A terrible thing has happened to me since coming to London. Twice I have been to a genuine gourmet restaurant. The first time, a South African colleague took me to Jamie Oliver's restaurant "15". The second time we planned on having a Christmas meal at a good restaurant called West, only to discover when we got there, it has now become a gourmet restaurant called "East meets West."

These two meals have changed the way I want to serve food.

No more slopping the stuff onto plates. How do the chefs manage to create such feasts for the eyes? A friend sent me a URL to a story where the newspaper had given three chefs each a take-away roast chicken, gravy, two veg and some mashed potato. They challenged each chef to create a visual masterpiece, and they did. The story is now old news, and the URL no longer works.
But all the chefs created height.

So now I'm reading Deborah Fabricant's book "Stacks: The art of vertical food".

Next thing I'll be creating tasting menus.