According to a study, most people these days spend a minimum of 10-12 minutes of their time at the restaurants and cafes in clicking pictures of the food.

And this duration increases when the plating and aesthetics are a little more unconventional.

Behind all this is the appealing plating and serving styles of these high-end restaurants that serve small portions of food and use the plate as a canvas board in weaving a story with flavours.

But the question is, why do they do so? Is it just the matter of creativity or something else?

Here, we have tried to decode 8 such reasons that make these restaurants serve tiny portions.

1. Cost of ingredients

To maintain the high-standard and keeping the niche crowd in mind, the luxury restaurants source the ingredients from various places that increases the production cost of the dish and as a result, it also affects the end price of the dish. So, to make the dish affordable, they are served in small portions.

2. Small is elegant

With time, the trend of minimalism has entered in the food world too and the high-end restaurants have started considering ‘small is elegant’. It is believed that the guests coming to such hotels/restaurants prefer to taste different varieties rather than just filling up their stomachs.

3. Tasting menu

While most of the restaurants offer 3 or 4-course meals, luxury or high-end restaurants start at 3 and take it up to double figures. The small portions help the guests to enjoy the full spectrum of tastes that are on offer.

4. Design and art

Earlier plating was important, but these days, it involves a proper research work on aesthetics, art, design in context to the particular menu. Considering the dish as a ‘creation’ or ‘work of art’, small portions provide enough space to make the dish look visually more appealing.

5. Increases attractiveness

Here, the concept of ‘less is more’ is at the core. The restaurants work on the concept of ‘good things come in small packages’ and in the age of social media, the small portion with attractive plating helps in creating a buzz too.

6. Perceptual contrast

The idea of small portion has a logic of building an image of the dish in the visitor’s mind. According to a study, small portions excite the guests to try the meal and understand the nuances and it also makes the meal more memorable.

7. Before boredom sets in

According to taste psychology, our taste buds get used to a flavour after 4-5 bites. The concept of small portion kills the boredom and helps the mind to register the taste for a longer period.

8. Small portion is smart portion

The high-end restaurants have developed a mindset in the market that small portions when priced high make people like them more, going by the psychology that expensive food is good food.