About Tray & Toast

Who writes this

Tray & Toast is written by Janet H., the hands-on owner behind Janet Media Group. She runs a venue, which means she sets tables and feeds groups most weekends — anything from six people around a kitchen island to forty standing up with a drink in one hand.

That is the whole basis of this site’s authority, and it is worth being precise about what it is and is not. It is repeated, first-hand, high-volume hosting experience: knowing what size board actually feeds twenty, how much food twenty people eat in the first hour, and which things break when they get washed forty times a month.

It is not a culinary qualification, a cheesemonger certification, a sommelier credential or a hospitality degree. Nobody here holds any of those, and you will never see one claimed on this site. There is also no product testing lab — see how we pick for exactly what we do instead.

What this site covers

Six areas, all of them the same problem seen from different angles: what you put on the table when people come over.

• Charcuterie & Cheese Boards — Boards, sets, knives and the material differences that actually matter.
• Serveware — Trays, platters, bowls and tiered stands, picked for real loads.
• Dinnerware & Flatware — Sets for 4, 8 and 12, chip-resistant options, and how to set the table.
• Drinkware & Bar — Wine glasses, flutes, cocktail kit, decanters and bar carts.
• Gifts for Hosts — Hostess gifts, housewarming picks, under-$50 options and gift sets.
• Hosting Guides — Quantities, board building, table setting and dinner party planning.

There are currently 55 guides, roundups and comparisons across those six sections.

Who it is for

Two people, mostly the same person at different moments. The host, buying for a party and wanting to know what actually works for the number of people coming. And the gift buyer, going to someone’s house or buying for a housewarming, who wants a can’t-go-wrong pick inside a budget.

Both of those people want an answer, not a spec comparison. That is why nearly every page here starts with headcount or budget rather than with materials.

How the site makes money

Tray & Toast is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you buy something through a link here we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It pays for the site, and it has never decided which product we put first or what we say about it. The full disclosure is here, and our editorial policy sets out the independence rules in detail.

The things we will not do

• Print a price. Prices change weekly. A number typed into a page in September is wrong by November, so we link to the live listing instead.
• Claim to have tested something we have not. There is no lab here and we will not pretend otherwise.
• Publish reviews or ratings that are not ours. You will not find testimonials on this site, because we do not have any we can legitimately show you.
• Invent a statistic. If a number cannot be sourced, it does not ship. Where we are giving you a working rule of thumb from experience, we say that is what it is.

The publisher

Tray & Toast is published by Janet Media Group.

Getting in touch

Corrections, questions and disagreements are all welcome. Email janet.hoyo@yahoo.com or use the contact form. If we have got something wrong we will fix it and say that we did.