Gold Loop cream and gold serving platter styled on an outdoor table with fruit and drinks

Gold Serving Trays: For the Table and Everywhere Else

A good serving tray gets used twice: once when guests arrive, and every other day of the week when it's sitting on the coffee table holding something else. That's the case for gold-rimmed porcelain. It's formal enough for a dessert table and handsome enough to leave out.

Our two new ranges each do this differently. Gold Ray is glossy porcelain with a fluted, sunburst-style rim picked out in gold. Gold Loop is cream-glazed, with softly wavy edges and a small gold loop handle at each end. Every piece is food-safe porcelain. Here's how to use them for both jobs.

Gold Loop 13.5-inch cream and gold serving platter styled on an outdoor table with fruit, glasses of rosé and flowers
The Gold Loop 13.5" Platter, set out with fruit and a round of drinks.

Part one: for food

The grazing platter

The Gold Loop 20" Oval is the one for a crowd. It's long enough for a full grazing spread down the middle of the table, and the handles mean you can carry it out already loaded.

Food Network's rule of thumb is two to three ounces of meat and about three ounces of cheese per person. For eight to ten guests, that works out to roughly 1 to 1½ lbs of meat and 1½ to 1¾ lbs of cheese (Food Network). Build it in this order:

  1. Meats first, folded or fanned in groups spread across the platter.
  2. Cheeses next, each placed beside a meat it goes with. Aim for one soft, one semi-soft, one firm and one hard.
  3. Small bowls for olives, honey or chutney, tucked into the gaps. Our 7" Gold Loop Catch Tray is two inches deep and ideal for this.
  4. Fill the spaces with grapes, figs, nuts and cornichons.
  5. Crackers and bread last, stacked along the edges.

The gold rim does the rest. Leave a little of it showing around the edge, because it frames the food the way a mat frames a picture.

Gold Loop 20-inch oval cream porcelain serving platter with scalloped edges and gold loop handles
Gold Loop 20" Oval Platter: the base for a grazing board.

Canapés and passed appetizers

Long, narrow trays suit anything served in rows. Think crostini, devilled eggs, cucumber rounds with smoked salmon, or mini tarts. The Gold Ray 14" Rectangle holds two neat lines of twelve, and the white centre makes colourful food stand out. For a tea party, it's the tray for finger sandwiches. Pair it with our guide to setting a tea table for six.

The dessert table

Height is what makes a dessert table look planned. Put the 13" Round Cake Stand and the 15" Oval Cake Stand side by side, then add a flat tray in front, and you have three levels without a tiered stand.

Gold Ray 15-inch oval pedestal cake stand with a fluted, scalloped gold rim
Gold Ray 15" Oval Cake Stand: takes a loaf cake, a tart or a row of éclairs.

Cake stands don't have to hold cake. Coton Colors suggests using them for appetizers, and notes that a charcuterie board looks "extra special elevated on a cake stand". A stand also works for a pyramid of fruit: start with the larger fruit at the base and layer berries on top (Coton Colors). The oval stand takes things a round one can't: a loaf cake, a sliced tart, a row of macarons.

With Thanksgiving on October 12, the 13" Round is also the right size for a pie. Serve it on the stand rather than in its dish.

Fruit and bread

The Gold Ray 17" Boat Bowl is long and low, so it runs down the centre of a table without blocking anyone's view. Fill it with bread rolls for dinner, fruit for brunch, or clementines in December.

Part two: for decor

This is where the trays earn their keep between parties.

Gold Ray 12-inch square white porcelain tray with a fluted gold sunburst rim
Gold Ray 12" Square Tray: as much at home on a coffee table as a buffet.
  • Coffee table. A tray corrals the remotes, a candle and a small vase into one tidy spot. It also gives drinks a stable surface on an upholstered ottoman (Pottery Barn). The 12" Square is the right size for most coffee tables. Add a candle, a stack of two books and a small vase, and stop there.
  • Vanity or bathroom counter. Perfume bottles, a hand cream and a folded cloth look deliberate on a tray and cluttered without one. The 15" Oval suits a double vanity. Beside it, the Double Seashell Lustre Dish holds rings and earrings.
  • Entryway. Keys, sunglasses and the mail in one place. The 7" Catch Tray is sized for exactly this (Pottery Barn).
  • Bedside table. Use a small tray for a watch, lip balm and a glass of water.
  • Centrepiece. Between dinners, fill the 17" Boat Bowl with pinecones, gourds or ornaments, depending on the season.
  • Bar cart. Put a Gold Loop 13.5" Platter on the top shelf to hold a decanter and two glasses.
Gold Loop 7-inch cream porcelain catch tray with gold trim and two loop handles
Gold Loop 7" Catch Tray: olives at dinner, keys by the door.

Caring for gold-rimmed porcelain

The gold is a metallic finish on the glaze, and there are two things that wear it away: the microwave and the dishwasher. Noritake, which has made fine china for more than a century, is blunt about it: "Metallic bands of gold and platinum should never be put into a microwave oven" (Noritake). Wash our Gold Ray and Gold Loop pieces by hand in warm, soapy water, dry them straight away with a soft cloth, and skip the scouring pads. Done that way, the gold stays bright for years.

If you're setting a full table around these pieces, our guide on how to set a dinner table properly covers the rest.

The Gold Ray and Gold Loop ranges are in New Arrivals and Serving Dishes. Come and see them at our Toronto store, or order online with free shipping on orders over $50.

References

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