I always plate the food, even by myself, and wipe the plate.

I cannot get my extended family to do this for Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner, but my "chosen" family and I will be eating tasting menu style next Thursday :)

As I tend to pick up eating habits from my moms side of the family, I always use a plate. Otherwise I be like my father eating over the kitchen sink.

I plate every now and then, not necessarily for special occasions nor that I am having company, just randomly.

I try not eating the chicken straight out from the bucket. :D

LOL I thought I was clicking on a "Do you bother to dirty a plate, or eat right out of the saucepan?" thread. Since it's not, I'll keep my mouth shut and move on. :D

Hilarious!

Hmmm, I'll even wipe down my own plate. No drips!

That way when I'm curled up on the sofa with the plate leaning against me there's less of a chance of me staining a shirt.:D

Unless cooking a steak where the amount is dedicated to one steak per person, then most our other cookings do not.

Ditto :)

Since I cook only for myself (roommate does his own thing) I've brought the frying pan over to the table/sofa/desk many a time when I don't feel like getting a plate dirty

I plate for my kids so I know how much they are eating. But they must sit at the table and we use plates, napkins and silverplated. For guests I will use the diningroom table with linens and china/crystal however I tend not to plate and to platter presentations because I want the guest to feel free to eat as much or as little as they want. No point making them feel guilty for not eating their veggies if they don't want them.

On weekends, DDrewgirl does the cooking and I plate the food. I am also in charge of thinking what we are going to eat which is based heavily on what wine I want to drink for the night.

On weeknights, Ddrewgirl still does the cooking and we eat in front of the tv. She has so many series she wants to watch.

AK

I think of "plating" food as fancifying its presentation. While I'm generally neat while serving, I don't add parsley or rosemary or other beautifiers.

When my cherub was a toddler, though, some nights we would play "Great Chef of Seattle" and mom would fan out the diagonal slices of hot dog against the creamy goodness of macaroni and cheese, sprinkled with peas. He got a kick out of it.

So you're also the main dishwasher? :D

I will 'plate' the food when I have the time or for some reason whenever I make asparagus (I'll arrange it cross hatched over the potates, meat etc). The other time I'll do it is when I'm cooking for myself only (hubby has already eaten and is sitting near by)-- I'll make my 'plate' look really pretty just to annoy him:p
Also sometimes when I'm following a recipe from a cookbook with a picture, I will try to duplicate the 'look'. Since we rarely entertain, all the plating is for my/hubbys benefit only.

nope, I am not into all that. I don't care about presentation, I do care about how it tastes and arranging it on a plate isn't going to make it taste any better. I find it alittle goofy but to each their own.

I should add that pre-plating for others does involve more work on your behalf than if you just put everything in one bowl and have each diners at the table plate it themselves. :p