Plating

I am stuck in the past!  I serve food the same way my Mom did.  Each item has its separate place on the plate.  This way, I can eat all the potato/rice, and then all the other veggie, and then the meat.  Or I can eat some of one and then some of the other, but never combined.  Plating says, "get over it."  The new way is to serve food combined.  The plate used to be stacked, but that is out now too.  Yet, new, simpler ways are being presented in which foods are combined on the same plate.  This way you eat things together instead of separately.  Now I have to teach my sister, Jane, and my friend, Mary, both good cooks, how to get with the new ways.  No family style either, as that would tend to go toward food separation.  "Presentation" is the focus.

Institutions might learn from this.  "Old" or as it is sometimes covered up with the word, "tradition" might not be the best focus if you want to reach out to the modern person.  If you are only into maintenance, doing the same old thing for the same old people, soon you will be feeding no one.