To serve hot food on cold plates?

[PerspicaciousGreen]

I've been chuckling my way through this thread and the desire for hot plates thing keeps cropping up: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1651633-Omg-such-anality-from-pil-Come-and-share-your-anal-behaviour-stories-lighthearted

My parents got a new kitchen and had a special plate warming drawer installed in their oven. For the two of them. They put it on every night to preheat the plates before they carry them two steps to the kitchen table. Before that, they used to turn the whole oven on to heat the plates! My mother thinks hot food on cold plates is "disgusting", which is one of the reasons they are no longer invited round for meals if we can help it. (Believe me, there were many other complaints, it wasn't just that.)

But the reason they need to warm the plates is because they piss about so much between dishing up and eating! They've got to clean half the kitchen, load the dishwasher, wipe the counters, lay the table, wash their hands... Whereas in our house it's out of the pan, onto the plate, sit down, start eating.

They also distribute microscopic portions of food across enormous plates. They could practically just eat off side plates but have the most enormous dinner plates John Lewis could sell them. We have smaller plates and bigger portions so the food keeps itself hot.

I cannot be the only person who thinks it's actually more disgusting to use good energy to heat up plates every single night when it's your own fault the food gets cold.

Oh if I'm doing a big dinner then I have an old electric 'food warmer' sort of the table top version of a hostess trolley, I'll stick plates on that while I'm dishing into serving dishes which then go on the heater to keep them warm.

In the olden days of cookers, the grill was a eye level, with plate rack at either end. Whilst cooking using the hob you would place the plates in the grill rack and they would heat up whilst cooking.
Now I have a cooker with the grill integrated above the oven, if I use the oven the plates go into the grill to heat up from the residual heat from the oven.
When using the slow cooker, I place the plates on the cooker lid.

Why would you put hot food on a cold plate?

Everything here gets put in the middle of the table (or on the side if it's a big one) and everyone serves themselves. I haven't plated up for anyone since the kids were toddlers.

Still only warm the plates for big roasts though!

That’s what the microwave is for surely!!! I call it the plate warmer as I grew up without one and have no idea how to cook anything in it ((DM refused to have one). Seriously though I would never warm plates if cold food is going on them eg salad , and I only take the chill off them in the winter, don’t bother in the summer. Is this a generational thing? Both step mum and in-laws heat plates so they are too hot and then warn the kids about them. Ridiculous.

I put plates in grill part of oven as it is warm from the bottom oven where food is cooking or place in (clean) washing up bowl covered in hot water if having a take away to warm up.

I've never heated plates in my life.
My mum sometimes does if we are having a "nice meal", but usually forgets until the last minute and sticks them in the oven. Usually the top one is scalding but the others are completely cold except for a centimetre round the edge. Pointless

I like warm plates as it keeps the food warm for longer.

I don't see the problem. Everyone do what suits them

All my older relatives are obsessed with plate heating and food being extremely hot when it hits the table.

I do heat plates (if serving hot food) but not with the same zeal. Usually via microwave or oven. However, plenty of food is best served warm rather than hot to my mind (my aunt would disown me for saying that though ).

Never do it but I hate cold so my house is warm!

For a big meal like at Christmas, sides plated up first are covered with foil so they stay hot, some things are in their oven tins and then the things that go cold easily are plated up last! Nothing ever goes cold

We've got a separate plate warmer and I bloody love it - as someone upthread said, our plates come from a drawer on an outside wall and in winter they can be freezing. I take them straight out of the dishwasher and put them in the warmer ready to be switched on when I start cooking dinner. We don't have them super hot, but warm enough to take the chill off

My mother used to put the plates in the airing cupboard early in the morning on big occasions like Christmas.
None of us heat plates, it's grab and go.

I don't heat plates. I live in Sweden and I am quite confident in saying that no-one heats plates here. However my Irish relations heat plates and I am aware of heating plates being an option. I do heat a serving dish, because I notice that transferring food chills it down too much before serving if I don't.

I wouldn't say my plates are cold. I'd say they are room temperature. Possibly it's because Swedes tend to use something called "central heating" the way the good God intended us too, and not as though it was a fireplace.

I don't care much either way and I would absolutely consider heating them if I had a big problem with food getting cold too fast.

the smart thing to do is to time the dishwasher to finish 10-15 mins before dinner time, so the plates will be warm from that rather than wasting energy turning on the oven.

I've never heated plates, even my mother has stopped - yes it's unnecessary

I muchhhhh prefer a hot plate with hot food on it, or at least a warm plate with hot food. I don't mind a cold plate as long as you dish up and serve immediately (no faffing).

Do people actually do this at home?!?! Only ever had a hot plate at a restaurant tbf

Honestly cannot see the point at all. My food is always hot and remains hot long enough to eat (and beyond) on a room temperature plate. I mean... its not a 'cold' plate is it. It's not like I've put it in the fridge prior to serving up onto it!!

I have only learnt today, by reading this, that people warm up plates.

I would heat a serving dish that was going onto the table, but I'm struggling to think of food that I'd need to transfer into a separate serving dish rather than just put the (already hot, obviously) cooking vessel on the table. Like, we have a nice casserole dish for stews that would go from hob to table.

I don't complain about the hot plate dance at their house, even though it drives me wild what a fuss is made over it. I have stopped going round to theirs at all if I can help it (for many reasons, plate temperature did not feature in the decision making process). And we try not to invite them here at mealtimes that involve anything more than a cup of tea and a slice of cake because of all the "comments" (of which the plate temperature was only one).

I agree @PerspicaciousGreen -- we just plonk stuff on the table generally for every day. But I was watching Jamie Oliver's Christmas cooking programme last year and he went on about that as though it was a massive revelation, that you can serve food in the dish it was cooked in.

My range cooker actually has a hot plate on the hob which i put the plates on to warm up - although if the oven beneath it is on I don't bother to turn the hotplate on as the rising heat is enough to take the chill off the plates. My parents always put plates in the oven to warm up so I suppose my habit just followed theirs. DMIL has a think that looks like an oven glove which she weaves between the plates and plugs in to warm her plates up if the oven isn't on. If I forget to warm plates though I don't fret over it - I just serve food on cold plates.

I do warm up plates occasionally for things that get cold quickly but it's very rare indeed. Most food is really piping hot and it's actually unhelpful to have a warm plate.

I think the whole plate warming thing is partially social signalling for the older generation.
If you look at Victorian catalogs they are full of warming plates, huffer cabinets, spoon warmers etc. (amongst the horrors of epergnes, eterges and credenzas).
It was a badge of honour and a show of wealth to keep food hot in a drafty country house and where the rich went, others tried to follow despite there being less need in a small family home.

Like PP my plates are in a cupboard on a outside wall , which even in the heat we had last summer still keeps things cool , great if the fridge is full of beer food and I need extra cool storage space .
So I always warm my plates , I have a eye level grill so put them where the grill pan would sit and the heat off what ever I am cooking on the hob is enough to warm them .

When we had a coal fired Aga that was on all winter, we heated plates cause the oven was always hot enough for that. But now we have a regular gas oven, we don’t heat plates. A hot plate is nice but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

I think the kitchen fitters saw your MIL coming op and this is another gadget in a new kitchen she's bought into/committed to, therefore is in love with it.

I'm mainly jealous as my kitchen isn't special but for me it goes in the category of weird gadgets like boiling water taps or odd shaped specific cupboards for things that people seem to "need" when getting a kitchen designed.

I think folk can get a bit semi-religious about their newly fitted kitchens sometimes.