Plating trends and presentation styles constantly change, but one constant remains true—artfully presented food tastes better.
At River Bend Golf & Country Club (Great Falls, Va.), Executive Chef Trever Travis is leveraging his woodworking skills to create new, unconventional serving surfaces in the form of wood boards, plates, and presentation pieces.
“I’ve always been intrigued by nature and its beauty, even before I was a chef,” says Travis. “I dabbled a bit in woodworking in high school, but I haven’t applied that skillset in my culinary career. I’m excited to use this ability to create unique presentation pieces and further elevate the dining experience for our members and guests.”
Travis has worked with the club’s grounds crew to transform tree branches into plates for wine dinners. He uses locally sourced cedar planks for cooking and serving salmon with different fruit or vinegar glazes. He has carved taco holders for the club’s tapas menu and crafted display stands with reusable chalkboards.
One of his largest pieces is a grand charcuterie board made with local poplar wood for banquets and events.
“I especially love using wood cookies [a slice of a branch or a trunk shaped like a cookie] for smaller dishes like tempura salmon sushi bombs with eel glaze and avocado lime espuma,” says Travis. He uses epoxy resins to enhance the artistic appearance of the boards. “For our first ‘Smoke ‘n’ Grapes’ wine event, we used epoxy-filled mini charcuterie boards for plates and cooked full-sized cedar plank smoked salmon. All the wines were paired with smoked foods—even smoked peach Melba. The serving pieces added an earthy, rustic touch.”
Travis combined out-of-the-box and inside-the-box thinking with his plates for a recent cigar smoker event.
“The first course was served inside a cigar box,” says Travis. “We also used wine and bourbon barrels as lazy susans, spatulas, bottle openers, and hors d’oeuvres holders.”
The process to create these pieces is no small (or short) feat, reports Travis.
“I’m currently working on thick, cherry wood ‘cookies’ made from downed trees on the club’s property to use in banquet presentations, as well as boards to use as a holder for cone-filled foods,” says Travis. “These cookies are about two-and-a-half inches thick and 20-inches in diameter. They have been drying for two years as wood generally takes one year per inch to when a kiln isn’t used.”
Lee Mackay, River Bend G&CC’s newly appointed General Manager, has supported Travis’s merging of skillsets. “He’s a huge proponent of inspired thinking, and he likes the rustic, organic and natural appearance these boards bring to our displays,” says Travis.