How to Serve at a Dinner Table

The basic guidelines of service at a dinner table are designed to minimize confusion for the guests and ensure that dinner is a success for the host or hostess. The rules vary, depending on the serving style that the host has chosen. The guidelines are strict for formal dinners and flexible for more informal meals. The service procedures at a meal may appear confusing in the beginning, but they become less complex with practice. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

Pick a Serving Style

1

Serve the guests individually at a formal dinner. This serving style requires that you serve each course from the platters onto each guest's plate at the table. The process is labor intensive and you will need someone to help you.

2

Plate the food for each guest in the kitchen. This is recommended for food that is artistic or complicated, to make it easier for the guests and give them an opportunity to admire the work. This service style requires several trips to the kitchen until each guest has a plate. It is faster and less labor intensive when you have the help of wait staff or one of your guests who is a close friend.

3

Serve the meal family-style if it is an informal dinner for family members or close friends. Place the various courses of the meal in platters and place the platters on the table. Each person takes as much food as they want and passes the platter to the next person on the right. It is not appropriate to skip the person immediately on the right when passing the platter, unless it is a child who cannot hold the dish.

4

Arrange the platters on a side table if you wish to serve the dinner buffet-style. At a semi-formal buffet, guests serve themselves then return to their seats to use the formal place settings. At a casual buffet, they can sit where they choose after serving themselves.

Serving Etiquette at the Table

5

Arrange the utensils ahead of time, according to the courses you plan to serve for a formal dinner. According to Emily Post, guests must eat the first course with the utensil to the extreme left and right of the plate and use subsequent utensils for the following courses. Be sure to arrange the utensils in the order that you will serve the courses.

6

Serve the guest on the right side of the host first. This seat is reserved for the guest of honor, who should have the first choice of each course. Continue counterclockwise and end with the host.

7

Pass the dishes from each guest's left side. This enables the guest to serve himself from the extended platter with his right hand, since most people are right-handed. Collect the plates from each guest's right side at the end of each course.

8

Serve beverages from the guest's right side, since the glasses are on the right side of the dinner plate.

9

Clear the table of the dinner plate and other used items before serving the dessert.