....to not heat our dinnerplates?

[LaContessaDiPlumpOnSea]

MIL does. I don't.

Please discuss.

What is so hard to understand about the fact that people have different tastes?

I don't find it hard to understand that people have different tastes. I totally appreciate that some people are ridiculously fussy so that they can't enjoy food unless it is piping hot.

Always warm plates for roast dinner,never for anything else

Blimey, this has caught on

I must admit that it felt ridiculous yesterday wrt serving; MIL had heated the plates to nuclear, so I had to cross the room to the other side of the table, collect central dish of food, come back to my own plate (which was scorching and impossible to touch) and dish up for myself. DH meanwhile had to make sure kids didn't burn themselves on their insanely hot plates.

We are now home and grazing amongst room temperature snacks, Lord be praised

Again has everyone/anyone said that Mary?

Yes they have.

Goodness me. I had no idea warming plates was so popular. I've never done it (even though I have a built in plate warming drawer in my kitchen). Might start tonight!

Damn you Op! I now NEED a warming drawer.. Something else I never knew I wanted/needed/deserved until I read Mumsnet! Good excuse for a new kitchen though :-)

I have never known anyone to do this, must be a British thing ;)

Plate warming? I have never heard of that before.
As in, heat the plate up with no food on it? Why?

I don't but my mum always did

"Ridiculously fussy" Errrrmmmm... no. Personal preference. Everyone kept saying what a faff it was so a few posters (me included) explained how unfaffy they found it was to bung a couple of plates in an oven was.

I have a lovely mashed swede/potato, chicken casserole thing going on here and my plates are out of the cupboard ready for warming

I suggest you peruse the preceeding 200-odd posts for reasons for and against, Pickled0nions

MIL does, I don't. Dh made a comment once. I still don't. MIL needs too though as there's so much faffing the food has gone pretty cold. Warm plates don't help though thinking about it.

Wait is this a British thing? I'm so confused right now.

I'm a hip young thing of 36 and I prefer my dinner to be served on a hot plate. I always heat them if the oven is on but won't always heat them if I've just cooked a dinner on the hob for example.

Doesn't need to be hot, just warm but definitely not cold!

And I will say.... if I went for a lovely/expensive meal somewhere, the sort of food that you savour and take your time over, and the plate was stone cold I would be a bit miffed. I wouldn't do anything about it but...

As far as takeaways, they would be stone cold if we didn't heat plates and microwave the food too!

It appears that it is sometimes a British thing, except when it isn't.

This link may be of interest: researchingfoodhistory.blogspot.co.uk

I do, I don't like tepid food.

This comes from the days where the kitchen was so far from the dining room in stately homes that the plates were warmed as the food would have cooled considerably.

My mother always does, I only do for dinner parties. Cba'd otherwise.

I cook the veggies peas/sweetcorn in the microwave on the plates we're going to eat from. Warm plates + less washing up.

In my house it's a personal preference thing. I always warm my plate but everyone else isn't usually bothered.

I wouldn't call myself a fussy eater - I just prefer my food to stay hot.