Does Your Plate Matter?

Does the plate you use affect your eating?

I didn’t think so until a few years ago when I experimented with it by getting a new plate and discovered that having something pretty to put my food on did make a difference in how I ate (see my post about Eating With Our Eyes).

So you can imagine my sorrow a couple of weeks ago when I dropped the plate while cleaning, and it shattered all over my kitchen floor.

I had gotten used to it, and while the novelty had worn off, I still enjoyed it, something I didn’t fully realize until I didn’t have it anymore. I had other plates, of course, and while they weren’t ugly, they weren’t anything particularly special.

I therefore ventured out to look for a new plate and quickly realized that it wouldn’t be as simple as I’d hoped, since I now had certain expectations.

One: It should be pretty, but not overtly ornate or ostentatious. Two: It shouldn’t be too large or too heavy. Three: I wanted something of a similar color to what I had before, blue but not a solid color, since some contrast was nice. Four: I also didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on it.

I wandered around some of the pottery places in downtown Portland, but nothing quite worked. Then I checked out Georgetown Pottery online and quickly found something I liked, a dessert-sized plate – in fact, I found several items that I liked, but I only ordered one, and it arrived yesterday:

While it wasn’t the same as my first plate, of course, I did have fun using it, and it again made me focus on trying to make my food presentation match the prettiness of the plate. It also makes a good base for any food photos, like the cookies I made:

I still wish I hadn’t dropped the other one, but it’s been a good reminder of the importance of plating, and how a nice presentation of food adds to the enjoyment of eating.