Table dressing
You'd get a few odd looks - and it wouldn't do much for your reputation - if you turned up at a black-tie event in jeans. Why? Because choosing the appropriate attire to suit the occasion is hugely important. Ditto that when it comes to dressing your dining tables. Make the wrong decisions and it will be a very noticeable - not to mention expensive - mistake.
"The chosen style and quality of tableware says just as much about a restaurant as does the standard of the food, ambience and service," says Andrew Etherington, of Andrew Etherington Associates, consultants to the food service industry and a member of the FCSI (Foodservice Consultants Society International).
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Not only do your crockery, glassware, cutlery and table linen need to reflect the style of the restaurant, they also have to be up to the job in hand. Etherington cites the main criteria when selecting tableware as durability, budget, style and appearance, and practicality and most suppliers aim to help you find a balance between these considerations.
The greater the anticipated use, Etherington points out, the more durable the product has to be. This is especially true in self-service establishments, where plates will usually be subject to rougher handling, stacking, and cleaning in dishwashers.
Richard Cromwell, managing director of Nisbets, advises that, where possible, buyers ensure crockery is fully vitrified, has strengthened edges so it doesn't chip easily, is shock resistant and therefore able to withstand any rapid heat change (when transferred from chiller to oven, for instance), and is microwave-, freezer- and dishwasher-proof. And if you're choosing patterned crockery, be aware that while most patterns today can be safely put into the dishwasher, there are some that are not dishwasher-safe and this should be stated by the manufacturer.
Obviously, the amount of money allocated to furnish the tabletops will vary enormously. In high-turnover fast-food outlets and take-aways, where margins and customer expectations are low, disposable products are the most suitable option. At the opposite end of the scale, in fine-dining restaurants customers will expect top-quality tableware to match the food and the prices.
In addition to initial outlay, consider ongoing replacement costs, says Bob Phipps, marketing manager at Steelite. Although it may cost less in the first instance to buy a cheaper product, it will cost more than a quality product if it constantly needs replacing because of breakage or chipping.
All items of tableware should complement each other. Etherington says it's a good idea to ask for samples from the suppliers, and set up a number of dummy place settings to ensure that the individual pieces go well together.
"If your china has a very intricate pattern, choose flatware and glassware with plainer lines," Cromwell says. "In general, try to find patterns that have something in common. If the china that you like is geometric, with mainly straight lines and right-angle corners, choose glassware and flatware that echo those lines. If you like three wildly different patterns, choosing a colour that all three patterns share is sometimes enough to draw the look together.
The view at Lockhart Catering Equipment is that a restaurant will want to set its signature by the food it serves and the way that food is presented - and this will affect the choice of tableware. "If a restaurant has a classic feel and is serving excellent food and charging a high price, then it should look at classic shapes and avoid bold colours as the main pieces," says marketing manager Richard McKenzie. "For a restaurant that wants to present a funky feel, has bright decor and is presenting fusion-style food, different shapes and perhaps bright colours are appropriate."
From a practical point of view, do make sure that the style and shape of the china will enable your food to be presented in the best way and involve your chef and waiters in the decision-making process. And don't limit pieces to just one use: soup bowls, for instance, are versatile pieces that can be used for pasta as well as salads.
Paul Shute, sales director at Elia International, says the width of range is very important. "As menus change, restaurants may need to add additional items to their tableware to accommodate new dishes," he says. Continuity and availability of supply are also big considerations and it's important to have faith in the wholesaler that the source of the range is totally secure. "Out of stock", "extended delivery time", and "discontinued" are not phrases you want to hear.
And where glassware is concerned, Paolo Costa of La Porcellana says it's vital that it fits the staff and working environment as well as the decor. "If staff are struggling with polishing glasses, we might recommend a coloured or textured glass," he says. "And there's no point buying beautiful high-stemmed wine glasses only to discover they are too tall for the storage shelves."
High volume When there are 1,000 lunches to serve in a day, style has to take something of a back seat. This is the figure upon which Compass Group subsidiary Eurest has to base its tableware choices for its contract at British Airways' Waterside headquarters.
Durability is an obvious issue in such a high-volume staff-dining area. Crockery and glassware need to sustain several turns in the dishwasher, on top of the general battering they receive in a high-volume kitchen. These needs are met by a mixture of Royal Doulton 10-inch traditional white hotelware and Steelite Monaco 12-inch plates. Glasses are Spiegelau straight highball tumblers from Steelite, and coffee cups and coffee pots are all from Royal Doulton.
Price is a big consideration with such a large number of units for every sitting - and, of course, the inevitable breakages associated with high-volume catering. White is the preferred colour for all crockery, for aesthetic and practical reasons. "Initially we used coloured crockery, but this scratched easily and soon looked dated," says executive chef Nick Vadis. "And food looks better on a blank canvas."
Mid-market For a mid-price restaurant, style becomes a more important consideration, although durability and cost are still issues. With the birth of the gastropub and a plethora of mid-market chains, making a good first impression has become vital in an increasingly competitive sector.
Dave Brownless, proprietor of Chadwicks, a 70-seat restaurant in Yarm, Teesside, had to take both aesthetics and practicality into account when choosing tableware. One influencing factor in choosing the white 32cm Figgio plates from Continental Chef Supplies (CCS) as the main plate for the restaurant was that they came with a five-year anti-chip guarantee.
"The guarantee makes the plate extremely cost-effective and good value," Brownless says. For sheer versatility, Brownless favours a rectangular platter from Figgio, which he uses for a variety of dishes, including tapas and main courses. And to achieve something of a wow factor, he chose tea and coffee pots, cream jugs and sugar bowls by designer Nick Munro, also from CCS. "They really do make a style statement," he says.
Fine dining For fine-dining establishments, tableware contributes to the eating experience, so style, colour and quality are all important.
David Todd, proprietor of the newly opened Frenchgate Restaurant and Hotel in the Georgian market town of Richmond, North Yorkshire, has been fortunate enough to have dined in some of the finest restaurants in the world - including Marc Meneau's two-Michelin-starred restaurant L'Esperance, in Burgundy, and the three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Alain Ducasse, in Paris. He has noted that the best food is invariably complemented by fine-quality tableware - so his aim was to create the same marriage in his hotel's 24-seat restaurant. He turned to Villeroy & Boch, who fulfilled the brief with a blend of elegant, wide-rimmed pure-white porcelain Marchesi plates and dishes, with additional pieces from the HotWave range and Corpo teapots and milk jugs.
Having made a priority of sourcing glassware that would reflect the elegance of the restaurant's interior, Tony Singh, chef-proprietor of award-winning 80-seat Edinburgh restaurant Oloroso, is delighted that many diners comment on the glasses supplied by wholesaler 3663. Singh had turned to 3663 for a one-stop-shop approach to creating his tabletops. "It's counterproductive to invest in poorly designed or unattractive glassware," he says. "Ours are large and made from very fine Austrian glass with a crystal base - they look and feel great and really add finesse to our tables."
So whatever your market - fine-dining establishment, mid-market restaurant or gastropub, high-volume operation or cheap-and cheerful-eaterie - make sure your tables are properly dressed.
Future trends
Paul Goodfellow of Continental Chef Supplies has been crystal ball-gazing and this is what he saw:
More shaped and multi-functional plates coming on to the market
Greater use of miniatures and accessories such as canapé spoons
Designers increasingly putting their names to tableware
White plain plates are here to stay, but demand for glass plates is growing
Glasses used for serving food will become more widespread. Cast-iron oven-to-tableware making more of a statement for modern dining
Increased demand for anti-chipping guarantees
Contacts
Churchill: 01782 577566 www.churchillchina.com
Continential Chef Supplies 0808 1001777 www.chefs.net
Dudson: 01782 819337 www.dudson.co.uk
Elia: 020 8998 2100
FCSI: 01483 761122 www.fcsi.org.uk
Guy Degrenne/Signature FSE: 01908 235660 www.signature-fse.com
La Porcellana: 020 86715959 www.laporcellana.co.uk
Lockhart Catering Equipment: 08701 678678 www.lockhartcatering.com
Nisbets: 0845 1405555 www.nisbets.co.uk
Royal Doulton: 01782 404040 www.royal-doulton.co.uk
Steelite International 01782 821000 www.steelite.com
3663: 0870 3663 000 www.3663.co.uk
Villeroy & Boch 020 8871 0011 www.villeroy-boch.co.uk
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 14 April 2005
