Top chefs spend time planning their culinary creations, but they also place equal emphasis on presentation. Tops chef give great thought to each course, including the dinnerware & accessories. Yesterday's plain, heavy white dinnerware has given way to unique materials like slumped glass, warm organic woods, metals and fine china. Below is a brief rundown of how today's top chefs are plating their food in unique and inspiring ways.

Unique Shapes
Many chefs use unique shapes to showcase finger foods, something a home chef can easily do for a cocktail party. For impact in his Bread Bar, Chef Floyd Cardoz of Tabla in NYC replaces 6-inch round white bread plates with more colorful 4-inch by 6-inch rectangular colored glass plates. NYC's Sushi Samba also prefers the translucency of glass paired with its seafood creations; the restaurant mixes clear and opal glass plates on the table. Per Se, also in NYC, adds interest by changing its dinnerware for each course. They start with a showplate, the ultra lavish JL Coquet Hemisphere painted with 22kt gold stripes. For the home chef, showplates are a stunning foundation for rotating various appetizer samplings.

Chic Shapes
The renowned Eric Ripert of NYC's Le Bernadin shows off his culinary masterpieces on the Raynaud Homage Collection, designed to the specifications of famed chef Thomas Keller. The collection is bright white, ultra flat and superimposed with shapes to enhance the food. It's also Thomas Keller's choice at French Laundry in California, where enamored guests go to nearby Geary's of Beverly Hills to buy the dinnerware. Consider incorporating these types of beautiful and flattering plates into your own collection.

Organic Shapes
David Bouley's Miami chic hot spot Evolution showcases Izabel Lam's designs. Brooklyn-based Lam creates specialty dinnerware and accessories in organic shapes, perfect for seafood and more tropical fare. Evolution uses her tissue-thin French Limoges porcelain as well as her colorful slumped glass platters.

Individualized Shapes
Chef Bertrand Chemel, formally of Café Bouloud, chose the new Rosenthal white dinnerware created by Massimiliano Alajmo. The highly individual plates are designed for differing meal requirements. For example, all the elements tilt slightly forward for dishes that are eaten using only one fork. The pasta plate's edging has a small hollow precisely for this purpose. The set embodies the trend of individuality and designs that celebrate food.

Christina Norsig
CEO/founder, eTableTop.com