Presentation plays an important role in serving food: decorative garnishes are pleasing to the eye and elevate any dish on to a more elegant level.

All sorts of vegetables can be sculpted and cut into myriad shapes such as lattices, crabs, butterflies and many others with colour, shape and texture set off to their best advantage.

It may just be a question of cutting a thin lemon slice in quarters and then arranging these so that their pointed sides meet to resemble butterfly wings, then place two thin strips of sweet red pepper to look like the antennae.

Feather the ends of spring onions, cutting down into the stalk end towards the bulb in a series of cross cuts, soak the spring onions in iced water and they will open out like chrysanthemums or plumes.

Mangetout can be turned into small, open-mouthed fishes by the simple expedient of cutting a triangle out of one end of the flat pea pod.

.When you are really short of time, a few sprigs of fresh basil or parsley will do wonders for the appearance of any dish