Imagine a dinner for two. A dish of vegetables sits in the middle of the table. Each person has a bowl in front of them.
They serve themselves at their own pace, then return to what is before them. The dishes are shared; the two meals need not be exactly alike.
A bowl for each person
In one traditional Chinese way of setting the table, each diner has an individual rice bowl, while the cài (菜), the other dishes, are shared at the centre. The bowl gives each person a place without closing them off from the shared meal.
The same bowl, a different rhythm
Cendre can have a place in this scene. This coloured-glaze ceramic bowl comes from Jingdezhen. Its nearly straight sides rise from a low foot; it measures 15.2 cm across and 5.9 cm high, with a stated capacity of 600 ml.
Inside, pale blue-grey gives rice, vegetables or soup a quiet backdrop. A fine brown line follows the rim. Outside, brown speckles gather near the opening: when you lift the bowl, another side of it comes into view.
The next day, imagine the same table set for one. Some vegetables, rice, perhaps a little broth. The bowl has not changed; the pace of the meal has. It belongs as readily to a shared dinner as to a quiet lunch.
A shared table still leaves a place for each person. In the ordinary movement of serving yourself, returning to your bowl and reaching towards the centre again, Cendre finds its story.
See the Bol droit — Cendre product photographs and dimensions
Cultural source: Choi et al., “Solo dining in Chinese restaurants”, on individual rice bowls and shared dishes in a traditional Chinese table setting. The dinner and lunch scenes are imagined.
Cover scene supplied by the brand: a bowl of vegetables passed between two people at the table, illustrating “one bowl each, one table shared.” The pictured tableware is not presented as an OrienX product photograph. The Cendre table scene in the article is a digital composition based on product photographs. Credits for the other images appear in their captions.