You cook for an hour, and then you wash up for half of one. Count what a normal dinner goes through: a bowl to mix in, an oven dish to bake in, a serving bowl to bring it to the table, a plastic tub for what's left, and then the plates. By the time anyone sits down, the sink is already full.
Most of that pile isn't the plates you eat from. It's everything the food passed through on its way there. One small Portuguese brand has found a way round it. See the sets.
Why it happens
Most dinnerware is made for the table and nothing else. It isn't meant for a hot oven and it has no lid, so the food changes dishes three or four times between the fridge and your fork. Every change is one more thing to wash. And cheap sets don't last long enough to be worth caring about. One buyer described where she started:
"We were shopping around for new dinnerware since most of our current set was chipped. We wanted something that could be used in the oven, microwave, dishwasher, freezer AND aesthetically pleasing." Elaine S.
One dish instead of four
Far & Away makes its dinnerware in northern Portugal from high-fired stoneware, so the bowl you mix in can go into the fridge, then into the oven at up to 450°F, then straight onto the table.
The lid is a plate. The small plate sits on the pasta bowl, so leftovers go into the fridge in the dish they were served in, and the plastic tubs can go.
In practice it looks like this. On Sunday you make a baked pasta in the pasta bowls, put a small plate on each one and slide them into the fridge. On Tuesday they go into the oven, come out onto the table, and afterwards into the dishwasher. One dish each, start to finish.
Is it tough enough for every day?
The sets are made for heavy daily use, and owners who have had them for years say so.
"Been using the first set for over a year now and still looks new." Kiran A.
"After 3.5 years, we still love them! There are no major scratches." Frido & Garçon, owners
It is still ceramic. Drop a plate on a tile floor and it can chip, and metal cutlery can leave faint grey lines on the semi-matte glaze. Those come off with a paste of baking soda and water.
What owners say
"Exactly what we were looking for. Modern, durable and can be warmed in the oven." Mark R.
"It's beautifully made and I get compliments from all my guests." Ummu F.
Refinery29 wrote that the collection "should definitely be on your shopping radar." Far & Away says 22,389+ customers have bought its dinnerware.
The catch
The sets aren't cheap. The 12 Piece Set works out at about $17 a piece, more than supermarket plates, for pieces made to be used every day.
What it costs, and how to try it
The 12 Piece Set (four pasta bowls with their plate lids, plus four big plates) is $199. The 16 and 36 Piece Sets add bowls, cups and cutlery. Shipping is free over
