Presentation Is Everything!

How often do you go to a restaurant and notice how “used” their plates look?  You notice scratches in the center of the plate because they have stacked other dishes on top of each other...we seem to notice a lot in a short period of time. In order to preserve the quality of your dishes, try to store them on individual plate racks.  Another alternative would be to place a microfiber cloth between your plates as you stack them.  Although it seems a little time consuming, once you get in the habit you’ll adopt a system that works best for you.  Here are a few samples of different style plate racks that may work in your home.

Luxury Plate Rack insert made from Solid Beech



Plate Holder Drawer Insert



Wooden Plate Rack Wall Shelf

If you head into your favourite organizing solution store, hardware store or kitchen decor store, you will find a large variety of plate racks that will work for you and your home.

Now that we've discussed how to preserve the quality of your beautiful plates, how do you present them on your dining table?  My ultimate favourite is to start out with a charger plate (also known as a service plate).  Since food is not actually served on chargers, they are often called underplates or chop plates.  Often a decorative charger plate is left on the table as a large coaster for the soup and salad courses and then removed for the main entree. Others keep the underplate, charger or chop plates together until the end of the entire meal.  There are hundreds of decorative charger plates on the market but my favourite is the very simple and classy glass charger plate with either a gold or platinum rim from William Ashley.  I absolutely adore the presentation you can achieve when placed on your table.  It can be used with your best China or with you favourite everyday plates (Both are shown below)

Glass Charger with Platinum Rim with Noritake China

Glass Charger with Platinum Rim with Everyday Mikasa Set

Another thing I love about Chargers is that it makes your table look simple and sleek.  There is no need for placemats which can really drown out and take away from your table decor.  Do you agree?  I would love to hear your preferences!