The chosen flatware style might seem like an insignificant element when launching a new restaurant or choosing new interiors for your home. But make no mistake, it is incredibly important to get right.
Flatware carries enormous power in the success of a dining experience; it can complement your restaurant or home décor and enhance the flavour of dishes, or it can thoroughly distract from it.
Enhances Flavours
Size, weight, shape, and colour all play a part in creating the flavours of a dish. Research shows that eating with heavier cutlery makes the food taste better; this is because it captures the diners’ attention more, increasing their awareness and enjoyment of the dish.
An experiment in Edinburgh also showed that merely using high-quality cutlery, resulted in customers being willing to pay 15% more for the meal, compared to people eating the same meal with lower-quality utensils.
Therefore, if you want diners to have the most flavoursome meal as possible, it is essential that you pair it with the right silverware.
Functional Purposes
Flatware, of course, also serves functional purposes. In fact, the functionality must take precedence over the design. You could choose the most stylish and expensive designer silverware in the world; however, if it is too heavy or uncomfortable to use, this will inevitably ruin your meal, dining experience and restaurant reputation.
It is a good idea to try the cutlery yourself before purchasing so you can get a real feel for the right style and weight for your requirements.
Set the Mood
The right flatware compliments both the appearance and flavour of the food and helps to set the atmosphere. If chosen and styled correctly, it will create ambience, character, and add to the décor and overall dining experience. Get it wrong, and it could be a glaring contradiction to the type of experience you are trying to create for your guests. The wrong style might say “old-fashioned” while you are trying to communicate “elegance.”
If you are unsure of what style of cutlery is best for the experience you want to create, contact us, and we can advise the most appropriate designs for your requirements.
First Impressions Matter
When we first sit down at a dinner party or take our seats in a restaurant, the very first thing we notice is the style of dinnerware used, for the simple reason that the food has not been laid out yet. This is even more prevalent at formal dinners, where a waiter is serving, and the food and the courses progress from starters to desserts and coffee.
A study in the journal Flavour suggests the brain makes judgements on food even before it goes in the mouth, all of which can be altered by the style of cutlery.
Laying out fine sparkling silverware will make a great first impression and lay the foundations of the overall dining experience.
