Food styling: Tomato and mozzarella salad with honey & pistachios

by Joel Adank
Food styling: Tomato and mozzarella salad with honey & pistachios

Tomato and mozzarella salad is a classic - but how do I style this dish so that it has a modern twist and looks simply scrumptious?

In this blog post, I use a recipe to go through my top tips that always work well when it comes to food styling. But first, the recipe:

Ingredients Tomato and mozzarella salad:

  • Tomatoes, various colors, approx. 2 per person

  • Mozzarella, approx. 1 ball for 2-3 people

  • Basil

  • Honey, liquid

  • Pistachios, roasted

  • Pepper

  • Aceto balsamico

  • Olive oil

Preparation and food styling:

I start by choosing the tomatoes: To make the dish more visually exciting, I opt for different types of tomatoes: Yellow and red vine tomatoes, cherry tomatoes. Instead of slicing the tomatoes, I cut them into wedges, which makes them look less harsh.

When it comes to the mozzarella, I also decide against the traditional slices: instead, I pluck the cheese, which makes the whole thing a little looser. 

Now we need matching tableware: I opt for the breakfast plate in the color Serra - the organic shape and the light tone go well with the lightness of the summer dish and make the colors shine beautifully. An alternative would be a light shade of gray to show off the mozzarella even better. 

I opt for white marble for the base - the tone-on-tone styling helps to keep the focus on the dish. My marble plate is a slightly warmer and darker color than the crockery, which ensures that the plate and therefore the dish are brought to the fore. I always recommend combining similar colors.

When placing the dish on the plate, I make sure that I don't fill the whole plate and don't overfill it. A little space on one side creates more excitement and leaves room for individual ingredients, such as the pistachios, which I sprinkled on top at the end.

The next ingredients are basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey. I drizzle the honey directly over the plate with a spoon, leaving some extra drips next to it and placing the bowl of honey in the picture. The same applies here: don't overdo it, but a little "crumb" and drips next to the food look livelier. The principle can be applied slightly differently at home: Instead of spreading crumbs on the table, you can simply leave some space on the plate and recreate the same effect on the "empty plate"!

Finally, pistachios and pepper are added on top. For the pepper, I make a diagonal line across the whole picture (from top left to bottom right) - again, don't overdo it, but a little "chaos" enhances the picture.

And the taste? I'm completely blown away by the combination of mozzarella and honey! 

 

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