The Grill Plate

The shape is familiar to you.

You recognize it, yes, but something's different.

It's... it's not dull and white.

Oh! It's not made of paper or styrofoam. It's pottery. Beautiful glazed earthenware. What else? Five colors? Five gorgeous Bauer colors* you say?



Yes, the classic Bauer Grill Plate is available once again. Modeled in three sections and measuring eleven inches across, the Grill Plate is available in Bauer Orange, Bauer Yellow, Turquoise, Aqua and Federal Blue, as pictured above.

Did you think, like I did, that the sectioned plate was the introduced circa-whenever you first saw one as a kid?

The real answer is we don't know exactly when it was invented. It probably is not an original Bauer design, but J.A. Bauer Pottery did manufacture these plates as early as the 1930s.

Click here to begin shopping for the Grill Plate now.


(Click on the four arrows on the bottom right for the full-screen view.)

*Okay, we're making it in white too, for nostalgia sake, but you already have an idea of what that looks like.

Bauer & American Modern on the Food Network

Shrimp skewers and yogurt sauce.


Everyone outside of Los Angeles thinks that everyone inside Los Angeles has something or another to do with Hollywood. This is not true. I mean, we make pottery. What have we got to do with the movies? Last time I checked pottery was not integral to the film making process.

Then, of course, someone comes along and decides to ruin my point. Actually, my point was ruined years ago. Bauer Pottery has been showing up in movies as far back as the days of the Marx Brothers and Shirley Temple. In more recent decades, one might have seen Bauer pottery in movies such as The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Short Cuts and Because I Said So (we're told that Diane Keaton is a Bauer collector).

Current television viewers have pointed out that on the appropriately-titled Modern Family, the Dunphy kitchen is fully outfitted with American Modern^® pottery.


Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) is framed by American Modern^® Lug Bowls and Coffee Cups.


A new place to see a lot of Bauer and Russel Wright pottery is on the Food Network, specifically Bobby Flay's show Grill It!

Check your local listings or the Food Network site to find air dates and times for the show or you can catch some clips below. Click on the still images to enlarge.



Flay with an American Modern Lug Bowl in hand and plating on a Chop Platter.



The final dish, Pork Tenderloin Greek Salad on an American Modern Chop Platter.



Watch the clip here.



Claire Robinson preparing a stuffed tenderloin. Bauer Ringware Vase and Tumbler in Lime Green bottom left.



Stuffed tenderloin plated on a Bauer Yellow 14" Round Platter.



Watch the clip here.



Shrimp skewers and yogurt sauce. Photo at the top of the post. Watch the clip here.

Click here for more stills from Grill It!

Copyright for photos & video from Grill It! by the Food Network and photo from Modern Family by ABC.