Winning in white
Boyd says to think about white dinnerware mixed with two other elements: muted neutral pottery and wooden serving spoons or, if you lean modern, black cloth napkins and accent dishes in a primary color.
Nik Sharma, food blogger, food columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of the cookbook Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food, loves color in his food, not in his dinnerware. “I like color, especially in vegetables and salads. Sometimes ingredients like balsamic vinegar are so dark,
and then when you put them on a dark plate, you can’t see them. I like to see them,” he says. He likes a warmer white for entertaining, and uses the stoneware textured dinnerware set from West Elm often ($129 for four place settings of dinner plates, salad plates, bowls and mugs, westelm.com). Each type of dish from the set is also sold in sets of four; dip bowls are also available.
To Myquillyn Smith, advocate for “cozy minimalism,” white is the obvious choice for dishware. It can be dressed down for everyday use and dressed up for dinner parties, just like a great pair of jeans. “I want a simplified collection of dishes that stack easily, look great together and take a beating from our family,” she says, recommending the Avesta stoneware from Project 62 ($19.99 for four three-piece place settings of dinner plates, salad plates and bowls, target.com). As the North Carolina blogger writes in her new book, Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff, “the home exists to serve the people and not the other way around.”
Apilco’s Tuileries dishes will “last a lifetime,” says Katie Jacobs, an entertaining expert from Nashville and author of So Much to Celebrate: Entertaining the Ones You Love the Whole Year. “They’ll never scratch. They’re restaurantgrade.” ($383.80 for four place settings of dinner plates, salad plates, soup plates, cups and saucers, williams-sonoma.com). For holidays, she’d pair them with a paper tablecloth, a big bowl of Christmas ornaments and a handmade place card, “an additional touch that makes your guest feel special.” Some pieces are also sold individually and in sets of four.
Newlyweds Elyse Maguire and her husband had a shortlist when they registered for china: It must be dishwasher-safe, slightly edgy and fancy enough for dinner parties. Together, they agreed on Spin Ceramics’ reinforced white bone china in the Free Loop pattern ($135 for one dinner plate, one salad plate, one soup bowl, one cup and one saucer, spinceramics.com). “They are very simple but have an organic, asymmetrical design,” says the Parsons School of Design graduate and textile designer who founded a knitwear company on Cape Cod. “They make an elegant place setting for dinner parties but they’re still practical enough to use every day.”