the.com/garnish
the food the chef expects you to leave on the plate.
means To decorate or embellish something, especially a dish of food, with a small added touch — or, in legal terms, to divert part of a person's wages or money to settle a debt.
from From Old French 'garnir,' to fortify, equip, or prepare — itself likely from a Germanic root meaning to warn or take heed (a cousin of 'warn' and 'garrison'). The journey from 'fortify a castle' to 'sprinkle parsley on a plate' runs through the idea of furnishing and finishing-off: arming a place, then arming a dish. The legal sense — 'garnishee' — kept the older flavor of seizing and securing what's owed.
- origin
- From Old French garnir, meaning to equip or fortify
- parsley plague
- Restaurants reused the same sprig for decades
- legal twist
- Wages can be garnished too, much less appetizing
- edible flowers
- Nasturtium and pansy petals are genuinely meant to be eaten
maldon sea salt — fleur de sel harvested from maldon, essex since 1882, topped on dishes worldwide
microgreens at alinea — edible flowers and shoots plated on each of 18 courses at grant achatz's chicago restaurant