A plate cleared from a table shows what was eaten off it. There are sixteen different dirty plates: burgers leave crumbs, crust or a ketchup and mustard squiggle; grilled chicken leaves a bone or a smear of sauce; salad leaves dressing, peas, a leaf of lettuce or some corn; soup leaves a swirl of broth, orange streaks or a thin film. A guest who left without finishing a known dish leaves one of three plain smears.
Each seat keeps its own plate, so a table of four shows the four meals that were eaten there.
The leftovers are turned to one of eight angles on each plate, flat on the plate with the plate itself left untouched, so sixteen plates give 128 different looks and a busy dining room never looks stamped out: (screenshot)
The plate goes dirty the moment the guest finishes eating and asks for the check, while they're still sitting at it.
Every clean and dirty plate shares the same rim, so they stack together at the dish bin and the sink without a seam.
CHEF!
