Setting the table refers to arranging the tableware, including individual place settings for each guest at the table.
Western countries
A table setting in Western countries is mainly in one of two styles: service à la russe (French for "in the Russian style"), where each course of the meal is brought out in specific order; and service à la française (French for "in the French style"), where all the courses for the meal are arranged on the table and presented at the same time that guests are seated. Service à la russe has become the custom in most restaurants, whereas service à la française is the norm in family settings.
Place setting
Place settings for service à la russe dining are arranged according to the number of courses in the meal. The tableware is arranged in a particular order. With the first course, each guest at the table begins by using the flatware placed on the outside of place setting. As each course is finished the guest leaves the used cutlery on the used plate or bowl, which are removed from the table by the server. To begin the next course, the diner uses the next set of flatware items on the outside of the place setting, and so on. Forks are placed on the left of a dinner plate, knives to the right of the plate, and spoons to the outer right side of the place setting.
Dishware types and shapes
Place setting dishes
Bowls
soup bowls, cereal bowls, pasta bowls, fruit bowls, or dessert bowls
Individual covered casseroles or covered soups
Plates
charger plates, dinner plates, lunch plates, dessert plates, salad plates or side plates
Saucers, including teacup saucers, coffeecup saucers, demitasse saucers, and cream soup saucers.
Serving dishes
Butter dish
Casseroles, ramekins, or lidded serving bowls
Compotes
Pitchers or Jugs
Platters including chop plates, salvers, and trays
Salt and pepper shakers, salt cellars
Sauce boats, gravy boat or small pitcher
Serving bowls including vegetable bowls and salad bowls
Sugar bowl and creamer
Teapot, coffee pot
Tureen
Tajine
Drinkware
Mugs, coffee or tea mugs, and chocolate mugs.
Wine glasses, port glasses, beer glasses, brandy glasses, aperitif and liqueur glasses
Water glasses, juice glasses, teacups, coffeecups, and demitasse cups
Flatware
A basic formal place setting will usually have a dinner plate at the centre, resting on a charger. The rest of the place setting depends upon whether the first course is to be soup or salad:[4]
If soup is the first course, to the left of the dinner plate, moving clockwise, are placed a small salad fork to the left of the dinner plate; a large dinner fork to the left of the salad fork; a side plate above the forks; a wine or water glass above and to the right of the dinner plate; a large dinner knife to the right of the dinner plate; a smaller butter knife to the right of the dinner knife; a dinner spoon to the right of the knives; a soup spoon to the right of the dinner spoon.
If salad is the first course, the soup spoon is skipped. The dinner fork is placed immediately left of the dinner plate; the salad fork is placed on the outer left side of the place setting.
In either arrangement, the napkin may either rest folded underneath the forks, or it may be folded and placed on the dinner plate.
If more courses are being served, the place settings become more elaborate with more specialized flatware. This can include a fruit spoon or fruit knife, a cheese knife, a pastry fork, or other specialized flatware. Other types of flatware were more common for formal meals in other historical eras, for example, a boning fork for fish was part of many Victorian era place settings in the United Kingdom, where fish was a common first course.
Chinese tableware
Chinese table settings are traditional in style. Table setting practices in Japan and other parts of East Asia have been influenced by Chinese table setting customs. The emphasis in Chinese table settings is on displaying each individual food in a pleasing way, usually in separate bowls or dishes. Formal table settings are based upon the arrangements used in a family setting, although they can become extremely elaborate with many dishes. Serving bowls and dishes are brought to the table, where guests can choose their own portions. Formal Chinese restaurants often use a large turning wheel in the centre of the table to rotate food for easier service.
In a family setting, a meal may include a fan food, meaning the main dish, and several accompanying side dishes, called cai food. The fan food is typically a grain, such as rice or noodles. If the meal is a light meal, it will include the staple food and perhaps one side dish. The staple food is often served directly to the guest in a bowl, whereas side dishes are chosen by the guest from serving dishes on the table.
Place setting
An "elaborate" formal meal would include the following place setting:
Centre plate, about 6 inches in diameter
Rice bowl, placed to the right of the centre plate
Small cup of tea, placed above the plate or rice bowl
Chopsticks to the right of the centre plate, on a chopstick rest
A long-handled spoon on a spoon rest, placed to the left of the chopsticks
Small condiment dishes, placed above the centre plate
Soup bowl, placed to the left above the centre plate
A soup spoon, inside the soup bowl
Japanese tableware
Japanese ceramic tableware is an industry that is many centuries old. Unlike in Western cultures, where tableware is often produced and bought in matching sets, Japanese tableware is set on the table so that each dish complements the type of food served in it. Since Japanese meals normally include several small amounts of each food per person, this means that each person has a place setting with several different small dishes and bowls for holding individual food and condiments. The emphasis in a Japanese table setting is on enhancing the appearance of the food, which is partially achieved by showing contrasts between the foods. Each bowl and dish may have a different shape, colour, or pattern.
Place setting
A basic complete place setting for one person in Japan would include the following:
Hot noodle bowl
Rice bowl
Soup bowl
Two to three shallow 3- to 5-inch diameter dishes
Two to three 3- to 5-inch diameter, 1- to 3-inch-deep bowls
Two square or rectangular pieces, traditionally served for serving fish
Three 2- to 3-inch diameter condiment plates
Cold noodle tray with bamboo strainer
Dipping sauce cup
Chopsticks and chopstick rest
Not all of these plates and bowls would be necessary for one meal. A rice bowl, a soup bowl, 2 or 3 small dishes with accompanying foods, and two or three condiment dishes for person would be typical. Various serving bowls and platters would also be set on a table for a typical meal, along with a soy sauce cruet, a small pitcher for tempura or other sauce, and a tea setting of tea pot, tea cups and tea cup saucers.
Ethiopian tableware
Ethiopian dining includes several rituals, including the washing of hands before a formal meal, while seated at the table, and the drinking of coffee at the table when the meal has ended. During the meal itself, guests are served injera, a piece of Ethiopian flatbread made of the grain teff. The injera itself serves the same purpose as a plate, similar to the trencher bread used in Europe before the modern era. Several small dishes are served at the table, usually in mashed or pureed form, which each guest scoops up with the injera.
