No matter how much I cook, no matter how much I post pictures of my food online, I cannot will myself to spend a lot on dinnerware. My dishes are cheap, durable, and basic — almost all from Marshalls or TJ Maxx.
I peruse pricier ones, sure: I love the whimsical prints of Bitossi Home, the luxurious colors of East Fork, the vintage appeal of Ginori, and the trompe l’oeil absurdity of Gohar World. But then I do the math on what it might cost to outfit my apartment with a set when a single plate costs upwards of $40. Though I don’t have dinner parties often, I’ve internalized my mother’s old-school guidance that a good home cook should always be ready to host a crowd. By this point of view, special dishware sets largely exists for being shown off to others; it is why newlyweds load up their registries with collections of nice china that’ll collect dust outside of the rare special occasion.
The affordable alternative: Buy yourself just one fancy little plate. The fancy little plate does not even have to be, as mentioned above, expensive. It just has to be a piece that represents a break from the monotony of everyday life. One of my fancy little plates — a rustic, speckled ceramic number — came out of a seconds bin at a holiday market: maybe $10. The artist clearly wasn’t proud of it since they didn’t sign the bottom, but I love its rough imperfection regardless. That it’s a one-off makes it feel even more special; anyone with money can buy Ginori.
My other fancy little plate is, in fact, even cheaper: a stainless steel platter that I got at a restaurant supply store for, if my memory serves me right, under $5. When I eat my buttered toast on it, I imagine a cool and timeless L’Appartement 4F vibe. My five-minute plate of grapes, sliced cheese, a nectarine, and olives goes from evoking Lunchables to feeling right out of a Dutch still life, like I’ve puckishly snuck a platter out of a Dionysian feast and then returned to my desk to work. Even when the meal gets messy — the platter smeared with mayo or drizzled with oil — it looks chic.
The fancy little plate is ultimately not about the price of the thing but about the feeling of worth that you confer to it: Fancy is a state of mind. I use mine only every so often, primarily when I want my meal to feel a little more intentional, or a little more special in some way. To use the fancy little plate daily would be to decrease its perspective-shifting power. Today I put a sandwich on it, just because.
If you cook for a partner, maybe buy two. Or don’t: Let the fancy little plate be your quiet, solo treat, or use it without any prompting to show them a little extra love on occasion.