Fab and Delicious Food

Hi guys!  Hope you all had a great day!

I made a pretty fruit platter using an awesome new piece of serveware to plate it on and make a nice presentation!  So you get to see food today, a product review, and the start of

Dinnerware 101 and Food Presentation 101!  (well, technically this is serveware, but that’s okay!)

Here is the fruit platter:

So pretty, right?!  I love the contrast of the green kiwi fruits next to the red strawberries!  And I think you can really appreciate the colors of each because they were plated on a white serving platter – it really highlights the food itself because it provides a neutral background for the food and allows it to shine by not competing with the food at all.

I really love white dinnerware and serveware, only problem is that we don’t own any!  Until now, that is!   Jason,

from CSN Stores,

recently contacted me about reviewing an item from one of their stores and offered me the chance to select the product I wanted to review!   Thanks, Jason!

I chose a white serving platter because I thought it would make for beautiful food presentations!  

I chose a rectangular serving platter because I really like the structure of it.  The lines are really defined, which I think allows the food to be shown off well and makes it feel a bit more special because I think usually people don’t use rectangular platters all that often.  So it is a bit unexpected and I think it makes the presentation of the food look a bit fancier.  I chose the 13.5″ x 9″ platter because it is big enough to plate a variety of dishes, such as appetizers, snack plates, entrees, and desserts.

It came well-wrapped to cushion it, but also came in a really big box with a lot of styrofoam things (sorry, having a brain freeze – can’t think of what those things are actually called!)

So yes, the serving platter definitely arrived in good shape, but I did feel a little bad that it took so much packaging to ship it!  But then again, I wouldn’t want it to break either because, of course, that would be bad too!  Not sure if the packaging could be reduced a little bit somehow, but thought I would mention it just in case!

Okay, now more about the serving platter itself!

The serving platter is made by a company in France called Pillivuyt.

Here is some information about the company from the CSN Stores website:

Pillivuyt has been producing fine culinary porcelain in the heart of France for nearly two centuries. Founded by the Pillivuyt family in 1818, the factory is now employee owned and operated near the town of Mehun-sur-Yevre. The Pillivuyt tradition of craftsmanship has been carried out by artisans since the 19th century. As molds lose their integrity, new models must often be made by hand. It requires years of training and experience to fine-tune the skills needed to turn out a perfect model for the new mold. Own a piece of French history with Pillivuyt!

In addition to being made of porcelain, which is a great material for dinnerware and serveware since it is pretty durable and nonporous (or at least I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere – don’t quote me on that just yet!), 

this serving platter is also microwave, freezer, and oven safe.

This is what the back of the serving platter looks like:

Oops, I forgot to take the sticker off the back before I took the picture!  Sorry!   I took that picture as soon as I took the platter out of the box!  I was so excited to take pictures of it for the blog that I forgot to take the sticker off right away! 

Don’t worry, though – I made sure to wash the platter before I put any food on it!   

And yes, you do have to handwash this serving platter, but you would probably want to anyway, to make sure it doesn’t get any scratches or nicks in it, which might happen if it were dishwasher safe since sometimes things bang together!  Just make sure not to drop the serving platter, as it is kind of heavy since it is so big and is made of porcelain!   

(Okay, now I’m not sure if this next part makes sense or not – when I talk about the front and back of the serving platter – but I’ll try and explain it as best I can.) 

Let’s take a look at the back of the serving platter again:

You can see how it’s not entirely flat on the bottom of the platter.  There’s a line in the center and then also an outline of a small rectangle and then an outline of a bigger rectangle.  Because the platter is so big, those lines (sorry, not sure the proper name to call them!) help to make the platter feel sturdy when you place it down on the table.  It helps it to feel much more balanced, than if there were just the lines around the rim of the platter.  Hope that all made sense?!

Anyway, let’s now take a closer look at the front and back of the platter:

The name of the company is on the front of the platter in the center (it’s a sticker, which I also forgot to remove when I was taking the pictures of it at first!), which is where that straight short line in the center of the back of the platter is.  And, if you look really closely, you can see the faint outline of a small rectangle around it, which is the outline of the small rectangle on the back of the platter.  And then there is the outline of a rectangle around the rim of the front of the platter, which you can also see on the back of the platter.  All of these lines and rectangles can act as a guide for where to plate your food.  It can be useful when making different food presentations, designs, and patterns!  Not sure if that made sense, hopefully it did!  But I’ll probably have a food presentation as an example of this soon so that you can see what I’m talking about! 

Now, the nice thing about this serving platter is that even if you don’t follow any rules such as I talked about above, your food will still look good because the serving platter is such a blank canvas.  For example, for this food presentation

I just plated the food however I wanted.  I didn’t have to worry about the color of my food clashing with the color of the serveware, didn’t have to worry about the food competing with a busy pattern - I could probably just toss some food on there, not give the presentation much thought, and it still probably would turn out well!   I mean, this food presentation was very simple but I think it looked even nicer since it was on the white serving platter.

I really love this Pillivuyt rectangular serving platter!  Although it is a bit more expensive than you would probably spend on something you just happened to find at the store, a lot of times it is better to spend more money on quality items that will last a long time than on something that is cheap and not well made that you will have to replace once it breaks.  (And yes, I was fortunate enough to receive the serving platter for free to review on the blog, but these are things I actually consider when researching/buying dinnerware/serveware, so that’s why I’m writing about it!)  I think that the Pillivuyt platter is a very good investment piece. 

And yes, I just called an item of serveware an investment piece!  Think about it – everyone always spends so much money on fancy china, but how often do they really use it?  It just stays in the cabinet never to be seen except for holidays.   And there’s nothing wrong with that – sometimes what makes something so special is because you reserve it for special occassions.  But the thing is, things like fancy china usually cost a lot of money.  And even though this serving platter is a bit expensive, the nice thing about it is that you can use it all the time!  The platter can be dressed up or dressed down, used for fancy occassions and holidays or anytime you have company over, or used just for everyday meals to help make them look a bit more special!  Here are just a couple ideas I have in mind:

Appetizers

• Cheese and crackers
• An assortment of mini quiches

Snack Plates

• Cheese and fruit
• Vegetables and dip

Entrees

• A burger with fries
• Fish with rice and vegetables

Dessert

• Cheesecake with berries and a sauce drizzled all around it
• Cookies with powdered sugar sprinkled on top

I love the Pillivuyt rectangular serving platter because it is such a classic piece of serveware, and I think it is especially perfect for anyone who loves to throw dinner parties and also for foodies who love to make beautiful food presentations!

Here is some more information about the platter, if you are interested!

Pillivuyt Quartet 13.5″ x 9″ Rectangular Platter

Thanks! 

Hope you all enjoyed reading the review!  And stay tuned for more Dinnerware 101 and Food Presentation 101 (this one was a little longer because it was also a product review!)

Have a good night, everyone!

April 23rd, 2010 | Tags: Dinnerware 101, Food Presentation 101, kiwi fruit, Pillivuyt Quartet Rectangular Serving Platter, Product Revivew, Snack Plate, strawberries | Category: Product review, Snack Plate | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL