To not heat my dinner plate?

[Jaggy1]

Just a silly one really..

My MIL has been coming to us once a week for a little while now. Every single time we have dinner whether we serve up or she does, even if we get a takeaway she always asks if I want my plate heated? Either with boiling water or in the oven if it’s being used. I just think it’s strange as I’d never do that on a random Tuesday night dinner or anything but she does it all the time 🤣
Also weird that DH never asks or cares for his plate heated any other time but he’ll always have it when she’s here.

Is this a thing? Am I the strange one 🤣
YABU- you religiously heat your plate
YANBU- never heat your plate

My dad (late 60s) does, I think it is a generational thing

I always warm the plates unless I'm serving salad or a similar cold side dish

I don't do it religiously but definitely most of the time. Once in a while I can't be bothered. I just use the lowest setting in the oven for a few minutes.

Absolutely always heat the plate.

A cold plate takes heat from the food and so you are eating what should be a hot meal cold and unappetising by the end.

It really makes a difference, try it...

I warm them in the microwave. If it's more than one just stagger them slightly to allow the heating to penetrate. A minute or two is all it takes.

I worked in a restaurant as a teenager and plates were kept in a hot cupboard and we would never use a cold plate for hot food.

We did it at home as a kid too, those old fashioned cookers with the overhanging grill were perfect for warming plates above the pans.

Yep I heat my plates so did my parents.
If I am using my grill ( eye level) and making a brew I put my cup on top of the grill to warm up .

Another reason why i hate inviting the in-laws round. Both fussy eaters (and they have the cheek to comment on the kids) and they moan if the plates are cold.

My family never cook the plates

The day I bought my electric plate warmer (£14.99 Aldi)…….i genuinely thought I had my shit together.
I feel quite boujee serving food on hot plates

Can't stand hot plates. DP likes them as does DM.

I’ve worked in restaurant management for 20 years and I think as a side effect of that I can’t imagine anything worse than a cold plate 😳 - the food would go cold so quickly, surely? I just bung the plates in the microwave for a short blast before serving.

mu mum does the same, I'm staying with her at the moment, (long and complicated sub thread at some stage!), but plate always heated, only evening meal though, and sometimes I'm partial to some nice cooked brekkie... never a warm plate then.....
I reckon it's an age thing.

We got a smaller microwave recently so I can't use it to warm the plates as they don't fit.

I nearly always heat the plates, except if there is salad on it or a bread bun or something. Nothing worse than a pasta sauce or gravy quietly congealing and going cold at the edges. Or cold fried egg. DH sometimes doens't bother, and the young adults don't either, but they wolf their food down in 5 mins and are still blowing on it even during their last mouthful.

I eat at a normal speed and like my food to stay hot. I think for anyone who is a slow eater, like an older person, it's only nice to heat their plates, otherwise their food will be cold by the time they get to the end, especially in winter.

Aldi is literally the road to hell for making you buy things you never ever considered before in your life and didn't have a clue you needed.

<looks askance at new £4.99 hermetically sealing bath pillow>

Cold plates are just so sad.

My parents heat up plates for everything, even toast. They’ve been known to microwave just cooked food on the hot plates to make it nuclear hot. This means food is always too hot and often overcooked. It’s an obsession which makes meals even more stressful. They can’t just plate up a takeaway without everything basically being recooked.

I hate it. I’d never heat up plates unless it’s arctic winter then I might pop the plate next to the cooker to take the edge off.

It’s good for people who eat slowly (slows down the food cooling down so it’s still warm at the end) - and older people do tend to eat slower.

It’s also handy when you are serving lots of different things thar have been put in serving dishes etc so might not be “straight from the oven/pan” hot temperatures. When people didn’t have microwaves or large number of hobs etc, it was often the case something like your potatoes would be still cooking but your peas were in a serving dish etc. was a way of covering up some things having cooled a bit.

Always heat my plates, in warming oven while cooking. Have always done so, mid 40’s now.
Hate eating off cold plates

I don't bother. My mum does. My stepdad was very cross once after I served him and my mum a roast dinner on cold plates - no thanks for all the effort I'd gone to, just muttering about the plates.

I hate it when my food is too hot to eat.

I've heated my plate my whole adult life, so not sure if it's an age thing. Nothing worse that hot food on a cold plate. Restaurants mostly always serve on hot plates.

Oh god, the obsession with warming plates. My dad drives me and my sister up the wall. He once asked me, more than an hour before dinner, if I'd heated the plates.

I’m in my late thirties and a ridiculously fast eater. I heat my plates, always have done, even in my student days. I felt I’d really made it when I got a warming drawer installed about 7 years ago.

I hate cold plates and I really hate hot food going cold.

If you're eating with others it doesn't matter if your food is put out a bit hot - you can just chat to your family/friends, surely? Or you're busy checking everyone has a drink or you're putting a couple of things in the sink/dishwasher?

I always heat my plate, I can't stand cold food and my mum is the same so I must have inherited this habit 😅

If I can put them on top of the Air Fryer or chuck them in the oven at the end then maybe. Wouldn’t consider starting up an appliance like boiling a kettle. Total waste of energy.

Same here ! He is actually obsessed by this ! I just leave him to get on with it !