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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think I am a crap hostess for not warming plates?

91 replies

lessonsintightropes · 10/03/2014 01:13

It's just never occurred to me to do so - the only time I ever know I have hot plates is when being served in a pub and something's been microwaved on it. I usually bring the mains and sides to the table for people to self-serve from (not wanting to give people too large/small portions) and it's just not really something I do, or have noticed others doing when having dinner at theirs apart from a v posh cousin who no longer works and has a massive triple oven in her house in Islington and therefore wrote it off as some odd posh phenomenon

OP posts:

KeatsiePie · 10/03/2014 12:35

But unless you're keeping your plates outside in the snow I don't really see how they could be cold enough to chill food. It's not that cold in a cupboard!

squoosh · 10/03/2014 12:35

Well I've managed without cracking a plate yet!

trufflehunterthebadger · 10/03/2014 12:36

so you would only have to twiddle thumbs for a couple of extra minutes to wait for the plates?

Erm no. You put them in the oven 5 minutes before you serve the dinner.
Some people must be chronically disorganised if they can't manage to put a plate in an oven that's already on five minutes before the food is ready. It's not rocket science !

trufflehunterthebadger · 10/03/2014 12:37

Keastie, there are large hot cupboards in restaurant kitchens. You know that bit in Kitchen Nightmares etc where they are plating up on the "pass" ? Underneath that is a large heated cupboard filled with plates.

babyheaves · 10/03/2014 12:39

I always warm plates and bowls and had always assumed that other people did too.

Well this has been a small revelation.

It stops the food going cold too quickly. Pasta in a cold bowl woudn't do at all.

I put plates in the oven to warm up. I've put them under the grill and in the microwave as well and they've never cracked.

trufflehunterthebadger · 10/03/2014 12:39

squoosh
I've never broken one either. I am careful about heating the wedding china as it's quite delicate porcelain but the everyday stuff just gets bunged in with the dinner, at whatever temp it's being cooked at

jenniferturkington · 10/03/2014 12:39

I never warm plates. I tried to keep pancakes warm on a plate in the oven the other day but forgot about it in the end and the plate cracked.

Seff · 10/03/2014 12:44

Apparently the way to keep pancakes warm is on a plate over a pan of simmering water. I was only informed of this tip after last tuesday.

I've never bothered though, you can eat a pancake in the time it takes to cook the next one! One at a time avoids everyone fighting over sugar and lemon too.

Original poster

lessonsintightropes · 10/03/2014 12:51

Well this has been interesting! Seems like 75% don't really bother (or do it only for MIL) and 25% do every time - but those that do would think it odd if they were served food on an unwarmed plate.

I don't think I'll start plate warming any time soon...

OP posts:

notso · 10/03/2014 12:52

I always warm plates and serving dishes.
MIL doesn't and the food is always cold after a few mouthfuls. I am convinced that's why his family gobble their food down so fast.

KatnipEvergreen · 10/03/2014 12:59

I don't know why people are obsessed with having their food really hot- yes, can see why you need warm plates for a roast dinner, but something like pasta and sauce or curry is boiling hot for ages - I usually have the reverse problem of trying to get it cool enough to eat.

Exactly, I'm not running a restaurant, so why bother? Neither do I have a bain-marie or dummy waiter (feels deprived)

FraidyCat · 10/03/2014 13:05

My mother used to do warm plates, in the seventies.

On a related note, I've noticed that a lot of people don't make hot dogs properly, they use unwarmed bread rolls. (Can one be snobbish about the making of hot dogs? I feel there's a contradiction in there somewhere.)

BertieBotts · 10/03/2014 13:07

My grandad does it, I suspect it's a generational thing.

JRmumma · 10/03/2014 13:10

I do warm plates if the oven is on. But only because my kitchen is freezing and so my plates are too.

If i can be arsed and the oven isn't on, i put them in hot water for a couple of minutes to warm them too. Never thought of heating them in a microwave but i think i might try that.

Wouldn't bother in warmer months though.

gamerchick · 10/03/2014 13:11

not angry.. just bemused because it's weird to go to extra faff (to me)

I turn my oven up to hell temps for my roasties as well

I don't care about hot food.. i've been a mother long enough to get used to cold dinners and plus eating is a necessary irritation that I would happily do without if they would just invent a pill or something. i don't get the obsession with hot food that you then have to wait for it to cool so you can eat it without that wowowow noise people make with their mouths because it's too hot.

I don't like hot pasta either.. cool pasta with hot food in the middle is the way to go.

Seff · 10/03/2014 13:14

You need hot plates in restaurants, as usually everyone on a table has ordered different things, so it can take a little longer to plate everything up. Plus, people can be very quick to complain if food is a bit cold.

At home, everything is the same and getting dished up at the same time, which is much quicker. If it's a roast, with different side dishes being served separately, it's probably better to have warm plates. Although, if you can manage the timings to get a range of side dishes ready and served at the same time as your meat and gravy, you probably can manage to heat the plates up! Timing has always been an issue for me when I cook.

KeatsiePie · 10/03/2014 14:07

truffle that's really neat actually. I wouldn't mind at all having a special cupboard for heating plates. And a pantry, and a pie safe ... and for that matter a dishwasher. [dreams of luxury kitchen]

JupiterGentlefly · 10/03/2014 14:44

Two previous boyfriends insisted on warming the plates.. I just thought it was a bit wet and sappish. Thats just my opinion. I for one do not warm plates because I eat my food it when its dished up. I don't need to admire it or ask how its day was so it doesn't tend to get cold.

Joysmum · 10/03/2014 16:22

Gosh there are done very forceful opinions on something so trivial!

Joysmum · 10/03/2014 16:22

*some

tulipsaredelicious · 10/03/2014 16:25

My FIL is so precious about fucking warm plates. It drives me mad. If I forget to warm them, or don't have space on the oven, or think it's only breakfast fgs - the food goes cold while we wait for the plates to warm up.

TooMuchRain · 10/03/2014 16:33

I do if the oven has been on anyway but otherwise I don't tend to think about it, am surprised the way some people think it involves several hours hard labour though!

BranchingOut · 10/03/2014 16:44

My grandparents used to run a small hotel back in the day and had a special 70s cupboard for plate warming. :)

I have begun to warm then recently now that I have a small side oven - but only for roasts. The side oven just gets them gently warm if the main oven is on.

Christelle2207 · 10/03/2014 17:15

We always warm. 30 seconds in the microwave. Broccoli and other green veg goes cold otherwise!
However it doesn't make you a crap hostess if you don't, unless you're serving broccoli.

OhTheDrama · 10/03/2014 17:19

Never warm plates here. DH is from a family of plate warmers and he doesn't bother either.

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