef touches the rice, it went over" does a job the scale does not. The gram weight lives in the spec sheet and is checked by weighing, a 20 second gesture nobody performs with 12 tickets on the rail. The sheet translates those 18 g of excess into a signal seen without stopping the hand: two things touching. It does not replace portioning —it makes it visible between weighings— which is why the caption names the gram weight as well as the signal: so whoever wants to check knows what to check against.
③ Expiry, which is what kills the sheets at the pass
| Dish | What voids the shot | Who reshoots it | How often it is reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | New chicharrón supplier, new gram weight, new platter | Location head chef | Every month, sheet in hand |
| Trucha al ajillo | New crockery, different fillet size, new supplier | Location head chef | Every month |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | New pot, change to the broth level in the spec | Location head chef | Every month |
And the photos hanging today are already expired, all three. The menu ones were taken two years ago: the trout went out on a 26 cm deep plate and today it goes on a 31 cm flat one, the chicharrón comes from another supplier in a smaller piece, and the sancocho does not even appear because it was never photographed. Hung and expired, they teach the error with the authority of being printed — which is worse than having nothing, because the cook who obeys them believes he is doing it right.
Every sheet carries the date printed in the corner and the initials of whoever shot it. With no date, nobody knows whether looking at a photo means looking at the standard or looking at last year.
The full example has 1 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.