Dinner Plates

Dinner plates in porcelain, stoneware and textured ceramic — the 10 to 11 in plate a table is built around, sold singly and in sets.

What size is a dinner plate?

Ten to eleven inches. Below ten it reads as a side plate and food looks crowded; above twelve it stops fitting a standard dishwasher rack and most cupboards. Eleven inches gives a plated course room around the edge, which is most of what makes food look considered.

Porcelain, stoneware or textured ceramic?

Porcelain is fired hottest, so it is the thinnest, hardest and least porous — the most formal of the three and the most resistant to chipping where plates stack. Stoneware is heavier and holds heat longer, which suits a slow meal. A textured or reactive glaze hides the cutlery marks that show immediately on flat white.

Coupe or rimmed?

A coupe plate has no flat rim, so food sits in a shallow curve and the plate reads as contemporary. A rim frames the food and gives somewhere to rest cutlery, which suits a formal setting. A rim also catches a sauce that a coupe lets run to the edge.