You might be a homeowner or a restaurant owner looking for some excellent quality dinnerware to impress your guests. Dinnerware serves not only food, but the aesthetics make a good impression as well. For both fine and casual dining, the looks of the plates or bowls that hold the food are crucial. The containers they are served in highly influence the presentation of the food.
Limitless Options
As you already know, there are many varieties of dinnerware available in the market. From earthenware to Corelle dishes, you can get any of them depending on cost and usage. The cost of dinnerware is a major factor for a restaurant as it forms a significant part of the initial investment.
Traditional dinnerware includes plates and other dishes made of earthenware, stoneware, porcelain, or china. The latter gained major popularity when healthy eating and fine dining rose to the forefront. People, especially artists, started buying earthenware and china credit for their beautiful design, texture, and appeal.
Glass Dinnerware- a good choice?
Glass is one material that is still one of the favorites among restaurants and diners. It is still the perfect choice for sit-down restaurants, pubs, and salad bars. They can be used to serve any kind of food, from starters, main course, desserts, and appetizers. It will go well with every cuisine as well.
But even with all these positives, they are not the best for home usage. Even in restaurants serving glass dishes, especially to kids, is not advised. Glass dinnerware is more likely to break or crack under pressure. A small knock can cause the plates to break and glass particles will shatter all over. In an effort to overcome these issues, tempered glass and vitrified glass are now being used. You may be familiar with Corelle dinnerware sets, which are the common example of vitrified glass dinnerware.
Tempered Glass- The Upgrade
The normal glass will shatter and has a high chance of risk for the users. Meanwhile, tempered glass is stronger than normal glass but weaker compared to Corelle. Tempered glass, also known as toughened glass, is manufactured from normal glass.
Normal glass is heated to extremely high temperatures and then subjected to rapid cooling. This keeps the internal stress balanced as the inside is hot while the exterior stays cool. This is why when it breaks, it crumbles into chunks rather than shattering.
The first and major advantage of tempered glass over normal variants is its strength. Apart from the use in the kitchen, these are also commonly used in making windscreens and rear windows of vehicles. A small knock or pressure will not result in a chip or crack in these plates. This high degree of safety makes it stand out from other materials like normal glass and earthenware.
Since this kind of glass is reinforced, it will fare well under a wide range of temperatures. This makes the dishes made from a toughened glass, oven and microwave friendly. They can also be used in refrigerators without any issue. Compared to ordinary glass, it has higher edge strength and the dish will only break once the edge is broken entirely.
Even with all these merits, there are also some disadvantages. Once the plates or bowls are designed using toughened glass, it is not possible to make changes to the structure or designs. It is true that it will not break easily, but scratches will cause a loss in texture and result in trapping stains in these scratches.
Vitrified Glass- The Game Changer
The manufacturing process of the vitrified process is like tempered glass, but extra additives are added under high temperatures. This makes the material completely nonporous and increases the strength by many folds.
You might have heard about or used Corelle plates while visiting a restaurant. These are the most popular examples of vitrified glass and are considered as one of the best dinnerware in the market. If you have children at home, then Corelle dishes are the way to go.
Corelle- value for money
Even though there are other models of vitrified glass available, Corelle dishes have captured a major market share and, for good reason. It is one of the most durable materials for dinnerware, which is the top priority for casual diners.
It is both safe from chips and is also shatterproof. For restaurant use, the material should not have any reactivity with dishwashing detergent. Since Corelle plates are safe in that department, there is no need for worries. Also, it is both impervious to stains and scratches.
Corelle dinner sets are a mix of looks of the like of china and durability like plastic. But it solves all the demerits of the latter two materials at a small price.
Wrapping Up
Apart from the materials mentioned above, there is plastic dinnerware which is both long-lasting and also less expensive. But plastic will not give the look or feel of a china or porcelain dinner set, which is a mandatory part of fine dining restaurants. Similarly, plastic dinnerware like the Melamine and polycarbonate plates are not suitable for heating. They should be completely avoided when serving boiling food as the plastic has increased the chances of mixing with the food under severe heat. So Corelle can be rightfully named as the all-rounder in dinnerware.
