An innovative new product from an Iowa company keeps food warm or cold.

Roccia Bollente Dining Stones are available in a cherry, alder or ash trim.

Nothing ruins a meal more than food growing cold. Whether restaurant gourmet or home-cooked, cold food leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Deb Chance, CEO of Roccia Bollente Dining Stones located in Batavia, IA, created plate-warmers that would solve that problem. (Roccia Bollente means “hot stones” in Italian.)

Chance started searching for solutions to food growing cold on the dinner plate a few years ago due to her own frustrations.

“Nothing popped up through Google searches that didn’t require electrical cords running to the table. I figured there had to be a way,” Chance says. “I remembered my father telling me that his mother would place stones on the wood burning stove when he was a kid and position them in his bed to warm it before he would turn in.”

In early 2007, Chance tested that idea by placing a stone tile in the oven at 350 degrees. “[I] couldn’t believe that my meal plate was still hot after 45 minutes,” she says.

Not long after that Dining Stones was invented. Chance describes herself as a natural problem solver. She has a drawer full of ideas that she has worked on for the past 20 years and has always dreamed of having a small business. This invention gave her the opportunity to seize that dream. Recently, the company built a new fulfillment center at its headquarters.

The granite stones are precision cut with waterjet technology by Creative Edge Master Ship Inc. in Fairfield, IA, trimmed in wood — cherry, alder or ash — and manufactured by Wood Components & Technologies of Cedar Falls, IA. The Dining Stones can be pre-heated in the oven for 15 minutes.

Not only does granite retain heat but it can be chilled as well. A smaller Cooling Stone set is also available for salads. The stones can be placed in the freezer for an hour. e

For More Information about Roccia Bollente Dining Stones, visit diningstones.com.