The main rule of education, etiquette is a correctly and beautifully laid table. Most people have questions about what table setting should be , how to properly place the appliances. Our article will help you figure it out.
The main principles for arranging dishes and appliances
In modern society, there are several general table setting rules. These include the following recommendations:
- Arrangement of devices should be convenient and appropriate. This is necessary so that everything necessary is nearby and the hostess does not need to go after things.
- Every device has its location and purpose. In a similar way, spoons and knives are usually placed with a sharp edge in the direction of 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 with snacks in front of the chair. Glasses are placed behind a plate of snacks near the appliance. The wine on the table should be opened. No fruit is served until arrival.
- Crockery and tableware should be uniform. It is also necessary to know that napkins, both paper and fabric, must be present.
- It is necessary that the dishes and all utensils for the festive celebration be clean and tidy. There should not be any chips and spots on it.
- You need to be responsible for table setting with appliances. Usually housewives use sets, that is, sets of dishes. Mandatory appliances include a shovel for fish, a cake, a fork for lemon, a knife for butter, and tweezers for lemon or sugar. On the table should be a tablecloth, napkins and a towel.
What tablecloth should be on the table when receiving guests?
For the celebration, a white look of fabric is especially suitable. On it can be placed dishes of any color scheme 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 aroma, you can put vases with spring flowers, for example, with lilies of the valley or daffodils.
To create a summer mood, a yellow tablecloth with drawings of yellow or white undertones will look good on the table.
For the fall season, ocher or olive-colored fabric is suitable, on which deep plates with fruits and bouquets with yellow leaves can be located.
The choice of napkins for table setting devices
Handkerchief for lips and hands is an integral part of the arrangement of devices. It helps maintain cleanliness. A beautiful linen napkin will also be a decor item.
Serving professionals offer a considerable number of ways to fold napkins. But you should choose the method in which after deployment it will not be mint.
At breakfast or dinner, as a rule, napkins appear folded in four, just in half or in the form of a triangle. For a gala dinner or dinner, they can be served in a more complex form, such as a cap or a candle.
Ready-made napkins should lie on plates for snacks. Linen scarves are considered possible to exchange for ordinary paper. There is nothing reprehensible in this.
The process of using a tissue
At the sight of a handkerchief and lips on a diner plate, some guests are embarrassed and put it away to the edge of the table. This is not worth doing, because her calling is to help the guest while eating.
Superbly folded, clean, ironed napkin is the subject of decor on the table. But its main purpose is not to stain a suit or evening dress. Using 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 on the collar or using it as a “bib”, as in young children, is considered to be extremely indecent.
If your hands got dirty during eating, then they should be carefully wiped with the near half of the scarf, without lifting it from your knees.
To wipe your lips, you need to take a napkin with both hands, folded in half, pinch to the lips with pointed movements. Wipe lips with a sweeping sweeping movement - the height of bad manners.
What should not be done at the table?
Never use a napkin as a handkerchief or towel for very dirty hands. It is considered ugly behavior when a guest closely scans tableware and, seeing a speck, tries to wipe it with a handkerchief. Thus, the owners 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 as it was before, but you just need to put it on the right side of your dishes. A scarf should not be put on a chair seat or hung on its back.
What should a snack table look like?
Plates for snacks are placed in advance. Salad bowls and gravy boats should be placed on snack dishes so that their arms are turned to the left. Before the salad bowl should be a teaspoon. In the salad should be a tablespoon for distribution. Bread is served on a special plate.
For a cold meal, an oil knife and fork must be provided. In this case, utensils such as plates and a knife for snacks, gravy boats, teaspoons, round large plates, forks are used.
Tables where there will only be cold snacks are usually served with china. Each plate should have a fork, a tablespoon, a knife. Arrange them so that the guest can take the device in his right hand and the fish fork in his left. The knife is located on a patty plate on the right side, looking blade to the left side. At this moment, the dishes used will be as follows: large plates, salad bowl, forks and knife for snacks, a fork for fish, knives for fish.
Table setting for hot appetizers
When serving dishes, hot appetizers are set in the utensils in which they are made. Food appliances are located in a snack dish, which is covered with paper napkins.
Appetizers, which are served in small pots, are eaten with special devices, and appetizers in a pan are eaten using forks or teaspoons. The dishes with food are placed so that their handle is on the left side of the guest, and the handle should look to the right side of the dessert spoon. At this table setting, the devices are knives for snacks and dessert spoons; the main dishes are small pots, pans.
What should be the location of the table for soups?
The broth or the first in the form of mashed soup is placed in special cups that stand on small plates. The soup spoon is located on a small plate or on the right side of it. A table knife and fork serve as serving devices for the filling broth. Sour cream is given in a sauceboat located on a plate, on which also lies a dessert spoon. It is located on the left side. In this case, such dishes are used: broth 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. In a salad bowl located on a plate, ice is served. In this situation, the utensils and tableware used are glasses, cups, tweezers for ice, and a jug.
What should be a 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 located on a plate on which lies a dessert spoon.
Freshly brewed coffee in a cezve with an extended handle is located on the right side on a plate 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 are cream in a bowl. The glass is usually served with coffee-glass. Here it should be on a plate on which lie a small spoon and straws. Appliances and utensils used for this table are coffee cups, bowls, milk jug, glasses, teaspoons.
How should a tea table be served?
In the case when tea is served in cups or glasses with saucers, a teapot with tea leaves and a larger teapot with hot boiled water, sugar slices in a bowl with tweezers should be present on the table. The handle of the glass should be located on the left side, and on the saucer a teaspoon should be the 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-horned dessert fork, designed to unfold it. 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 this, when serving this type of table, there are such devices and utensils as tea cups with saucers, glasses, a small tea pot, a large kettle for boiling water, a jug, a bowl, a dessert spoon.