General table setting rules: cutlery and crockery. How to properly place cutlery on the table

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The basic rule of good manners, etiquette is a properly and beautifully laid table. Most people have questions about how the table setting should be, how to properly arrange the cutlery. Our article will help you figure it all out.

The main principles of arranging dishes and appliances

In modern society, there are several general rules for table setting. These include the following recommendations:

• The arrangement of instruments should be convenient and expedient. This is necessary so that everything you need is nearby and the hostess does not have to go for things.
• Every device has its location and purpose. Similarly, it is customary to put spoons and knives with a sharp edge towards the dish and on the right side, and the spoon and fork should be on the table with the concave side.
• It is customary to place a plate of snacks in front of a chair. Behind a plate with snacks, glasses are placed near the device. The wine on the table should be opened. Fruit will not be served until guests arrive.
• Dishes and cutlery for table setting should behomogeneous. You also need to know that napkins, both paper and fabric, must be present.
• It is necessary that the dishes and all utensils for a festive celebration be clean and tidy. There should be no chips or stains on it.
• It is necessary to treat the table setting with cutlery responsibly. Usually housewives use sets, that is, sets of dishes. Mandatory utensils include a fish spatula, a cake shovel, a lemon fork, a butter knife, and lemon or sugar tongs. There should be a tablecloth, napkins and a towel on the table.

Which tablecloth should be on the table when receiving guests?

White type of fabric is especially suitable for a celebration. It can accommodate dishes of any color and all kinds of flowers. On such a table there may be roses, porcelain dishes and crystal glasses. This atmosphere is very suitable for celebrating a wedding celebration.

To give a fresh look to your table, you can use a pink or greenish tablecloth with white patterns. For a delicate fragrance, you can put vases with spring flowers, such as lilies of the valley or daffodils.

To create a summer mood, a yellow tablecloth with patterns of yellow or white undertones will look good on the table.

For the autumn season, an ocher or olive color fabric is well suited, on which deep plates of fruit and bouquets with yellow leaves can be placed.

Choice of napkins when setting the table with cutlery

Handkerchief and lips isan integral part of the instrumentation. It helps keep it clean. A beautiful linen napkin will also be a decorative item.

Serving professionals offer a number of ways to roll napkins. But you should choose the method in which, after unrolling, it will not be mint.

At breakfast or lunch, as a rule, napkins appear folded in four, just in half or in the form of a triangle. For a gala dinner or lunch, they can be served in a more complex form, such as a cap or a candle.

Ready-made napkins should be on plates for snacks. It is considered possible to exchange linen shawls for ordinary paper ones. There is nothing reprehensible in this.

The process of using a napkin

At the sight of a handkerchief and lips on a snack plate, some of the guests are embarrassed and remove it to the edge of the table. This should not be done, because her calling is to help the guest during the meal.

A beautifully folded, clean, ironed napkin is a decorative item on the table. But its main purpose is not to stain a suit or evening dress. With a napkin, they also wipe their lips and hands during and after eating.

Before you start eating, unfold the napkin and put it on your knees. Putting a napkin behind the collar or using it as a "bib" as with younger children is considered extremely indecent.

If while eatinghands are dirty, then they should be gently wiped with the near half of the handkerchief, while not lifting it from your knees.

To wipe your lips, you need to take a napkin with both hands, fold it in half, press it to your lips with point movements. Wiping your lips with a sweeping motion is the height of bad manners.

What should not be done at the table?

It is strictly forbidden to use a napkin as a handkerchief or a towel for very dirty hands. It is considered ugly behavior when a guest closely examines the tableware and, seeing a speck, tries to wipe it off with a handkerchief. Thus, the hosts will consider this act offensive, and the guest - doubting their cleanliness and tidiness.

After all the food is eaten, you do not need to fold the napkin in the same way as before, but you just need to put it on the right side of your dishes. A handkerchief should not be placed on the seat of a chair or hung on its back.

What should a snack table look like?

Snack plates are placed in advance. Salad bowls and gravy boats should be placed on snack dishes so that their handles are turned to the left. There should be a teaspoon in front of the salad bowl. The salad should have a tablespoon to serve. The bread is served on a special plate.

For a cold dish, you must provide a butter knife and fork. In this case, utensils such as plates and a knife for snacks, gravy boats, teaspoons, large round plates, forks are used.

Tables with only cold appetizers are usually servedporcelain dishes. Near each plate there should be a fork, a tablespoon, a knife. They should be arranged in such a way that the guest can take the device in his right hand, and the fish fork in his left. The knife is located on the patty plate on the right side, looking at the blade to the left side. At this point, the utensils used will be as follows: large plates, a salad bowl, forks and knives for snacks, a fork for fish, knives for fish.

Table setting for hot appetizers

Hot appetizers when setting the table are set with cutlery in the utensils in which they are made. Cutlery with food is located in a snack dish, which is covered with paper napkins.

Snacks served in small pots are eaten with special utensils, and snacks in a frying pan are eaten with forks or teaspoons. Dishes with food are positioned so that its handle is on the left side of the guest, and the handle of the dessert spoon should look to the right. In this table setting, the utensils are appetizer knives and dessert spoons; the main utensils are small pots and pans.

What should be the location of the soup table?

The broth or the first in the form of puree soup is placed in special cups that stand on small plates. The soup spoon is placed on or to the right side of the small plate. The table knife and fork serve as serving devices for the dressing broth. Sour cream is given in a gravy boat, located on a plate, on which there is also a dessert spoon. It is located on the left side. AtIn this case, the following utensils are used: bouillon cups, deep plates, table knives, soup spoons, dessert spoons.

What should be on the table for cold drinks?

On a plate, as a rule, there is a container with a cold drink or juice. On the right side there is a straw for guests. Ice is served in a salad bowl located on a plate. In this situation, the dishes and tableware used are glasses, cups, ice tongs, a jug.

What should be the table for hot drinks?

Coffee or cocoa is offered in special cups, sugar in a sugar bowl, milk in a milk jug. Jam is served in a bowl on a plate with a dessert spoon.

Freshly brewed coffee in a cezve with a long handle is located on the right side of the plate along with a dessert spoon. On the left side there may be a glass of cool water.

On the right side of the guest, as a rule, there is cream in a bowl. Glasses are usually served in a glass. Here it should be on a plate, on which lie a small spoon and straws. The cutlery and utensils used for this table are coffee cups, bowls, milk jug, glasses, teaspoons.

How should tea be set?

In the case when tea is served in cups or glasses with saucers, there should be a teapot with tea leaves and a larger teapot with hot boiled water on the table, sugar pieces in a bowl with tongs. The handle of the glass shouldbe located on the left side, and on a saucer a teaspoon is located with a handle on the right side. Jam from berries or fruits, linden or flower honey, jam is usually on the left side of the guest.

Lemon is served in a bowl or in a tray with a two-pronged dessert fork designed to lay it out. A vase with lemon is placed on the right side of the guest. A jug of milk is placed on a plate, usually on the right side.

As a result of all that has been said, when serving this type of table, there are such devices and utensils as tea cups with saucers, glasses, a small teapot for tea leaves, a large kettle for boiling water, a jug, a bowl, a dessert spoon.