The sous chef told me to stop plating like an artist, I wish I listened sooner

Back in March I was running the pass at this place in Portland and I took serious pride in my plates. Every swoosh of sauce had to be perfect, every microgreen placed just so. My sous, this guy who'd been there since the 90s, finally pulled me aside after a brutal Saturday and said, "You're making food that looks good for Instagram but dies on the way to the table. The expo is the last person to touch it, not the first." I was pissed. I mean, I'd spent three years building my plating style. But he made me run his way for a week: simpler stacks, sauce under the protein instead of art on the rim, fewer fragile bits. Everything held up better. We got way fewer sends back for cold or broken plates. The old style looked better in the photo I took at the window, but nobody eats a photo. Has anyone else had to give up a pretty presentation because it just didn't survive the floor?

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