Yanco Optimum Collection

Optimum is a 25-piece melamine line in a single two-tone finish: white on the inside surface, brown on the outside. Every item in the collection carries the same pairing, so there is no color decision to make when you extend the order. It is a bowl-heavy program — sixteen of the twenty-five pieces are bowls — with four round plates, four platters and a sauce dish alongside them. Capacities run from a 2 oz sauce dish to a 50 oz noodle bowl.

What's in the 25-piece Optimum line

• Round plates with upright rim — 6-1/2", 8-1/8", 10" and 12"
• Platters — 8-1/8" x 5-3/4", 10-1/4" x 6-3/4", 12-1/4" x 8-1/4" and 14-3/8" x 9-3/8"
• Deep round bowls — 32 oz, 35 oz, 42 oz and 50 oz
• Deep oval bowls — 8" at 10 oz, 10" at 18 oz and 12" at 30 oz
• Mediterranean bowls — 10-3/4" at 13 oz and 11-1/4" at 22 oz
• Salad bowls — 8-1/2" at 22 oz and 10-1/4" at 42 oz
• Soup/pasta bowl — 11-1/2" at 20 oz; dessert bowl — 9-1/8" at 10 oz
• Small pieces — a 25 oz bowl with ear, a 10 oz miso bowl, a 7 oz rice bowl and a 2 oz sauce dish

Optimum and Stone Art are the same tooling

This is worth knowing before you order either. Optimum and the Yanco Stone Art line share most of a mold family: the round plates with upright rim (OP-106/108/110/112 against ST-106/108/110/112), the platters at 10-1/4", 12-1/4" and 14-3/8", the OP-610 Mediterranean bowl (13 oz), the OP-511 soup/pasta bowl (20 oz), the OP-509 dessert bowl, the OP-709 bowl with ear and the OP-303 sauce dish all have a dimensionally identical Stone Art counterpart. The difference is the finish: Optimum is white-and-brown two-tone, Stone Art is gray throughout. What Optimum adds on its own account is the OP-611 Mediterranean bowl at 22 oz, the three deep oval bowls, the four-step deep round bowl run and a smaller 8-1/8" platter that Stone Art does not have.

How the bowls are laid out

The four deep round bowls are the core: OP-407 (7-3/4", 32 oz), OP-408 (8-3/4", 35 oz), OP-409 (9-1/4", 42 oz) and OP-410 (9-3/4", 50 oz). The jump from 42 to 50 oz costs only half an inch of diameter, so the large end of the range grows in depth rather than footprint — useful where the bowl has to share a tray. The deep ovals run the other way: OP-808 (10 oz), OP-810 (18 oz) and OP-812 (30 oz), all long and shallow for a fillet or a braise laid flat. Salads are split between the wide, shallow OP-310 (10-1/4", 42 oz) and the smaller OP-308, and the small end is handled by the OP-305 miso bowl and OP-304 rice bowl.

Optimum is listed in the full Yanco range. For the same shapes in a single gray body, go to Stone Art; for a white-and-brown look built on decorated plates rather than two-tone bowls, see the Nature Art collection. If you already run one of those and want to add Optimum pieces to it, we can check which item numbers will sit level together — sales@nishienterprise.com, (732) 790-0199.