Thanks for me joining today.
My name is Kate Edwards here with the Institute of Culinary Education.
Dinnerware is one of these pieces that's going be a bridge that connects the food, the service,
the ambience, all together on the table for your guest.
But Today I am going to help you by giving you the tips and tricks for making the best
choice for your restaurant.
First thing that you really need to think about, how big is your table, will define
how much you can put on top of it.
Typically a table is about 30 inches, but there is big trend right now to have a smaller
tables about 24 inches.
Small tables mean a little bit of constraint on what goes on our table top.
If you look at the table I set up, it is a 24-inch square.
This is set with a 12.5-inch plate.
This is a typical dinner plate, but it is little bit big on this table.
It makes it hard to see the dinner forks, the knife and even picking up a wine glass
you might clink on the end.
But I have a solution.
These are a 10.5-inch plate.
It�s amazing, by changing out the plates we�ve added a couple more inches to a table
and those inches really are crucial for our guests.
It will allow us to add more component as we go through the meal like a breadbasket
or the butter.
We want to make sure everything that goes on the table creates what we call a tablescape
that is going to have room for everything you anticipate for that guest experience
This is a really big investment that you'll make.
Before you make any decisions I always recommend working with a really great supplier, find
a good vendor make sure they're reputable and that they have very good customer service,
who is going to send you samples.
And then you can use those samples to build your own tablescape.
Play around with the glass with the silverware, with the various pieces on your table, and
than that really shows you how is your guest going to interact with it, and that takes
it to whole new level of understanding.
We talk about basic white plates, but these plates that we have today are anything but
basic.
You're not just building plates on a table, you wanna create something with some depth,
maybe add a little bit of color or texture.
A great way to do that is with foundation elements and that would be things that go
underneath the plates.
This is a charger, use it to add a little texture and a different shape.
A great thing to add to your table is a placemat.
These are Metroweave.
It really pops.
And the green color I think really is nice with this more organic shape.
One of the item stays on the table throughout the duration is your water glass.
So you want to think about what glass you want on the table.
We have round glasses, square glasses.
There's other things that we can also add to the table as little design elements, a
small bread plate, this would be a little more organic here, this could be used to present
charcuterie or bread and butter.
We can use these great spoons for presenting an appetizer or individual canals of ice cream.
The plates make a real statement about the concept and how all the different elements
work together to really give the brand a little pop.
We can see here it's so easy to make three different concepts out of simple white plates
from combining the elements of China, glass and wood.
White plates are a staple for most restaurants, but color really has a place as well.
I see a lot more restaurants using color plates these days, in fact, at fine dining restaurant.
It's really kind of exciting to see.
The first selection I have is really a pow color.
This is a blood orange color sitting on a vanilla base flanked by these two salt
and pepper shakers.
The orange truly makes a statement
This is a little more elemental and down to earth.
It's more of an organic shape and the color is a little more earthen as well.
I would recommend this for a farm to table restaurant or even something like tapas restaurant
especially with all the unique sizes and shapes.
This here definitely harks of Asia with the bold red color and with the black and white
and this one is really unique.
There�s are not even edges.
I could actually picture sushi lined up here
Dinnerware is such an important choice because this is what your guests are going to be touching
and feeling and experiencing with every bite of their food.
So take time to choose wisely and make sure that you are thinking about the color, the
shape, the feel, and the size, so that it really does echo your concept.
I hope this makes it little bit easier and you feel little more confident as you go out
and buy your dinnerware.