With my parents' cat (who happens to be my cat's grandmother), the ritual is just the attention. There's dry food in the bowl at all times. She doesn't really want more food in the bowl, all it takes is a human hand shuffling the food around, restacking it to the center of the bowl, to make her happy.
I expected that trick to work (I've used it before, on other cats), but most of the time it doesn't. Once in a while she gives me a dirty look and starts eating, but usually when I do that she just ignores me. OTOH, I only have to add a few pieces of fresh stuff to make it count as having given her new food.
Food rituals
Re: Food rituals