Serving Platters

Choosing a serving platter by shape and size

Start with the food and the table. Round platters are measured across the diameter, from 20.5cm to 39cm, and sit well in the middle of a table where everyone can reach. Other shapes are measured by length and width, from 14cm to 42.5cm long and from 5cm to 30.5cm wide. Width matters as much as length: a slim platter runs down a long table with olives or bread, while a broad one takes a roast or cheese for a crowd.

Height runs from 1cm, almost flat, to 6.5cm, and a deeper piece keeps dressings and juices where they belong. A few list a capacity, from 100ml to 1100ml. There are a few sets of two as well, and on some products the size is given for each piece. Before you buy a large platter, measure your cupboard, dishwasher rack and oven shelf against its length.

What is stoneware, and why does it suit a platter?

Almost every serving platter we stock is ceramic, many of them stoneware, with one or two in glass. Stoneware is clay fired at a high temperature until it turns dense and hard, so it takes up very little liquid. That suits a platter, which spends its life under oily dressings, meat juices and cut fruit.

Every platter we stock is marked food safe, so bread, cheese, cooked meats and fruit can go straight onto it. That makes a platter as useful in the kitchen, for resting a joint, as it is in the dining room.

Reactive glazes and hand-painted platters

Some of our platters carry a reactive glaze. As the piece is fired, the glaze moves and pools, so the colour can vary noticeably from one platter to the next, even within the same design. Some are hand-painted, and the brushwork differs a little each time. A few have a crackle glaze with a hand-stamped pattern, and on these the fine crackle lines can deepen as the platter is used.

We stock multicoloured designs, blues and browns, with a few in green, yellow, rose, red and grey. A busy multicoloured platter gives a plain salad or a pale cheese something to sit against, while a single blue or brown lets bright food take the eye.

Christmas platters for the festive table

Our range includes Christmas platters, with festive designs for the December table: mince pies passed round after dinner, a cheeseboard on Christmas Eve, the roast potatoes on the day itself. Before warming a Christmas platter or washing it after a long lunch, check the care rows for the oven, microwave and dishwasher on its product page.

Dishwasher, oven and microwave: what each platter can take

Almost every platter we stock is dishwasher safe, and most can also go in the microwave and in the oven. About a third are not oven safe, though, and about a third are not microwave safe, so read the care rows on each product page before you warm food on a platter or carry one from a hot oven to the table.

Where a platter is not dishwasher safe, wash it by hand in warm, soapy water and dry it fully before putting it away. Avoid sudden changes of temperature with any ceramic piece: set a hot platter on a board or trivet rather than a cold, wet worktop.

Pairing a platter with plates, bowls and jugs

Build a shared table outwards from the platter: a plate at each place, a bowl or two for salad and sauces, a jug of water and a napkin beside every setting. Nothing needs to match. A blue platter looks at home among white plates, and a multicoloured one brightens a plain linen cloth. Two or three platters of different sizes set down the length of a table let guests help themselves without passing dishes back and forth.